University of California - Berkeley Reviews

"Excellent faculty and students, fun city/area (expensive!), good social scene."

"World class faculty, intelligent peers, and one of the best places to live in the US. The spirit of Berkeley is unlike any other university town and the diversity in terms of people, dining, and activities is vast. The program has a good set of core classes and there are many opportunities to take electives in other departments. All classes are taught by genius, unpretentious professors who are helpful, knowledgeable, and sometimes even comedic."

"Pros: Excellent disciplinary training, great visiting lecture schedule, great connections across the world Cons: Lack of support, Internal competitiveness, lack of continuous professionalization"

"Pros: great school, great people, great weather, great food. Cons: huge school, so you may get lost in the sea of undergrads, funding crunches affect the teaching quality."

"In terms of education quality, collegial inspiration to do good work, and location, Berkeley is great. The university is strapped for funding, though, which means grad student scholarships and stipends are tiny (but sufficient, mostly). These days there's also a heightened anxiety regarding the job market, but that must be the case everywhere with ambitious, anxious people striving to make a difference and a living in this field."

"It's all about research. Classes are not required, and for many students, not useful for their research."

"Great graduate student community, lots of opportunities to expand/enhance your research. Funding a bit lower than some programs, but lots of support in applying for grants and students are often successful with applications. The bay area, though expensive, is a wonderful place to live with incredible diversity of people and things to do. I love this program!"

"Stellar academics. The physics field is notoriously non-diverse and anti-social; here, it is very monochrome but less anti-social than elsewhere."

"It is the best. Very diverse, surrounded by brilliant people and the bay area is a great place to live."

"Great program. I am very glad that I ended up here. It is a giant department so finding help outside your own research group can sometimes be difficult. It is also very much in a city with the bums and homeless people so campus can be unsafe at night."

"Although the Berkeley Sociology program is ranked high nationally, and indeed faculty are highly esteemed across the world in their respective fields of expertise, the lack of support-financial, academic, and in general--for graduate students whose interests are considered non-mainstream is strikingly evident in comparison with other first-tiered programs. Students are compelled to take a very strong initiative in order to be taken seriously and attain access to resources, and a general neglect of issues of power and domination, particularly for students of color, weakens the appeal of this program."

"Supportive and dedicated faculty members, collaborative student environment, and great quality of life."

"My graduate program provides world class training for a competitive work environment. The level of education is excellent for motivated and exceptional students to learn and enjoy scientific research. My graduate program at UC-Berkeley allows to interact with amazing scientists that can mentor and train students to become the next leaders in their respective fields."

"Have had a great experience overall. Berkeley leaves a lot of freedom in your research and course choice."

"Berkeley (and Northern California in general) is a beautiful place to live in and explore, the quality of the economics program is stellar, and the people are helpful and enthusiastic. I would choose to come here again in a heartbeat."

"Great open-minded place to study. Students help each other, faculty is approachable. Healthy pressure, vibrating social life. But yes, the bay area is really expensive..."

"Great faculty, great program, huge range of academic interests and specialties. The graduate community is tight-knit and supportive. The surrounding area is amazing. Berkeley township is fun - there is good food, happy hours, lots of hiking, music, theater and more. And it's one of the best biology programs in the world."

"UC Berkeley is a wonderful place to become a part of the best scientists in the world, as well as to be a part of an incredible community of people outside of academia."

"The Chemistry Department at UCB is a renowned and revered department on a global scale. Graduate students are taken through a rigorous training consisting of classes, teaching, and most importantly, research, that prepare them for their future career. The program stresses the importance of creative thought and critical thinking, and provides students with the means to possess these skills. Communication and proficiency in technical writing, oral presentations, and teaching are highly valued skills as well. The Ph.D. program is well supported by the department, financially and in terms of resources and helpful administration. One pitfall of the program is the workload in the first year. Students are stressed and feel overworked. However, this enables them to improve their time management skills and work more efficiently."

"Pros: Great quality of education and renowned reputation. Cons: Noncompetitive financial aid package."