University of California - Berkeley Reviews

"Incredible community (including students, faculty and staff). Very supportive atmosphere. Beautiful location with amazing weather."

"This is a great program with brilliant students!"

"Excellent program, faculty, and student network. Unbelievable experience."

"This program gives a lot of room and freedom for the student to grow and explore almost on his or her own. Faculty are amazingly great and very successful but are too busy some times to meet with students. They do arrange meetings but it is generally difficult. Some travel a lot too. The student has to be a self-starter and have a lot of initiative and resilience to thrive and take good advantage of what the faculty have to offer and the search and resources offered."

"The pros are: being in the bay area. Berkeley is an amazing city. The programs are all excellent and the quality of faculty is unbeatable. The cons are the cost of living (very high anywhere in the bay area), although probably are worse at UCSF and Stanford. Along with that, it's nearly impossible to have a house with a yard, bbq, etc, things that you could do in the midwest or at a college-town type environment"

"The program is great not only because of the great faculty, but also because the group that makes up the summer session Professional LL.M program includes professionals from all over the world. You learn both from your teachers, as from other countries' law practices through your classmates insights from their own professional experiences."

"While law school is still law school, UC Berkeley is a better place than others to go through that painful process. If you are hoping to pursue a public interest career, Berkeley is a great school to consider because you won't be alone in that choice. It is true that the majority of law grads go into firm work, but Berkeley has a sizable group of students who will be entering the public sector. Finding a supportive, like-minded community is the key to surviving law school, and I have been blown away by some of the people I've met here. While Berkeley still has a way to go in terms of increasing diversity, I know that the school is attentive to this issue. Prop 209 has hit the school hard and you see the effects not only in the composition of the student body, but also in the faculty. That being said, the faculty are engaged and students are super involved, so it is often an inspiring place to learn."

"Berkeley offers a truly unique focus on law in society that shapes the student body's worldview. I cherish each and every interaction with classmates, faculty, and visiting scholars."

"Pros: -Insanely brilliant faculty -Great place to live -Lots of autonomy Cons: -Housing costs are pretty extreme relative to your stipend -You're pretty much on your own - faculty aren't mentors, they're advisers - you need help, you go to them, otherwise they don't really care much about you. If you are an independent worker, this is a pro, not a con. If you need some hand-holding, this is not the place for you. And you really don't want to kid yourself about needing hand holding - nothing to be ashamed of - but it's a recipe for failure if you're not honest with yourself."

"UC Berkeley is in many ways a wonderful place to study English - a large and dynamic department, inspiring colleagues, great advisers, gorgeous and vibrant extracurricular environment. The funding situation for grad students is bad, though, and at times the general atmosphere is stifling - palpable stress and lots of (mostly self-imposed pressure), especially especially because of the terrible job market."

"Amazing faculty. I am impressed everyday by the quality of instruction and the dedication to students shown by professors. Faculty are accessible and supportive. Constant opportunities for learning, networking, career exploration, etc. Classmates are impressive and passionate - they are also great to learn from. Berkeley Law has a really strong alumni network. Plus, it is sunny and 75 degrees everyday!"

"The Goldman School is absolutely the finest Public Policy program I could be involved in. The faculty and staff have reached out to offer assistance and welcome me as a member of the Goldman family. I will value this experience and education forever."

"Wonderful faculty, okay staff, great students. Great access to bay area network."

"The education and training here is excellent!"

"The CED's greatest strength is that it is a relatively dogma-free environment, and so does not drive students toward a particular design philosophy, but allows them to go through a self discovery process that empowers them to innovate on their own. However, because of the lack of an institutional focus, a broad sprinkling of resources tend to be underfunded. Moreover, the school strongly believes in the philosophy of "let the engineers figure it out" when it comes to structures, which is certainly a kind of dogmatic position. Still, it is clearly one of the top schools despite its problems, and it is the only American school of such elite status poised on the Pacific Rim."

"Enrolling as a student at The Goldman School of Public Policy is one of the best decisions I have made. The education I am getting takes second place to none. I will have a debt of gratitude to all of the faculty and staff at Goldman School forever."

"The best thing about the math program at Berkeley is the high academic quality of the faculty and the other students, as it should be, and I have a lot of great friends in the graduate program. Moving to the bay area requires some adjustment for some people, but the weather is beautiful and there are many nice neighborhoods. These days the bay area is very expensive and the graduate student stipend doesn't provide enough for more than a very simple lifestyle, but I can find lots of free or cheap entertainment sources here."

"Pros include excellent academic environment, ideal geological location; cons lie in limited funding, small size of the campus,"

"Pros- Bay Area has so much to offer Many activities, music, events, etc Berkeley has some of the top notch researchers in the world Continual motivation and inspiration My adviser is amazing My department is interdisciplinary and always trying to pass boundaries Cons Competitive, and at times stressful Some advisers are not very helpful (I got lucky though)"

"I have truly enjoyed pursuing my Ph.D. at UC Berkeley. The faculty and the other students are very supportive and stimulate excellent intellectual discussion. The administration is sometimes hard to deal with and the campus is under-funded but if you are looking for the academic experience, UC Berkeley can not be beat."