Why Berkeley Is Number One

[Anonymous]

Bezerkely

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bezerkely

You are a clever and very very original person.

[Anonymous]

Even without the diversity and low income student population, Berkeley has arguably the best academe reputation.

[Anonymous]

A track record of moving kids up the class ladder really should be a factor in college rankings.

Well-deserved for Berkeley.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Berkeley is great if you are a graduate student or a professor doing research. But if you are an undergrad, not much, except you are contributing much of your tuition to support the staff for their research while you cram in the huge classrooms trying to make sense what the teaching instructors are saying in a rush. The thousand person classroom experiense is just not great.

Large classes are limited to introductory classes in popular fields and account for about 10-15% of the classes over the 4 years. Depending on your major, you may only take 2-3 large classes in 4 years or fewer. Almost all classes are not large and even large classes have smaller (20-35 students) discussion sections.

Let's come up with something new to attack Berkeley than the "oh the undergrad classes are huge so it's bad " argument.

+1

Sorry. I am a faculty member in higher education and really did not know that any universities offered classes that exceeded 1,000 students at a time.
How can that POSSIBLY be considered a quality way to educate young adults?

Again, Berkeley undoubtedly has many smart faculty members who produce world changing research...but the fact that the school's administrators allow this to go on borders on educational malpractice to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Berkeley is great if you are a graduate student or a professor doing research. But if you are an undergrad, not much, except you are contributing much of your tuition to support the staff for their research while you cram in the huge classrooms trying to make sense what the teaching instructors are saying in a rush. The thousand person classroom experiense is just not great.

Large classes are limited to introductory classes in popular fields and account for about 10-15% of the classes over the 4 years. Depending on your major, you may only take 2-3 large classes in 4 years or fewer. Almost all classes are not large and even large classes have smaller (20-35 students) discussion sections.

Let's come up with something new to attack Berkeley than the "oh the undergrad classes are huge so it's bad " argument.

+1

Sorry. I am a faculty member in higher education and really did not know that any universities offered classes that exceeded 1,000 students at a time.
How can that POSSIBLY be considered a quality way to educate young adults?

Again, Berkeley undoubtedly has many smart faculty members who produce world changing research...but the fact that the school's administrators allow this to go on borders on educational malpractice to me.

Offering 1000 student lecture hall intro courses (with small discussion sections) is not unique to Berkeley. Many public universities offer such courses. In fact, it may do some good to have some of the K-12 private school/Harvard/Yale students to experience some of these classes to experience "real life" to help them become better human beings.

Oh, and you can choose to donate to public universities so that their class size can decrease in the future if the class size bothers you so much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Berkeley is great if you are a graduate student or a professor doing research. But if you are an undergrad, not much, except you are contributing much of your tuition to support the staff for their research while you cram in the huge classrooms trying to make sense what the teaching instructors are saying in a rush. The thousand person classroom experiense is just not great.

Ain’t that that truth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Berkeley is great if you are a graduate student or a professor doing research. But if you are an undergrad, not much, except you are contributing much of your tuition to support the staff for their research while you cram in the huge classrooms trying to make sense what the teaching instructors are saying in a rush. The thousand person classroom experiense is just not great.

Ain’t that that truth.

That ain't the truth - just a standard talking point against public universities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So does that mean Target is "better" than Nordstrom because it's cheaper?

Don't "enlightened" people want lot of diversity, inclusion and equity along with ton of poor people at elite schools?

This is like TJ having 35% FARMS kids, 15% blacks, 20% Hispanics, 30% whites and 35% Asian students with excellent outcomes.

Yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Berkeley is great if you are a graduate student or a professor doing research. But if you are an undergrad, not much, except you are contributing much of your tuition to support the staff for their research while you cram in the huge classrooms trying to make sense what the teaching instructors are saying in a rush. The thousand person classroom experiense is just not great.

Large classes are limited to introductory classes in popular fields and account for about 10-15% of the classes over the 4 years. Depending on your major, you may only take 2-3 large classes in 4 years or fewer. Almost all classes are not large and even large classes have smaller (20-35 students) discussion sections.

Let's come up with something new to attack Berkeley than the "oh the undergrad classes are huge so it's bad " argument.

+1

Sorry. I am a faculty member in higher education and really did not know that any universities offered classes that exceeded 1,000 students at a time.
How can that POSSIBLY be considered a quality way to educate young adults?

Again, Berkeley undoubtedly has many smart faculty members who produce world changing research...but the fact that the school's administrators allow this to go on borders on educational malpractice to me.

Offering 1000 student lecture hall intro courses (with small discussion sections) is not unique to Berkeley. Many public universities offer such courses. In fact, it may do some good to have some of the K-12 private school/Harvard/Yale students to experience some of these classes to experience "real life" to help them become better human beings.

Oh, and you can choose to donate to public universities so that their class size can decrease in the future if the class size bothers you so much.

It is not my job to pay for California's public education system. I pay for mine.

The way we spend our money as a society reflects our values.

(These data are about K-12 spending...but they tell a story:

https://edpolicyinca.org/publications/californias-education-funding-crisis-explained-12-charts

And CA ranks 50/51 for the pupil/teacher ratio:

https://wallethub.com/edu/e/states-with-the-best-schools/5335

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:With all due respect, UCLA is by far the top public i̶n̶ ̶C̶a̶l̶i̶f̶o̶r̶n̶i̶a̶.

+2

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Berkeley is great if you are a graduate student or a professor doing research. But if you are an undergrad, not much, except you are contributing much of your tuition to support the staff for their research while you cram in the huge classrooms trying to make sense what the teaching instructors are saying in a rush. The thousand person classroom experiense is just not great.

Ain’t that that truth.

It was like that when I went to school there decades ago, and it's like that now (so my friend's kids tell me).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So does that mean Target is "better" than Nordstrom because it's cheaper?

Don't "enlightened" people want lot of diversity, inclusion and equity along with ton of poor people at elite schools?

This is like TJ having 35% FARMS kids, 15% blacks, 20% Hispanics, 30% whites and 35% Asian students with excellent outcomes.

They have the best weather and beautiful surroundings, most students of color out of top 20 schools, most number of Nobel prize laureates and the most academic departments/programs ranked in the top 10 in the country along with low tuition rate than privates. They have lot to offer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not sure that it "has it all," but of course UC Berkeley is an excellent school.

<<With a crime rate of 65 per one thousand residents, Berkeley has one of the highest crime rates in America compared to all communities of all sizes - from the smallest towns to the very largest cities. ... Within California, more than 99% of the communities have a lower crime rate than Berkeley.>>

Berkeley, CA Crime Rates and Statistics - NeighborhoodScout

Yes Berkley is smack in the middle of a high crime area, kind of like USC and Yale. But, it doesn't seem to stop people from wanting to apply to Yale or think of Yale has the pits.

Depends on your values.

I lived in Berkeley for a while. The south part of Berkeley has relatively high crime rates but it depends on the neighborhood, some neighborhoods are reasonably safe (I lived there too). The other parts are pretty safe. The northern hill is very safe but also very expensive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not sure that it "has it all," but of course UC Berkeley is an excellent school.

<<With a crime rate of 65 per one thousand residents, Berkeley has one of the highest crime rates in America compared to all communities of all sizes - from the smallest towns to the very largest cities. ... Within California, more than 99% of the communities have a lower crime rate than Berkeley.>>

Berkeley, CA Crime Rates and Statistics - NeighborhoodScout

Yes Berkley is smack in the middle of a high crime area, kind of like USC and Yale. But, it doesn't seem to stop people from wanting to apply to Yale or think of Yale has the pits.

Depends on your values.

I lived in Berkeley for a while. The south part of Berkeley has relatively high crime rates but it depends on the neighborhood, some neighborhoods are reasonably safe (I lived there too). The other parts are pretty safe. The northern hill is very safe but also very expensive.

My kid lived in Berkeley while getting his PhD. Never had a safety issue at all.