The University of California - Berkeley

The worst part of Berkeley is the student-student interaction. Many, if not most of your peers are pretty low quality. Berkeley has the 11th most selective student body according to USNews but this statistic ignores the huge numbers of transfer students which get in on a much lower standard than average admits. For the most part, you will meet many weird, obnoxious people that it defies reason. FOr example, my roommate the first year was obssessed with boy bands and played the music obssessively 24/7. My 2nd roommate was a passive aggressive engineering freak who cursed up storms the few times he did speak. After joining many clubs, I've met nothing but mostly bubble heads or conceited, self-involved jerks only interested in improving their own resume.

Yes, they are nice people, but in general you will not have opportunities to do things with them enough to really get to know them. The semester is only 16 weeks or so long anyways and there is no continuous dorm system to develop relationships like at other schools.

The 2nd worst part about Berkeley is the academics. For the 40k a year my parents spent, I got huge, impersonal classes taught by teaching aides and filled with people, who from their comments in discussion, did not do the reading or seem particularly enthused. There are smart people and professors at Berkeley but they are very diffused and it is rare that you will ever have the opportunity to meet with or work with a top professor. That being said it is just as rare to have a professor evaluate your work anyways so there aren't any doors opened by coming to class anywyas. It seems liek a general crapshoot and suckup fest to network with professors and most of the professors aren't that interested anyways. Who can blame them really? Many of the student I've met barely belong in a university period, much less someplace with Berkeley's brand name, and professors are probably weighed down by their research obligations, helping their first-rate grad students to be bothered with some mediocre college student who needs a rec for med school.I hated my experience here and wish to god I had had the foresight to not come here in the first place or at least transferred before it was too late. Berkeley is a waste of time and money.