academics

The Value of a College Education: Contextualizing the World

March 18, 2024
Nichelle W.

“What do you like the most about college?”

Every college student who has faced this question from siblings, relatives, and friends from home may have frozen up momentarily, wondering what to say (or whether there’s anything to say at all). There are a plethora of answers: the independence from home, the people they’ve met, the professionals they’ve been able to network with. But over the past year, I’ve developed a new insight: the value of college is to expand your worldview and complicate your implicit assumptions.

A simple example is from...

[Re]Finding My Academic Passions

March 8, 2024
Ethan C.

Coming into Cal, you’re thrown into a university with much to offer. With six undergraduate colleges, there’s definitely a lot to choose from for your academic pursuits. In the College of Letters and Science alone, there are over 80 different majors to explore and 500 courses you can take alone. Constantly, new majors and minors are being unveiled, and students can engage in a wide variety of different academic departments and programs. When I started at Cal in 2021, I came in as a pre-law student interested in a whole bunch of majors. I switched around a lot (and I mean… A LOT)....

Asks from the Past: Answering Random Questions From My Freshman Year

March 4, 2024
Nichelle W.

Incoming college students are often told that the answer to any specific question is just to Google. But what if there’s no Reddit post or YouTube video with your specific query? In my freshman year, I compiled a list of my questions so my future self could respond. And here I am as a sophomore, providing answers to both arbitrary and serious asks from the past.

First up, we have the dorms: I lived on a single-gender floor in Unit 1 my first year.

1. Can we bring a hair dryer? Can we bring a kettle?

Yes, you can bring...

The Breadth Class That Took My Breath Away

February 28, 2024
Melina T.

Berkeley’s College of Letters and Science has a unique requirement called the Seven-Course Breadth. Essentially, L&S students must take at least one course in several distinct subject areas, regardless of their major. The hope is that through taking a diverse course load, students will be exposed to more perspectives and areas of intellectual curiosity. As a humanities student to my core, I can’t say I was thrilled about fulfilling the Biological Science requirement. Taking a semester-long class completely irrelevant to my major seemed like nothing but a waste of time and energy...

Berkeley Bucket List – Library Edition

September 30, 2021
Cordelia Varona

Editor's note: This article was published in 2021. Some changes have taken place at the libraries since the article was published.

I’m on a mission to visit every single one of Berkeley’s 24 libraries during my final year at Cal. As the first month of school comes to a close, I’ve decided to highlight some of these spots that aren’t as popular as, say, Doe or Moffitt. Let’s take a look!

Anthropology Library (Anthropology and Art Practice Building)

The Anthropology Library sits on the second floor of the Anthropology and Art...

Some Of My Favorite Classes (So Far!)

November 10, 2023
Ethan C.

Throughout my (now) 2.5 years here at UC Berkeley, I have taken a lot of classes. And, when I say a lot… I mean A LOT. I’ve taken classes almost every semester (including the summers), which has given me the really cool and unique opportunity to explore my academic interests deeper at Cal. Through this exploration, I realized my true passion and what I wanted to do post-Cal. So, here’s a quick rundown of some of my favorite classes, which helped shape me into the student I am today!

Before jumping in, you’ll notice that many courses on this list have an “AC” at the end...

Literature (from Berkeley English Courses) That Should be on Your “To Be Read” List

October 20, 2023
Holly Q.

As an English major, I read 7-8 books per English class per semester. (I know, it is a lot). Because of this, even as I am only in my third semester, I have read quite a large amount of books here at Berkeley. As a book lover, I love reading for school…But that doesn't mean that I enjoy everything we read in class. Some of the books I have loved, some I have hated, and then there are many in between. There are also a lot of short stories and poems included in the readings for these classes that I have loved (or hated). Today I want to share some of the literature that I have loved...

My Favorite Classes at Berkeley

October 13, 2023
Jordan S.

The University of California, Berkeley has thousands of classes for its students to take, regardless of major and interest. As a third year at Berkeley, I have taken my fair share of classes at UC Berkeley and I would like to share them with you! As a brief introduction about myself, I am a molecular and cell biology major who is emphasizing in neurobiology, however, I have taken a good spread of classes in many different areas and will provide an even spread of classes in many different areas.

Biology 1B: General Biology Lecture and Laboratory

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Being Undecided is Okay!

April 20, 2023
Holly Q.

For most of my life I have known that I wanted to do something related to books later in life. I’ve almost always either wanted to be an author or work in publishing. So when applying to college, it was only natural for me to put English down for what I wanted to major in.

The summer before I came to college, I spent a lot of time talking to people about going to Berkeley and began doubting my choice of major. English made sense to me and what I wanted to do, but a lot of people seemed judgeful of it as my major. I worked in a small coastal...

Schedule Planning 101

March 21, 2023
Mikayla H.

Schedule planning can seem like a daunting and arduous task, but as a type A person, I love the idea of planning my classes. Here’s some advice from a soon-to-be-graduate on how to get the classes you want and plan out the perfect schedule for you!

Step #1: Make a Plan

Scary, I know. But having some semblance of a plan can really ease your stress when it comes down to actually choosing your classes. You don’t need to have every specific class laid out, and honestly, not even a four-year plan is necessary. Just...