academics

How to Build your 4 Year Plan as a MCB (Molecular and Cellular Biology) Major

November 30, 2021
Vincent Ooi

Will you be declaring as a MCB (Molecular and Cellular Biology) major? Do you need some help in getting things started with planning out the next four years of your undergraduate career? Well, I’m here to help! As an out of state student who came from Hawaii, I didn’t have any connections in Berkeley so I started planning everything out from scratch. During my freshman year, I was actually required to submit my 4 year plan (the courses that I am taking for each semester) in my 6th week of class due to a requirement that I had to satisfy in my Army ROTC program. Yep, that...

Breaking Through Into Business Clubs

February 22, 2022
Paulina Nguyen

Besides the incredible academic and research opportunities, a diverse student population, and an impressive faculty roster, one thing that I will always rave about at UC Berkeley is the variety and professionalism of student extracurricular clubs. While what we learn in the classroom is vitally important to our futures, taking advantage of our Bay Area location and career oriented resources is what truly ensures that Berkeley will set us on an ideal post-grad path.

Berkeley has dozens of business clubs, some of which are notoriously difficult to join. From consulting to finance to...

CS@Cal

June 13, 2022
Jeffrey Zhou

Hey!

Hey you!

Yes you. You look like you clicked on this article looking to get a better sense of what studying Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley is like!

Well that’s what I’m going to try my best to do in this delightful little blog post here, so bear (ha ha) with me as I take you through a beginner’s guide of this wild and wacky world of CS @ Cal, everything from classes, to projects, to the L&S declaration process, and finally a little sneak peek at what you could potentially get out of this small, niche, oft under-the-radar major here...

Why ALL FIRST-YEARS Should Do Summer Bridge (coming from a former bridgee!)

June 24, 2022
Ethan Collier

Hey there! Congratulations on making it to UC Berkeley! You are about to embark on an amazing four-year journey here. Now, you may be wondering… How can I make the most of my summer? Well, I have got the answer for you! Summer 2021, I was exactly in your situation. I was doing Golden Bear Advising (GBA) and wondering what else can I do to get a head start on creating my Berkeley experience. That’s when I signed up for Summer Bridge at the very last minute. Do I regret it? Absolutely not!

What is Summer Bridge (no for real though)?

Wait,...

Am I Satisfied with my Berkeley Degree? From a UC Berkeley Alumni

June 27, 2022
Vincent Ooi


The answer to this question is what every incoming student wants to know. Is a Berkeley Degree worth the investment? And that’s a valid question. As a UC Berkeley alumni, I want to provide my perspective on this. Hopefully, by the end of this blog, you will be able to gain additional insight to your education here at Berkeley. This will also be the last blog that I will write for Bear Talk. If you’d like to read my previous blogs, then please check out my profile here.

First, I want to start off by saying that everyone’s experiences will be different depending on the track and...

Cal in the Capital: A Summer in DC

July 8, 2022
Kalysta

I was never someone who had a plan to study abroad coming into college. I’ve only traveled to a few states, and have never been out of the country, so the idea of going abroad for a few months was never really on my radar. I used to think that instead of going abroad, I would do a semester at UCDC, a program that allows University of California students to study and intern in Washington DC for a semester. But then with the COVID-19 pandemic beginning halfway through my first year of college and impacting the entire following school year, I felt like so much time at Berkeley had been ripped...

How I figured out what I didn’t want to do at Berkeley

July 18, 2022
Lillian Jiang

At college, it seems that it’s essential to know what you want to do in the future, but what’s equally important is knowing what you don’t want to do. Before my freshman year started, I had a variety of interests and potential career goals. After one year at college, my interests and career goals have changed. I discovered new careers and interests and realized which careers and interests are not for me. The most notable of these careers and interests that I’m no longer interested in are consulting and economics.


Coming into Berkeley I was an intended double major in Data...

To Law School or Not To Law School

July 20, 2022
Kalysta

I’m a Legal Studies major at Cal. I entered my freshman year intending to major in Political Science, but quickly switched to Legal Studies when I realized how much more the classes in that department intrigued me. At the time, I also was sure that I wanted to be a lawyer. I wanted to be like Elle Woods from Legally Blonde (my favorite movie) and wear pink as I argued my cases. I always thought that would be my path.

Now, as a senior, when I tell someone my major, they almost always ask me if I’m headed to law school. Freshman and sophomore year I would have proudly exclaimed “YES...

A Reflection on my Chinese Minor-ing Experience at Cal

August 3, 2022
Josephine Lee

As mentioned in a previous blog, one of my accomplishments of the 2021-2022 academic year was finishing up my Chinese minor; and although that journey began just to practice my Chinese and have something nice to put on my resume, that experience was so much more fun and rewarding than I could have ever imagined it to be.

In order to gain a Chinese minor, you must have a minimum of 5 letter-graded courses and 20 units and a GPA of at least a 2.0. These courses include Chinese 10B or equivalent (students with previous language experience may test out of this course...