Review of Cal

Introduction
If you are considering attending UC Berkeley, make sure that you're ready to work your butt off. Professors expect 110% from you, but after finishing a class you feel like you've actually learned a great deal. I chose Cal because of its stellar academics, interesting and intelligent student body, lively location, and beautiful campus. If you're extremely sheltered or expect A's to be handed to you on a silver platter, Berkeley isn't the school for you (try Stanford instead!).

Campus Life and Social Life
Weekends vary depending on your workload. If you have a large assignment due on Monday or if midterms/finals are around the corner, don't expect to hit the clubs or even leave your room all that much! However, the majority of the time weekends are what you make of them. Some people choose to go to frats or apartments to party, others prefer to sit around and talk with close friends. It really depends on the kind of person that you are. Overall I'd say that the best social aspects of being a Cal student are the flexibility of your lifestyle and the wide variety of people you get to know. The worst aspects of Cal, socially, would be the lackluster parties. Academics
As I've stated before the workload tends to be very strenuous (especially if you're an engineer, wowza!). This, however, is a direct result of the high level of learning you're expected to do in each class. The professors are all amazing - intelligent, funny, and helpful - and many of the TA's have these same attributes (as they are usually graduate students, and Cal is among the top graduate schools in the world). As far as I know, none of our departments "suck", but what Cal is really known for are engineering (of all varieties), chemistry, molecular cell biology, business, and math/physics.

Student Body
Already answered above, but the student body is far too diverse to categorize (you can find people of all shapes and sizes here)

In Closing...
Come to Cal and you won't be disappointed!