https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-horror-stories-about-attending-UC-Berkeley
这帮人中学没学物理？
- Getting my first “F” in my life. I was a straight “A” student in high school with a 3.96 GPA (unweighted) and got through the first quarter with a 3.0 GPA. Then I started the Physics 5 series in my second quarter and got a professor who didn’t give any partial credit. Final exams were graded on a curve and at least 50% of your grade (like all Berkeley classes). Because of this, it was hard to know where you stand in the class grade-wise, even if you had a decent midterm exam score. Imagine my shock to see an “F” next to my name on the grading sheet outside of my professor’s office door. I knocked on his door and he happened to be inside. He showed me my final exam and I got a big fat 1 point for putting my name on the front page, far below a passing grade. My friend, also in the class, asked to see his exam and got the exact same score. We got every problem on the final exam wrong. We found out we could re-take the class next quarter and have the “F” replaced in our GPA with the re-taken class grade. The “F” stays on the transcript. I kissed any chance of attending graduate school goodbye at that moment. Epilog: I got an “A” with the re-taken Physics class and briefly got my GPA above 3.0.
- Getting my second “F” in my life. I was cruising along getting “A’s” and “B’s” in my classes hoping to get into the Engineering college. I was dumb not signing up to get into the college as an entering freshman because I thought I would get into grad school and do great things as a scientist. In my last sophomore quarter I took the final Physics 5 class in the series (Intro to Relativity and Quantum Mechanics). This class was so different from classical physics that I was immediately lost. This resulted in my second “F” at Berkeley. All my friends who were with me as freshman had already decided to quit Physics and pursue other majors or drop out of UC Berkeley, so I had no one for emotional support. I went into a deep funk wondering if I really belonged at UC Berkeley, especially when retook the class and got a “C”.
- Unable to find a marketable major. My application to the Computer Science major was denied, which was my last chance at getting into a program where I could be assured of employment after graduation. The Computer Science department was impacted because the resources to support all the undergraduates were getting overloaded. You can tell because it would take 15 minutes to get a password prompt and another 45 minutes before the login session would time out (this was about the time BSD UNIX 4.2 came out). The department was forced to limit the number of incoming Computer Science majors to 100 per year (or 33 per quarter). After my denial, I had to evaluate which major I have fulfilled the requirements for. Unfortunately, the answer was Physics, where I failed twice.
- Being in classes with remarkable students. Ever been in a class where there is one guy or girl that is just insanely outstanding that they get perfect grades, even on really hard tests? That was me in high school. Now imagine about 200 of those students in your class. Now I know how the rest of my high school classmates felt with me. I should explain that there are three levels of freshman/sophomore Physics classes; Introductory for pre-meds, Standard for engineers and scientists, and Honors for those insanely smart kids. I went to my first junior level Physics class and the professor asked how many students were from the Honors Physics series. 75% of the students raised their hands and I muttered some words that can’t be repeated here. I took me one week to work out one problem out of five from the homework. These guys/girls completed their homework in one night.
- Experiencing educational burnout. During my first and only semester as a Physics major (Berkeley converted from quarter to semester terms during my time there), someone congratulated me on getting into the Computer Science major. I told him I was denied but he told me my name was on the accepted list on the department office door. When I saw my name on the door, I experienced probably my only time of euphoria as a UC Berkeley student. The only reason for this good fortune I can deduce is that some accepted students did not enter the major, leaving space for students like me. My GPA must have been on the borderline of acceptance and denial and I got in. However, after three years of working my ass off to get above average grades only to be denied entrance into impacted majors had me mentally exhausted. The remainder of my time at UC Berkeley was spent accepting “C’s”, biding my time before I got my diploma. Unfortunately, this burnout lasted for another 10 years before I was motivated enough to save my career in software development.
- Impacted parking lots. Attending UC Berkeley, you become accustomed to not getting to classes because the departments associated to those classes are impacted. This also applies to the parking situation. Because a lot of students can’t find affordable housing close to campus, many drive to school. If you don’t find a place by 8AM, you are out of luck and need to pay for parking or risk getting a ticket by finding street parking and running to it between classes to feed the meter.
- Net result of UC Berkeley “horrors”: A deep respect for the experience. The trials and tribulations I went through at UC Berkeley were painful, both from a mental and physical standpoint. I can’t hear the Campanile bells without some knee jerk reaction to my past feelings of angst. With the passage of time, I’ve come to realize it was a necessary experience for my own personal growth. I had to give up a lot of social interactions (like parties and girlfriends) just to have the singular vision of graduating from UC Berkeley. Once I got the diploma, I was worn out. However, my father, who hardly talks to me besides “small talk”, told me under his breath that he was proud of me. Acquaintances who I meet and ask which school I attended are impressed when I mention UC Berkeley. Years later, I still get calls from recruiters only because of the prestige of the the school. Is it worth it to go through the “meat grinder” called the undergraduate program at UC Berkeley? If it means to see my mom and dad have pride in introducing me to every person that I graduated from UC Berkeley, yes it was worth it.
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