Is it better to study in UIUC or UC Berkeley?

Question

I'm now a student of UIUC and considering in transferring to Berkeley. However, some people said that Berkeley involves more TA teaching than Professors. How would you suggest me? Is it better for me to stay or go?

Answer 1

I can say that as a Berkeley Prof, I've never had a TA working with me. In the large lecture courses, there will be TAs helping with discussion sections, and in courses like first year writing, you may have a TA teaching it.

That said, don't presume that just because you have a TA, you're getting a worse teacher. I've seen lots of very bad professors and lots of very good TAs (and vice versa, of course). A TA may not be quite as knowledgeable as a professor, but often, they have enthusiasm, empathy, and work very hard to help students learn. It's not a simple equation that professor=good, TA=bad.

Answer 2

If you look at any college ranking report you will notice that UCB is always near the top of the list and is the #1 Public University in the USA. When people say that "Berkeley involves more TA teaching than Professors," they are most likely referring to "gen-ed" courses in which the class sizes are fairly large. Don't forget that most UC's have 30,000+ student bodies and as such do not have the resources to have small classes with alot of interaction between Professors and students with regards to general education courses. This isn't the case though for your core major classes, the class size reduces significantly and you have access to your professor(this is generally the case in all UC's).
Now UCB is known to be a pretty liberal campus(depending on which college you wish to attend) so keep that in mind and also make sure that they are strong in the major in which you are transferring. Good luck mate.

Answer 3

I have no idea what UIUC is -- so cannot comment on the quality of the school.

However, I got my PhD at Berkeley and can tell you that what you have heard is just not true. Berkeley deserves its reputation for being the best public university in the US and for being one of the best graduate schools in the US (including private schools).

Your employment opportunities will be much higher at Berkeley than at a school that I have never heard of.

If UIUC is University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign -- then I have to say that it is an excellent school, people have heard of it, and you will have decent employment opportunities. On the other hand -- UC-Berkeley is still a much better university.