Berkeley Law’s Community
Warm, collegial, and caring. Those are words often used by our students to describe the culture and community at Berkeley Law. But what drives our community to be as such?
We believe that the atmosphere at Berkeley Law nurtures the best in people, both intellectually and personally. We challenge students to extend themselves and to excel. But we discourage rivalry by refraining from assigning traditional letter grades, calculating GPAs, or assigning class rankings. Therefore, there’s no incentive to compete against one another for the top spot in your class or to outrank your peers. Our grading system also takes away some of the pressure, allowing students to participate in things like our Pro Bono Program, advocacy competition teams, or join one of our 50+ student organizations.
More opportunities for meaningful contact with instructors.
Berkeley Law faculty members are approachable and want to support our students’ success. Our 5.6-1 student to faculty ratio allows for more contact with instructors, either inside the classroom, at office hours, or while helping with a research project.
U.C. Berkeley’s Campus
One of the benefits of Berkeley Law is that it is situated on the campus of U.C. Berkeley, which is known around the world for its intellectually adventurous and highly distinguished faculty and students. While our law students spend most of their time within the Law Building, there are many opportunities to engage with the greater U.C. Berkeley campus. For example, law students can take courses in other departments to count toward their degree. Why limit yourself to only one area of such a world class university?
A bit more on U.C. Berkeley’s accolades:
Berkeley is in the Top 3 worldwide for the number of Nobel prizes awarded to its faculty. The university’s faculty also includes well over 500 members of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. It also claims more than 350 Guggenheim Fellows—more than any other university in the country, with law faculty well-represented.
The university is also recognized for the scope of its research and the size and quality of its libraries and laboratories. One measure of achievement is that the National Research Council ranked Berkeley as the leading U.S. university for graduate studies.
The campus sponsors thousands of educational and cultural events, including lectures, symposia, seminars, concerts, plays, dance performances, and exhibits that showcase art, photography, and architecture. Most of these and other on-campus events are open to registered students at little or no cost.
