If you are considering applying to Berkeley, or you have gotten in and want to visit or find out more about the program, read below. These are informal pointers; the main Math Department spiel is here.
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If you are flying in, the best airports to fly into are Oakland and San Francisco. If you are going to use public transportation to get from San Jose Airport, it could take you up to 3 hours since there's still not a very direct route. The travel time from Oakland is under an hour, and from San Francisco airport it is about an hour and a half.
Walk out of the terminal to the bus stop and catch an AirBART bus to the Oakland Coliseum BART station. The fare on the AirBART is $3 and exact fare is required (dollar bills are accepted). You can also take ACTransit #50 (daytime) or #805 (late at night). The fare is $1.75 and exact change is required. Once at the Coliseum BART, purchase a BART ticket for Downtown Berkeley ($2.20 each way) and get on the Richmond Line. Downtown Berkeley is the 7th stop. Campus is two blocks east of the station.
Take the AirTrain to Terminal G, where the BART station is. Purchase a ticket for Downtown Berkeley ($5.90). Get on the Pittsburg/Bay Point train and ride it for quite some time through San Francisco and the Transbay Tube. When you arrive at the Oakland City Center/12th St Station exit the train and proceed directly across the platform and board the waiting Richmond bound train. Downtown Berkeley is four stations later.
NOTE: BART stops running around 11:45pm. If you miss that train, you will be stuck in the airport and taxis are extremely expensive from San Francisco!
For more information, see BART's website. For more general trip planning in the bay area, see 511.org.
Visiting is a great way to get a feel for the department and meet the people you may end up working with. If you plan on visiting, you should email the Vice-Chair of Graduate Affairs, Daniel Tataru to let him know you're coming. For admitted students, it is usually possible to find a graduate student to host you in their apartment. Contact MGSA at mgsa@math.berkeley.edu to make arrangements.
The best time to visit is in the spring around late February through mid-April. The department typically has a prospective student open house for admitted students in March.
You should examine the academic calendar to make sure your trip doesn't occur during our Spring Break or some other major event. While there will still be people around, you won't get the feel of the department during a regular academic day. Plan to stay for at least one weekday, so that you can attend classes, seminars and meet with grad students and professors.
There's no hiding it: the Bay Area is one of the most expensive places to live in the country and yet the salary of a Graduate Student Instructor (GSI) is comparable to many institutions around the country. This leaves many prospective students wondering how difficult it may be to live on the salary. The short answer is that you won't be living an extravagant lifestyle, but you won't be pinching pennies either.
Rent in the Berkeley area can run anywhere from $600-$1000 a month depending on living situation and location. Our housing page has more information about the housing situation.
Eating out daily is definitely not an economical option, though you don't have to abstain from fine dining. In general, much of the regular restaurant fare is priced about $1 or $2 higher a meal than in other places of the country. On the other hand, decadent, exquisite food can be bought for only $20-$30 a plate, where elsewhere in the country it would be a $60 black tie affair. Naturally, these meals are special treats, but what special treats they are.
Most people end up buying and cooking most of their meals. Heavily processed foods tend to be marked up a bit in supermarkets, but produce is much cheaper overall. There are also secret grocery stores to find excellent deals on other and specialty foods.
Having a car in Berkeley, while convenient, can be an expensive luxury. Gas prices are high, as are insurance costs, and there are parking permits to buy. If you don't absolutely need one, you can save a lot of money by not having one. We have a free pass for the busses and public transportation in the Bay is plentiful. Many grad students also find that a bicycle is a worthwhile investment for getting around.
Some graduate schools have reputations that they accept many students only to weed them out later with difficult exams and requirements. Berkeley does NOT employ such a policy towards its graduate students. The only time one is under any serious threat of getting kicked out of the program (with the exception of serious neglect on the part of the student) is the preliminary exam. Even then, you have three opportunities to pass it, and so it's rare for anyone to be asked to leave.
The graduate enrollment in the department has dropped significantly in the past five years; from an average of 60-70 students a year down to about 20-30 a year. Even before this drop in the grad population, the department did not employ a "weeding out" model, and it certainly does not have a reason to start now.
While the department is not coddling, it certainly isn't cold to its grad students either. If you ask questions, you will receive helpful and informative answers. But if you expect someone other than you to keep track that you are meeting all your requirements, then you will probably fall through the cracks. There is quite a bit of independence for the graduate students which requires you to be responsible about your progress. But this independence is not accompanied by any feelings of neglect or abandonment by the faculty or staff. Everyone is willing to help if you ask for it, but no one will help if you don't make any mention of it.