UC Berkeley Extension

I took JP Novin’s class in the Leadership and Management program. The class was extremely informative. JP’s real life experience increased his ability to teach and relate to everyone in class. Learning leadership from a leader not the same as learning from a teacher and this class proved that.

And now, I dedicate my 1200^th review to the theme of «personal enrichment».
But first, did you know that Mark Zuckerberg sets a personal goal each year, and shares it with the world to hold him accountable? His goals have ranged from wearing a tie every day, to learning Mandarin, to slaughtering his own animals for meat. Pretty ambitious dude. While I wasn’t directly inspired by Mr. Z, I *was* inspired by turning 30 and feeling like my skill set had stayed stagnant for a while. I’d gotten comfortable, yet it didn’t feel good. Thus, I declared 2016 my year of «personal enrichment»… a perfect excuse to take those classes I’d been eyeing at UC Berkeley Extension.
I enrolled in the 5-​week Digital Marketing course, an evening class offered at their SF campus, focusing on digital marketing tools like Google AdWords & Analytics (topics I would never ever teach myself). I’ve appreciated the content, professor’s knowledge of the subject, strong communication between prof & students, and a moderate amount of homework — enough to put our knowledge to work, but not overwhelming with my day-​job schedule.
The downside: the classes are somewhat pricey, so not ideal for «hobbyist» learners, but definitely a good investment if you’re going for career advancement. Also, the course description was pretty different than the actual content we’re learning, and the «required» book has not been used so far. They need to communicate expectations more accurately.
If you miss being in school, or are a generally curious adults who wants to continue flexing that brain muscle, UC Berkeley has a plethora of inspiring options if $$$ is not a big thing.
Of course, satisfaction completely depends on the professor, but I was lucky to get a solid one.

I was disappointed with the course I took. I did not feel it lived up to expectations. The syllabus was not followed and the book I was instructed to buy was not used. Plus I didn’t feel like I learned anything new. I asked for a refund ($ 500 is a lot) and it was not granted. As a result I don’t think I will ever take a UC Extension course again. Unfortunate.

UCB extension is great. They have classes for every profession and subject almost and they have campuses all over the bay.
For this particular campus, it’s in a large office building. The building itself is VERY nice. Everything is brand new and very clean. And you can tell that it is cleaned often because sometimes after class I’ll see marked I left from my things on the table, and the next week, the table top will be perfectly clean!
The bathrooms are very clean as well and there is a microwave for food and vending machines.
The teachers? From all of my interactions seem to love their teaching and are enthusiastic!
The UCB desk staff, same, also very nice and seem to like their job!
The only bad thing? SO expensive.

I enrolled in the Marketing program and I was impressed by the instructors. They had practical knowledge as many are currently working in the industry, which is quite critical for student of any business discipline. The instructors are also very accessible and are willing to help the students outside the classroom when needed. They also gave us assignments that were the types of tasks we would be likely assigned to if we took jobs in the field. For example, preparing high tech product marketing plans for a high tech product marketing course and getting good feedback on our work. The only drawbacks were that there should be a wider range of courses offered and it could do with some more affordable pricing per course as well.

This place will crash and burn hard. After that happens UC Berkeley will discontinue the Extension program altogether and realize the money that can be saved by this. And we all know that UCB is all about tightening that belt and nickel and diming the heck out of its students and staff.
Very unhappy students just check out the reviews of the other campuses. A sinking ship for employees working here as well.
The staff here are clearly miserable and seem to only be there to get a paycheck. Not to assist students or faculty at all in fact it’s all about passing the buck here
Ever try phone calling UCB Extension to get a straight answer about anything? It’s almost fun to try and see how many people you are transferred to before reaching an answering machine.