UCB grad student familiar with the pre-med community here. Ilvcurst and corpus luteum both have valid points, and from my experience represent two common types of students I've seen here. If you're truly outgoing, can handle being beaten down a little, and know what you want, then Berkeley is an amazing place. Everything you could dream of (academically) is here: awesome professors, world class research, tons of opportunities, and awesome place to live, and the best public school name in the world. It's all at your fingertips, but they'll make you work for it. Unfortunately, a lot of people are unwilling to put in the work required, and end up bitter like corpus seems to be. If you think there's a decent chance that you'll fall into that camp, then avoid Cal. If you're thick skinned, outgoing, and have a good work ethic, come here, and you won't regret it.
That being said, I do have a few comments about Cal's undergrad culture. From my perspective, undergrads here (at least in their first few years) tend to have incredibly inefficient study habits and get into this "well, I slept less than you did" one-upmanship ****. Don't do that. Put in the time you need to learn the material and don't worry about what anybody else did. Ask professors and GSIs how they suggest studying that material, then listen to their advice. Go to office hours: GSIs are here to help. I'd say >50% of the GSIs are really interested in teaching and are willing to help out, so don't be discouraged if the first GSI you talk to is a dud. Teaching is a requirement for us, so not all of us are excited about it--but there are a lot of us that are.
Advising here apparently sucks. I've had a huge number of students talk to me about going into medicine that have no clue what that actually entails. If you don't seek out career, major, or coursework advice, you won't get it. Be proactive, and you'll be fine.
Grading here is hard. I've been a GSI for chem 3A (intro ochem) for three semesters, and have only seen one perfect score on a test. The class average on exams is usually somewhere around ~55%. Get used to the near certainty that you won't be graduating with a 4.0. However, adcoms also know how tough the grading is here, and if you get a ~3.5-3.6+, you'll have a lot of options. Outside of CA, the vast majority of med students I've meet from CA came from UCB. The reputation will help you.
If you are seriously considering coming here, realize that currently you're a big fish in a little pond. While there's a small chance I may be wrong, it's very unlikely that you'll be the top of your class here. Don't let that break you. Berkeley is excellent because the students are excellent. You'll have peers that are just as smart and hard working as you are. Then you'll have grad students (~20k of us) that are smart, hard working and have significantly more experience than you. Then there are professors that are leaders of their respective fields, many of whom are downright brilliant. It's humbling and intimidating, but that's what makes Cal what it is. I would put the top 10% of students here against the top 5% of students at any other institution in the world anyday.
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