  An atomic Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) is often described as a macroscopic
object which can be approximated by a coherent state. This, on the surface,
would appear to indicate that its behavior should be close to being classical.
In this paper, we clarify the extent of how "classical" a BEC is by exploring
the semiclassical equations for BECs under the mean field Gaussian
approximation. Such equations describe the dynamics of a condensate in the
classical limit in terms of the variables < x > and < p > as well as their
respective variances. We compare the semiclassical solution with the full
quantum solution based on the Gross-Pitaevskii Equation (GPE) and find that the
interatomic interactions which generate nonlinearity make the system less
"classical." On the other hand, many qualitative features are captured by the
semiclassical equations, and the equations to be solved are far less
computationally intensive than solving the GPE which make them ideal for
providing quick diagnostics, and for obtaining new intuitive insight.
