An overview of Berkeley: First Year Experience from a current Undergrad

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
21

<p>A lot of the complaints you make aren't specific to Berkeley.
*Nearly all of Princeton's buildings close at night, with few exceptions.
*Our library isn't open 24 hours--our main library, in fact, closes before midnight.
*Absolutely no wireless off-campus, and limited wireless on-campus if you're not inside a building.
*Academics are difficult here, and grading distributions are actually pretty at Princeton to Berkeley's, once you get out of the intro weeder classes.</p>

<p>I think you're unjustly blaming the school for everything. Berkeley is not the premiere undergraduate institution in the country, but it certainly isn't a BAD one. It seems like a lot of your experiences are due to a combination of bad fit and lack of initiative. Hopefully next year'll be better for you.</p>

22

<p>Berkeley is not for the weak.</p>

23

<p>
[quote]
Wouldn't the grad student who copied the keys get in trouble if a person he copied a key for is caught having a key but isn't suppose to?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>In theory, yes. But it's practically impossible to know where the key came from. A lot of people have keys (faculty, grad students, staff, undergrads on research projects, etc.), so if somebody shows up with a key copy they're not really supposed to have, how do they know who it was copied from?</p>

24

<p>My fav haunts to study, courtesy of my EECS cardkey: Soda 3rd floor AMD Room, Main stacks Doe, Cory Intel room off the side of EE20 labs, Hearst Annex 61A labs.</p>

25

<p>in a school with over 20,000 undergrads you found every single person to be unfriendly and you couldnt even find a few good friends? are you sure you're as outoging and extraverted as you think you are? it seems impossible to me that at a shool as big as berkeley you couldnt even find a few people to be good friends with. i mean just because you don't live in the dorms doesnt mean you cant go hang out at them right? it sounds to me like you expected berkeley to be exactly like your old school which made it easy for people to get to know eachother, and instead of trying to adapt to the new environment and put yourself out there and try to meet people, you just condemned the place and didn't even give it a chance.</p>

26

<p>^^^^ word dirk, word.</p>

27

<p>I'd respond but I have finals. :D Very helpful post, no?</p>

28

<p>crumja - How do you get an EECS cardkey? Does every EECS student get one? Also, how late do those spots that you listed stay open?</p>

29

<p>"Also, about the slc and advising, yes those opportunities are there and that's very good, but I wouldn't say that they are more important than a 24 hour library for some people. For me, for example, I tend to study at night, I'm a procrastinator like many, but still given how difficult the school is, the least they could do is provide me with a place to work at the odd hours of the night."</p>

<p>there is not 24 hour library because berkeley is persuading kids to not procrastinate. also, there already is the stacks that stay open till 2. also, there is dwinelle which is basically 24/7. you get an entire room to yourself. lastly, why the hell can't you study in your own room. get earplugs if it's noisy. i use them all the time</p>

30

<p>i like how everyone is in defense of berkeley. cool, im glad that you guys like it so much. i think your right, it probably is somewhat of bad fit, as far as lack of initiative, maybe ur right there too. but its also a lack of time for that initative, i am taking ochem 3a, cs61a, comp lit r1b, and a humanities class, along with helping students at oakland tech prepare for the SAT's every week, and working at a cancer biology lab at lawrence berkeley. i guesss pretty much what i want is a private school, ur right. i want to have housing guaranteed for 4 years, i want more help along the way, and a more diverse population of kids from places other than norcal and socal. i realize that more and more. so i guess maybe it is just important to know what you are going in for at berkeley</p>

<p>all of you guys give me things i could do to make it work, like you know, work in your room, try to be more extraverted, tough it out. yeah those are all great suggestions, but you could say that about any person's situation, I mean any student's problem probably has some solution. but the point is that the solutions may not be what the student wants to take. for example, i dont WANT to have to study in my room, i don't WANT to have to work even harder at just making friends after everything that i already have to do. and you guys can say that im lazy, but the thing is that I am just looking for a different kind of school i guess. </p>

<p>But hell, I am only here for another year and a half (part of the reason i cam e is because berkeley accepted a lot of my credits, i graduate in 2.5 years) so I don't think im going to transfer. </p>

<p>About the comment that you made Sakky about the number of A's. Sure, Berkeley gives a lot of A's in the humanities, but I am talking about the sciences. These are the classes that matter most for med school anyways. Ochem doesn't give out that many A's (im not sure on the number, but i dont think all that many), Bio is a tough course, Math is tough, Gen chem is hard, biochem, neuro, genetics, all tough courses. I don't mean the material is tough, i mean the grade distribution is a *****. Also, the amount of time spent on these classes to do well is intense as well. I assure you that most of the people I know at berkeley have to work harder than many of the students i know at MIT. I mean their first semester doesn't even count! And their second semester if they fail, it doesn't count! </p>

<p>I'm just saying, for all the hype that MIT gets for being a tough school, I really think that Berkeley, if you are a CS/EECS/Bio/ any science or tech major, is just as hard, if not harder.</p>

<p>Side note: I just found out, they get a drop TEST for ochem at MIT, kind of nice eh. Whereas our final counts for 50 ****in percent of our grade.</p>

31

<p>Pulkit: You are whining now... you are pre-med? No offense, you will wash out of any program... you don't have the stamina to survive the first year at Cal and OChem, how will you survive Med School? think about it...
Consider transferring to MIT if it sounds easier to you and you think they will hold your hand... Best of luck.</p>

32

<p>Hmm, I get where Pulkit's coming from. It's definitely not easy to make close friends. People are generally nice but don't make much of an effort otherwise to get to know you or hang out. Especially if you want to hang out with someone of the opposite sex sometimes they think you're after them and give you the cold shoulder. It's not like high school where you go to class, eat lunch, go to clubs, and pretty much surround yourself with the same people all the time. Berkeley tries, although it could probably try more. I always though the Chancellor's undergrad reception was really nice, and they should put together more events like that. For a large school though, sometimes it's hard to establish a close-knit community.</p>

<p>I've always seen Berkeley posters occasionally come here and post "it's hard to make friends, etc." and everyone else responds with "well you just need to try more." I don't think that's the problem. Sometimes you try and try and don't really get anywhere. It's much easier to get to know people through a smaller community, like a dorm, club, bible study group, etc. If you just meet someone (say during CalSO) and hit it off but then you don't see that person very often it's very hard to keep the friendship going.</p>

<p>As for the competitiveness of classes, yes sometimes the averages are a little ridiculous but in those cases I always find the curve to be forgiving such that it's not hard to get a B.</p>

<p>The 24-hour library can be irritating at times and I'd really wish they would get one running. You can say "just study in your room or in the lounge" but your roommates might be distracting and the lounge often has people in it talking or hanging out. It's not a huge deal since it's open until 2 a.m. anyway and usually students don't need to stay up more than that often, but it'd still be nice to have.</p>

<p>Regarding locking up the buildings, I'm not exactly sure why you want to get into them at night. Very few students need to so I don't see this as a legitimate criticism.</p>

<p>
[quote]
there is not 24 hour library because berkeley is persuading kids to not procrastinate.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Trust me, the reason Berkeley doesn't have a 24-hour library is NOT because they're worried about students procrastinating.</p>

33

<p>ok, ca2006, i actually have survived the first year of cal (finals are coming up), and yeah i've survived ochem. I may not be making an A, but i survived it. It am doing fine, and I will get into med school. i am not whining, i am talking about my experience and explaining where i come from. </p>

<p>just because it seems that private would be a better option does not mean that suddenly i can't take the heat. i can take it, and i am taking it. and i like how EVERYONE in the berkeley board refers to having better advising and having a more personal feel as holding your hand! sure, coall it what you wish, but its not a bad thing. </p>

<p>you don't know me, so don't question my stamina</p>

34

<p>Yeah I also don't understand why some posters criticize private schools as "holding your hand." What, would you rather have your school punch you in the face? It's a good thing. No, you're not impressing anyone by attending a school that shags the living daylight out of you.</p>

35

<p>to clear up about the 24-hour library: it is a matter of principle. Berkeley is an incredibly tough school, im sure most would agree with me there. And for all the amount of time that you have to spend studying it would make sense that the least berkeley could do is make sure the service are available to you so you can adequately study. yeah, i know 2 am is late, but honestly, there are lots of people including myself whom a lot of nights would like to stay longer. </p>

<p>and on weekends its something ridiculous like 10</p>

36

<p>There is no 24 hour library because of budget. Money is always a problem.</p>

<p>I'm sure if they could somehow make a profit out of such a service, they would jump right at it!</p>

37

<p>i understand money is a problem, but would it REALLY cost all that much more to keep have a couple of people manning a library from the hours of 2 to 8. I mean a lot of schools have police, who are out at that time anyways. It doesnt take that many people to keep a library open. </p>

<p>also, i don't get this thing of like having a billion buildings built all the time. Especially libraries. Aren't they building some like east asian library or something near memorial glade, now i know that they get large donations specifically for these buildings, but they still have to pay out of their own pocket for these. do we REALLY need another library, or another building in general</p>

38

<p>Well, considering that the current east asian library has been out of shelving space for some decades now, I’d say the answer is yes.</p>

39

<p>In actuality, the Easy Asian Library is only a part of a larger envisioned plan that included another adjacent building which did not become reality because budget fell through. It is unlikely the other building will be built, unfortunately.</p>

<p>If you've been to the RFS, there are volumes and volumes of books that are kept there and not on campus because there's not enough space to put it all in the campus libraries. Space is always an issue, and unfortunately more building space is being created at the expense of open green spaces.</p>

<p>I definitely support a 24 hour library, Pulkit. But to me the problem of anything always seems to come down to money.</p>

40

<p>i'm an engineering student and i know how tough the material can get. it's also a lot of work for not that many units, meaning you have to take more of those classes just to meet the minimum unit requirement.
but when i think about some of my friends who are at private schools, where they basically spoonfeed their students, i think i'm having a better time. sure those at private school will get better grades given that we put in the same effort. but that just means that i have to put in more effort to survive here and i don't plan on failing. after 4 years of doing this, i know that i'll be the one more prepared to take on the working world. berkeley may not have a counselor who is on me 24/7 to ensure my success, but by going through this on my own and coming out on top, i feel that much more successful</p>