<p>This is Berkeley’s 130 thousand posts. and my 1,757th. hehe</p>
<p>Heh, I have found work, but it was always part time or retail and it never paid enough to support me. Yes, I could always find a random ass roommate on CL and move in with them and split rent, but who wants to work for less than $14/hour in the Bay and have that kind of lifestyle unless they were some kind of masochist. At least there is work down South…</p>
<p>I’m definitely happy here. Even though the competition level is high, and my grades will probably be somewhat lower than if I went to another state school, I feel the challenge to be satisfying and worthwhile. Plus everyone I have met is very positive with their lives and future goals and whatnot. Then again, I am a graduate student in an engineering major, so these may be observations from an atypical sample size.</p>
<p>I agree that there is way too many bums, and parts of the town are dirty. Solution? Live on the northside of campus. I love the surroundings in general. Good food, great bars, proximity to a great city. Plenty of things to do and activities to get involved with. </p>
<p>The school definitely doesn’t hold your hand through the process, that’s for sure. Good for personal growth, imo.</p>
<p>^I know a lot of graduate students, and from what I can tell they’re a much happier bunch than the undergraduates.</p>
<p>The following are what I know to be, objectively, true at Cal.</p>
<p>Often, it can take up to a full freshman year to acclimate to Berkeley–the sheer volume of the student population and that UC Berkeley can deflate even the most valedictorian of Cal students (of which there are many) because it has profound (on a part with MIT, Cal Tech, and Reed) grade deflation tend to be two general complaints. A 97% in a physics class could yield a student a B+.</p>
<p>Berkeley undergrads who do well, performance-wise, are coveted by all the top-notch graduate schools: a 3.6 GPA for a pre-med, for example, having taken the MCAT prerequisites, is going to get (has gotten–I know about 20 Cal grades with this profile who have all gone on to top 15 medical schools) many acceptances from medical schools. As I said, grad schools are fully apprised of what an exalted performance at Cal means.</p>
<p>The school is a smorgasboard of riches–intellectually and curriculum offerings. I have interacted with many a Berkeley undergrad, and they are generally very politically/globally aware and precocious–whipsmart. And sophisticated. </p>
<p>I think that Berkeley and the Bay area is such an interesting and rich place.</p>
<p>It is essential (!) to live in the dorms the first year–it functions as the most important social segue into Cal.</p>
<p>Many of the professors are utterly brilliant and more accessible than people claim. As well, most upper division classes are small–30 students or less; many have no more than 15 students.</p>
<p>There are complaints about not being supported or attended to by the administration–I have heard that such an obstacle is overcome by connecting with one person in the area of need, be it a specific dept. or the registrar’s office.</p>
<p>And the most important reason to attend Cal–they just beat the pants off of that silly Jr. university, down on the peninsula, during the Big Game.</p>
<p>And, yes, most Cal undergrads, who are equipped, academically, end up loving Cal and mourn leaving when it’s time to graduate. And, again, I know such a thing from personal experience.</p>
<p>I actually found the opposite regarding the socio-economic status of most of the Cal students regarding the post that said that Cal students hailed from a lower socioeconomic status. Most of the population appears to be from upper-middle class homes.</p>
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<p>I’ll confirm RML’s response – not like your Yale and Harvard graduates find wonderful jobs either. I’m sorry to say this, but majoring in something good at a big name university counts for something, but without a “practical degree” jobs will be hard to come by. While English literature is wonderful, those who tend to make it with that sort of degree will frequently have obtained other degrees (e.g. get trained to be a lawyer). Or those who love to teach will go into that – that’s in many ways a very nice profession.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I just learned of someone getting a nice job at Google, and he’s graduating this year. He loves theoretical math, but trained himself for the job market. </p>
<p>For those who like to get degrees that aren’t immediately practical, a good career is possible if one goes through significant amounts of further study. It’s a matter of sucking it up – in many other countries, the same degrees might fetch a rock bottom number of jobs, further studies or not!</p>
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If med schools are fully apprised of what an exalted performance at Cal means, why then do Cal admits have higher GPAs?</p>
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<p>LOL that’s not true. When my mom told one of her co-workers that I got into both UCLA and Berkeley and she told them that I made the choice about going to Berkeley, her co-worker said “Wow, that’s really great! You have no idea how great Berkeley is. What they have over there at UCLA, they have ten times much more at Berkeley!”</p>
<p>Also, one of my friends is going to UCLA and a few months before school began, while at a party, people found out that he went to UCLA and were like “Really? That’s pretty cool!” but then one of my friends was like “This guy is going to Berkeley” and all of a sudden people were like “Wow, that’s pretty amazing. You must be really smart.” LOL</p>
<p>In general when I first told people that I got into UCLA, they thought it was pretty great, but when they found out I got into Cal, they were all amazed and were like “No way!” and almost all of them were like “So you’re going to Cal then, right?”</p>
<p>It’s pretty funny how UCLA students always try to claim that their academics are just as great as Cal’s but never ever try to make the claim that the experience at Cal overall is as great as UCLA’s. How could the social life at UCLA be any much better if their students have to work just as hard as Cal students?</p>
<p>Oh and the frat scene at UCLA sucks. Dry rush events? LOL.</p>
<p>A lot of the people here are losers… really. They’re negative. Is the grass really greener on the other side? A lot of these people here just cherry pick issues… and like to blame their surroundings on their misfortunes when it’s really just them. For example, are they as outgoing and as social as they think they are? Yeah, this isn’t a private school but isn’t that much harder here to succeed than the other two top UC’s. Are these complainers really that good of a student as they think they are? Probably not.</p>
<p>If you go to UCLA you don’t really get to experience LA as you think you would. You need to have a lot of money and a car. What are you going to go to Beverly Hills and just stand outside stores and not buy anything? Westwood actually does have bums too, my friend told me that they wander around in the morning shouting at people. LA bums aren’t as aggressive as the bums here at Berkeley. They’re really aggressive, almost like they’re zombies or something, I do have to admit that.</p>
<p>"LOL that’s not true. When my mom told one of her co-workers that I got into both UCLA and Berkeley and she told them that I made the choice about going to Berkeley, her co-worker said “Wow, that’s really great! You have no idea how great Berkeley is. What they have over there at UCLA, they have ten times much more at Berkeley!”</p>
<p>Also, one of my friends is going to UCLA and a few months before school began, while at a party, people found out that he went to UCLA and were like “Really? That’s pretty cool!” but then one of my friends was like “This guy is going to Berkeley” and all of a sudden people were like “Wow, that’s pretty amazing. You must be really smart.” LOL"</p>
<p>interesting. i guess it just depends, though. cuz my parents have told a lot of people where i’m applying and they have all been the most impressed with ucla and usc, actually. none of them have commented on berkeley so far, but its always “wow ucla! that school is really hard to get into!” or “usc, that’s a really great school!” so obviously this must vary from person to person. in general, though, it seems that the berkeley and ucla are viewed so similarly academics-wise (most people probably think berkeley is HARDER but not necessarily better) that it’d be really dumb to pick berkeley over ucla just cuz it has a little more academic prestige in some circles.</p>
<p>But Berkeley IS better. Or else, UCLA students wouldn’t be comparing their school so much to Berkeley.</p>
<p>There’s an inferiority complex. I don’t think anyone can deny that.</p>
<p>I’m not saying UCLA isn’t good, in fact it is if you’re going to stick around the LA area. In fact, for business school, I plan to go to USC Marshall simply because I want to stick around the LA area.</p>
<p>but wait who started comparing ucla to berkeley in this thread? was it a ucla student? :S (i’m not being sarcastic, i’m truly wondering if i missed something cuz i thought it was a berkeley student who started comparing them??)</p>
<p>but also how can you say berkeley IS better, period? doesn’t that strongly depend on what you want to study and what you want to do post-grad? for example, i want to go into film, so ucla would be infinitely better than berkeley for me personally.</p>
<p>You’re right. UCLA would be better for film school in fact, I think it would pretty cool to get into UCLA film school… I mean I don’t want to make movies but I want some type of job in the entertainment industry. Yeah.</p>
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<p>Well when Berkeley students compare their school to UCLA, they point out a few things that UCLA does indeed have an advantage in. But UCLA students always compare their school to Berkeley in how it’s so similar, if not, BETTER (LOL).</p>
<p>Berkeley overall, is better than UCLA. Overall. It has more prestige.</p>
<p>k well i don’t think prestige alone defines which one is better but if that’s what you mean, than yeah, berkeley is slightly more prestigious (but it’s not more prestigious to the degree that that fact alone should convince someone to choose it over ucla or any tier-1 school for that matter.) </p>
<p>i guess if ucla and berkeley both totally, absolutely fit the person and he loved everything about both, then berkeley would be the better choice due to its slightly higher prestige. but how common is that, really? imo, berkeley and ucla seem like very different schools despite their similar rankings and academics, so i wouldn’t even think there would be much of a dilemma for most people who get accepted to both. it seems like they’d have a fairly clear choice of which of the two they’d rather attend.</p>
<p>also tbh so far (from these boards and from my friends at ucla) i’ve never heard any ucla student compare ucla to berkeley. i’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but just in my experience, people at ucla don’t seem like they have an inferiority complex or anything.</p>
<p>wow. just wow. 10 char.</p>
<p>@ me or tiberius or this whole thread or what, jeremy? lol.</p>
<p>I’m just a freshman, so I have no idea just how much my opinions will count, but hey!</p>
<p>To be perfectly honest, I adore this place (already invalidated my opinion, didn’t I?) and I really can’t imagine what college would have been like if I hadn’t gone here. Perhaps I just haven’t run into the depressed majority of the undergraduates, but the people I know? We just grumble about anti-curves and the different color slop that Crossroads is serving, but at the end of the day we’re still a happy bunch. It’s not like we came here expecting an easy ride, after all, and my friends who go to UCLA are suffering just as much so the ass-kicking is pretty same fare all around. Maybe it’s because I live in the Units, but my floormates are rambunctious and outgoing - indeed, they study hard and party hard (even now, during dead week you can hear one room watching Star Wars and the other end of the hall watching Aladdin). If you’re open and willing to step outside of your comfort zone to make friends, that mentality works wonders. Approach the situation with a smile and open mind, you’re sure to make some friends. This works even with professors and GSIs, at least the ones I’ve met. They’re incredibly kind and well-versed on their subject and willing to help. Sometimes they’re even humble enough to admit they don’t know (though perhaps this was more accepting since the course was philosophy). I can honestly say I learned a lot in the mere semester I’ve been here and it really made me feel like all the effort I spent was actually worth something.</p>
<p>As for the environment, having come from central LA, I really don’t see the difference. Heck, I find it hilarious when parents who’ve visited Berkeley bark on and on about how the city is so dirty and there’re bums and whatnot. It’s like they’re selectively forgetting where they live! …Actually, maybe that’s why I feel so at home here hmm. Also those same parents will commend UCLA and forget Berkeley, but that’s because they’re quite conservative and religious, so they already have a dislike for the Berkeley atmosphere. Before that becomes fighting words, that’s just the general trend I saw in such people; don’t take it for fact and of course that isn’t the only reason.</p>
<p>Aside from that, if you can get a good gaggle of friends to cruise around with, Berkeley is a vibrant historic town beneath what many would call a layer of ‘dirt’. You have the small businesses and individual dishes that come along with them, plus you get a wonderful array of cultures in such a small place. That and you can actually WALK to get to places, even at night if you have a friend. It just felt… liberating and somewhat cozy to be able to get around most necessary places on my own two feet without having to take a car or a bus. Oh, and while there are a lot of homeless people, they seem to leave you be if you give them a quick apologetic bow 
I don’t know, maybe I’m just used to the sight of them and they’re nowhere near as bad as the ones you find in Downtown LA past 5. </p>
<p>In the end, you could pretty much account for this with just freshman naivety (although Tele-bears has wrangled me by the neck for second semester…) and honestly? Happiness for one person is not the same for another, right? If you feel that you can be happy in an environment like Berkeley, then go for it. If you can’t find anything to benefit from it, then don’t. It’s your choice and only yours to make.</p>
<p>I’m just glad RML had the guts to say what a lot of people won’t say or believe in getting extra training or self-teaching. Hard to prove self-teaching though. I’ve run into a lot of: “Well, if you know this, show us a program or show us the cert” stuff. So, I’m getting my butt certed in computer techie type stuff. 
I just get rankled at the people that are like: “You went to Cal? How come you can’t just waltz into a job of your choice?”</p>
<p>well-written post, perendie. i just have a few questions:</p>
<p>“Also those same parents will commend UCLA and forget Berkeley, but that’s because they’re quite conservative and religious, so they already have a dislike for the Berkeley atmosphere.”</p>
<p>just curious…why would they commend ucla in that case? ucla, while not as extremely liberal as berkeley, is still very liberal and la as a city is…:-/ </p>
<p>“That and you can actually WALK to get to places, even at night if you have a friend. It just felt… liberating and somewhat cozy to be able to get around most necessary places on my own two feet without having to take a car or a bus.”</p>
<p>i dunno if your post was in reply to this thread as a whole or to the recent ucla/berkeley discussion, but if it’s the latter, you can walk around westwood too, right? that’s what i’ve heard, at least.</p>
<p>“Oh, and while there are a lot of homeless people, they seem to leave you be if you give them a quick apologetic bow I don’t know, maybe I’m just used to the sight of them and they’re nowhere near as bad as the ones you find in Downtown LA past 5.”</p>
<p>by downtown la, do you mean the area near usc? or are you talking about westwood? (sorry i’m just not sure if you were comparing ucb and ucla or not!! :P)</p>
<p>Sure you can walk around westwood, but unless your destination is a country club or mansion what would be the point?</p>