<p>^ lol me too.</p>
<p>it works :)</p>
<p>No i’m still not happy at berkeley. a school that spends money on pointless walls of faces that i don’t want to see and block my path and banners that talk about diversity when all i see are asians everywhere. makes me lol. bitterly.</p>
<p>I’d say I’m pretty happy at Cal. Stressed-happy, perhaps, and not too thrilled with one of my grades (I took Chem 4A instead of 1A because I assumed the material would be better - turns out that the stuff I really liked is covered in both and that 4A is demonically hard, though at least this way I can also take 4B as an elective [albeit one that doesn’t count towards my major (BioE)]), but…well, happy.</p>
<p>One of my big suggestions is to find a strongly therapeutic hobby and stick with it. In my case, it’s Powerlifting, but pretty much anything that can take you away from studying for a while and allow some release will work (some variety of sport will work very well for this, with those that are relatively malleable and time-efficient [e.g. Powerlifting, shameless plug] taking top, in my experience). Be sure to find some means of making friends - res hall living for a year is a pretty good option, but (and I cannot believe I’m endorsing this) going Greek would probably work, though some limit on your alcohol consumption would be advisable (for obvious reasons).</p>
<p>I’m frankly feeling much, much worse now that I’m back in San Diego for the break. There are several possible reasons for this, but my current state is very similar to the one I usually have after I get back from spending a week or more with friends, away from my family. These periods can most easily be referred to as “vacations,” and the fact that I’m as happy at Cal as I am when I’m on holiday should be pretty telling of how much I like it there. Here. Or however you want to say it. Berkeley’s home, as far as I’m concerned.</p>
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<p>As a UCLA student, all I can say is that we get a real kick out of your competitive little rivalry with us. “UC Berkeley is better, yatayatayatah”…followed by 123 posts about how unhappy you are there. It’s almost like a little joke among us- we let you think you’re <em>that</em> much better, even though you have a higher overall admit rate (26%, compared to UCLA’s 21%), mostly because we just don’t care enough to waste our breath in an argument over prestige.</p>
<p>Berkeley students are ALWAYS the ones comparing themselves to UCLA, as if to ensure themselves that they must have made the right choice bc, gosh darnit, UCLA is ranked a few spots lower! If it’s so great, why do you have to constantly degrade another school to prove your point? </p>
<p>UCLA DOES NOT CARE ABOUT BERKELEY’S RANKING! We’re not trying to be Cal- we don’t want to live in trees, have cops at our protests all the time, etc. We’re HAPPY to be at UCLA- and if all that means being ranked 1-3 spots lower in most rankings, then that’s fine by me! LOL</p>
<p>^wow, i like how you say only we care about numbers while you point out we have a higher admit rate. just saying</p>
<p>@jonnosferatu: hey man, i do some powerlifting as well. do you train at the RSF?</p>
<p>@think-different: on mychances, the cross-admit says Berkeley-70%, UCLA 30%. Looks like you’re using the wrong statistics. In fact, the admit # itself is about the same (Berkeley’s is a little bit higher). I would say UCLA is just trendier; very hyped up among our peers, not so for older people. As for being ranked only 1-3 spots after Berkeley, that’s not true for all parts, engineering being a notable exception.</p>
<p>I think its funny that a lot of people are now saying the same things and advice on how to be happy at Cal that I cited five years ago. Good to know people never change. 
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<p>Also, I am happier with my Cal degree now that I’ve moved down to LA because when people see my license plate frame, I get compliments about how I must be really smart. I kind of got used to it maybe not meaning as much in the Bay Area because let’s face it, Cal grads are a dime a dozen in the SF area.</p>
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<p>But the general average of SATs and GPAs of those UCLA admitted students is lower than those admitted at Berkeley. So, I would presume that the best students apply to Berkeley and the not so talented students apply to UCLA. :D</p>
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<p>Aside from engineering, there’s</p>
<p>Haas, computer science, mathematics and physical sciences, languages and social sciences… Berkeley is significantly superior to UCLA.</p>
<p>@MechRocket - Yup. Feel free to shoot me a PM if you want to talk more.</p>
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Yeah well, tryin to give you a little taste of your own medicine. Glad you noticed =D</p>
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LMAO. Yeah, Haas is great despite the fact that it’s impossible to get into. I suppose it’s nice for the 10% of students who manage to get in. As for it being far superior- superior in arrogance, as well. I thank God everyday that my peers possess intelligence and humility. The arrogance on that campus is as pervasive as the liberal street bums.</p>
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For GPA, UCLA actually wins. For SAT, it’s 30-40 points lower. If that actually matters to you, then I’d start to seriously reconsider what you truly value in life.</p>
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UCLA admits 21%, Cal 26% <–this number is often deceptively lowered to around 21-22%, bc it looks more competitive when you exclude Spring Admits, who increase the admit rate another 5%.</p>
<p>Look, both Cal and UCLA are great schools. I chose UCLA because everyone I talked to mentioned that they “loved” the school- and to this day, I’ve yet to find someone who doesn’t (I’m sure they exist, but not in the same sense as Cal- as is apparent on this forum). Being genuinely happy was something that was important to me, as was being surrounded by other students who were genuinely happy. Some people are willing (I suppose) to substitute having a happy and fulfilling college experience for one that earns them a smidgen more prestige upon graduation (e.g. the license plate frame mentioned above). To me, that was, and still is, absurd. But, to each his own. Either way, your experience will be what you make of it. I know lots of people who are very unhappy at Cal, and lots who have really enjoyed it. I know nobody who is truly unhappy at UCLA, and TONS of people who absolutely love it. So you have to decide- are you willing to sacrifice happiness for an engineering or business program that’s ranked 10-15 spots higher, or a social science/humanities program that’s ranked 1-3 spots higher? Make that decision, and you’ll have your answer (this is true of many school comparisons, not just Cal-UCLA).</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
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<p>It’s clear that numbers are clearly not your strong suit. The number is more like 50%. </p>
<p>You keep emphasizing the numbers don’t matter, then why do you keep using numbers to back up your points?</p>
<p>I know people who are unhappy at UCLA, so I guess you have a limited view of UCLA people? So your little romanticized point of view there in that last paragraph there really proves nothing. </p>
<p>Furthermore, if UCLA is better, why do you even have to come to a Cal forum to defend anything? I guess you really need the personal reassurance, or perhaps you really needed to stroke your ego somehow?</p>
<p>Um, you basically just ignored my numbers and justification for those numbers, and reiterated your own. Deceptively lowered? Do you mean, “oh wait, UCLA had a smaller admit rate for only one year, so it would be bad if people were aware that this doesn’t constitute a long-term (ie meaningful) trend?”</p>
<p>Not to mention you’re somehow trying to argue both that UCLA is more prestigious, and that it’s “better because even though we don’t work as hard, we’re happier”, which is dodgy at best and completely contradictory at worst. And people at Berkeley do not feel like they’re dying all the time, so you’re definitely exaggerating. Furthermore, if you feel like you can’t take the heat, that’s nothing to brag about.</p>
<p>No one cares, this UCB vs. UCLA argument is stupid anyway.
This thread is about are people happy at Berkeley.
As a second year, I can say that I am happy. Berkeley is a great place for me. And for many others, I’m sure UCLA is a great place for them too.</p>
<p>ucla football is a fu.cking joke. they can’t even beat sc in a down year for the trojans.</p>
<p>Snow_phoenix is seconded…this discussion is ridiculous. Both Cal and UCLA are impersonal *and don’t care in the least bit for you * – go figure, what people spout are riddled with self-constructed experience.</p>
<p>Therapeutic hobby? Don’t pick chess. Trust me, chess is too stressful as you are always worrying about winning/losing.</p>
<p>Pick a musical instrument so you can go into competitive mode or simply enjoy the music yourself.</p>
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That’s the thing. Everyone tells you that you need to balance between work and play, but it is very hard when academics consume so much time. There is just never enough time to study. You work hard for three weeks thinking you did well on a midterm, and then find out that you barely got higher than the average. Essentially if you choose one of the more competitive majors, the time you spend enjoying college is equivalent to points you lose on your GPA</p>
<p>Marginal Costs and Benefits. No matter how much you like what you’re studying, there’s a point where there’s just too much work for it to be enjoyable. At Cal, academics constantly flirt with that line. In general, the harder the classes, the harder the work, the less time for fun one has. You can’t have both, you just have to decide at this moment in time, what is more important? Sometimes you can pick fun and get away with it, but sometimes you can’t. That’s how it is at all schools, but the more prestigious the school, the more times you’re going to have to decide between the two.</p>