Berkeley;; surrounding area?

<p>I'm trying to decide what school to go to, and my brother was saying if I can't decide, I should look at the surrounding areas of my top three (Claremont-McKenna, Cal, and UCI), and use that to help me. I've heard that Cal has a nice enough campus but that off-campus, it gets pretty ghetto what with all the homeless people, and that it feels unsafe to walk around campus at night. </p>

<p>Does anyone have any bad experience with like, security I guess, and is the surrounding area really that bad?</p>

<p>I would definately go to Cal over UCI, but be warned the surrounding areas… aren’t exactly nice. Beatiful campus etc, but the area is pretty hood. Just be cautious of your surroundings and don’t show fear and 99% of the time u r good.</p>

<p>I live in Irvine so I know the UCI off-campus environment very well. It’s a suburban area so it’s going to be quite different from Berkeley life. I thought Berkeley off-campus was pretty lively which isn’t always the case here in Irvine.</p>

<p>yeah CMC has really different off-campus vibes than Cal. (i live right by CMC). its harder to get around if you dont have a car, although there is the metro. the downtown is really cute but it doesnt compare to berkeley (in my opinion anyways)</p>

<p>I had heard the same things about Cal off-campus. But I’ve been there twice since then and walked around plenty (partly because I got off at the wrong Bart station =/) and I never felt any reason to be afraid. Homeless people are there, sure…but I think they’re relatively harmless</p>