<p>i'm an out of state prospective student. this may seem silly but like would a place like berkeley be overwhelming going there when you don't know anyone?</p>
<p>It depends. Some people feel overwhelmed about the place and have 60 people from their high school here, while other don't feel overwhelmed and they knew nobody before they started. The average person here probably has a few people from their high school going here, and they may or may not be overwhelmed. Sure, at times, even the most comfortable student must feel overwhelmed here, but at times the most comfortable student at a small school must feel suffocated.</p>
<p>If you don't want to go to a big school with so many people, that is understandable. It is important to know about this when applying to colleges. Go visit, sit in a class, spend a few days on campus. See how it feels to you, because that is what matters in this situation.</p>
<p>That's kind of the whole college experience, why not challenge yourself and make some new friends, (Also by going to a larger campus like berkeley it doesn't mean that you have to sever ties with old friends you can always give them a call). Its a sacrifice and I think it will pay off.</p>
<p>well, it is big...there's no getting around that fact. and sometimes it's very easy to get lost in the huge sea people, and it's different from smaller private schools. But on the other hand, there is an increased probability that you will find friends whom you will absolutely click with and there are just more people with more interests and lots of diversity...</p>
<p>yeah.. and who knows if i'll even get in. i was just wondering bc, well, first of all, i've always gone to smaller private schools. second, i live in texas. soo let's say UT was the only place i got in, i'd know at least like 30 people. i was just wondering if a place so big would be like really intimidating when you don't know anyone.</p>
<p>it really just depends on the student. </p>
<p>i don't really know anybody or talk to anybody except my roommate who i see for like 20 minutes a day. thats what makes me happy.</p>
<p>im probably in the minority, though.</p>
<p>I see a good and bad social side:</p>
<p>Good is that you will bound to find a niche within such a huge community (I'm still looking)</p>
<p>Bad is that I've realized many students stick to their high school friends that also goes here, so if you come here alone, it's quite difficult to make friends unless you find other loners.</p>
<p>Not that is hard to find loners.</p>
<p>yeah it isn't..</p>
<p>it's okay for me to go up to a person at the dc and make conversation with them, but it's hard for me to ask someone and say, 'hey let's go hang out?' with someone from class</p>
<p>i came from ny and so i obviously didn't know anyway. i liked forcing myself to meet all new people. i think it's a lot more exciting that way. in the beginning i was worried since i didn't know if i would meet anyone and i had no one to turn to if i didn't - but, i guess i got lucky and had an easy time meeting people. it's really not so intimidating. you even run into people a lot on campus when you would think that would be hard to do since there's so many people. hope that helped!</p>
<p>my school sends over 20 here each year. in the 2 years i've been here, i've bumped into maybe a dozen of them and only talk to one on a regular basis. (he's in all my classes.) not everybody hangs out with people from HS... most of my friends don't...</p>
<p>I don't hang out with people from my HS either. In fact, I'm intentionally trying to get away from all of them so that I can meet new people.</p>
<p>Being social is just being a little bit desperate to have company. Being a loner is not bringing yourself down to the level of phoniness. I'd like to be somewhere in between.</p>