<p>I am just so confused right now. It would great to receive some guidance from anyone who current attends Berkeley, UCLA, or Barnard. I live in California btw</p>
<p>I plan to major in either business or economics and either dance or music. My goal is to build a performing arts studio for low-income children because I myself was in their position. Or maybe I would fall in love with math and take a completely different route. Who knows? haha</p>
<p>Here is my dilemma</p>
<p>Barnard : In New York where I (as a dance and musician) definitely want to go.But i wont be able to visit my family (they dont speak English and I am extremely worried that my siblings wont take care of them). 8K per year that I need to pay</p>
<p>UCLA: In L.A, again as a musician and dancer I love this place. Never considered the school but they offered me a full ride which means I can focus on my studies (big plus). </p>
<p>Berkeley: 9.5k per year, close to my home, prestigious enough to land me a job BUT I dislike the environment and campus</p>
<p>I would say go to Barnard given your arts leanings. You will get to do everything you want there and an intimate supportive environment with all the resources of Columbia at hand. How else to experience the richness of the New York scene while in the comfort of your college community? You can come home winter break, spring break and summer. You can’t take care of your parents while you are at school, time for siblings to step up.</p>
<p>So UCLA, no contribution and no loans?
Barnard no loans and 8k contribution, any w/s?</p>
<p>I am a current student at Berkeley and would like to help you out.</p>
<p>Berkeley has great programs in business (read about the Haas school of business), econ, and music. If you want to fall in love with math, Berkeley is definitely the place to do it. There are so many resources and classes to take (especially in the math department- there are many lectures and seminar classes and they offer many honors classes for those who wish to learn topics more in depth). Everyone I’ve met at Berkeley has been so encouraging and helpful; I’ve met many great people and have had great professors in every field. For such a large school the campus is rather small and I run into people I know constantly. Everything you would ever want to need is in Berkeley or nearby (public transportation is very useful/easy to use).</p>
<p>I’d like to hear your opinions on the “environment and campus”.</p>
<p>I have been to Berkeley 3 to 4 times (I live an hour away). Berkeley has become the new “Stanford” of my school but I still see it as any other UC. Whenever i walk around the campus there is bound to be someone (usually drunk) who comes up to me and screams something in my face. Last time an older man yelled “F** you! What are you looking at?!” right at my god mom and I. I live in East side San Jose, so I know exactly what “ghetto” is. I feel that Berkeley has the same environment as my hometown but except everything seems to be a tad more expensive and it is not 98% minorities. I hope this is in no way offensive. I have gone to Berkeley many times and my opinion of it still has not changed. I am going to tour it one last time today, I will definitely try my best to keep an open mind. Thank you for the help! I know that Haas is amazing, is there any more that you can tell me about the classes or professors? My biggest worry is that i wont be able to graduate within 4 years because I wont be able to get the classes I need.</p>
<p>There are always going to be really smart people who, for whatever reason, financial or otherwise, can’t attend the elite universities they could most assuredly succeed in. Unlike most other places, California feels that it’s worthwhile to invest in these students. Given the financial package given to you by UCLA, I recommend you strongly consider attending it.</p>
<p>UCLA is hardly characterized as ghetto. In fact, several students I met from Berkeley were all in awe at how nice the UCLA campus was (compared to Berkeley.) It’s a very nice campus that’s located in a very affluent part of Los Angeles.</p>
<p>What I will say is that Westwood is expensive. But assuming everything is covered for you, you could probably just get a workstudy job to pay for your day-to-day expenses. Seriously, you’d be in a way better position than many other students attending the campus.</p>
<p>I know that there are plenty of dancing groups on campus; and I also know that the school used to have a fairly good dancing program (which its founder has now moved across town to USC.) While I don’t know about dancing groups in Los Angeles in general, I have no doubt that there are several.</p>
<p>If you can’t visit Barnard or UCLA, it might help to look at virtual tours online. Here’s one for UCLA:</p>
<p>The Berkeley campus surroundings can be (largely) broken down into two very different surroundings: “South Side / West Side” and “Northside”. When most people think of Berkeley (and in your experience) they think of the South Side aspect. I would describe South Side as more “rambunctious” (more events/restaurants/parties/people (including the homeless)) while North Side is generally more quiet / less active. It’s generally not a good idea to walk alone late at night on south side but I walk home to North Side at 2AM often by myself without any difficulties (there’s still plenty of restaurants on the north side). Most of my classes are on north side (Evans hall / Le Conte Hall) so I’m not around Sproul/South Side as much as others. There are many resources for walking around / leaving library late such as Bear Walk (call and someone will come and walk you back to your place) / Bear Transit (call and they will pick you up after hours and take you back home free of charge). As long as you are aware of your surroundings and stay smart about what you are doing / where you are going you shouldn’t have a problem.</p>
<p>I’ve never had a problem getting into any class (this semester I started off at #90 on the waitlist for a 600+ person class and ended up getting in), although I entered Berkeley with many AP/college credits (so I entered with sophomore standing). I suppose it depends on your intended major / AP credit standing.</p>