Go read the last 3 pages of ask questions about Berkeley here because I’m not retyping that all up.
I chose Berkeley over a full ride.
My friend chose Davis over Berkeley for 3,000$ a year.
My sister chose Caltech over Berkeley even though she knows it’s not worth it and Berkeley engineers make just as much. She just wants to tell everyone she goes to Caltech. There’s no right answer because they’re all good choices. You’ll go to Berkeley and (probably) love it. Especially if you’re an independent learner.
I’m sorry in advance for all the family members asking if you’ll become a hippie and have you gone to a protest yet.
There is no reason for premed people to spend too much on undergrad. Do you know how freaking expensive medical school is?! 80,000$ a year. Save for that. Go to Harvard then. But honestly, medical school is medical school. I’m applying to the cheapest ones. Limiting the inclination to make expensive choices.
You didn’t tell us what your main choice is. I would choose Berkeley over Dartmouth, Cornell and Columbia. They’re not worth the extra 30,000.
Today I learned that David Card who teaches Econ 142 won the Nobel prize for developing differences in differences which is where you compare what happens to treatment and control groups before and after an event. Like what I’m learning in 155A, which is the effect on manufacturing and agriculture in a city before and after a million dollar plant compared to the city that just missed out on the plant.
Berkeley discovered half the periodic table.
The guy who won the breakout prize for capsaicin triggering heat receptors is at Berkeley.
The episode that I listened to yesterday on the Indicator from Planet Money (Sudden Stop episode) had a Berkeley guy.
We have the woman who invented Crispr. She teaches Bio1A in the spring.
I’ve known students who worked for investment banking companies, startup, health consulting in Chicago, started a startup that initially made fluorescent beer but is now something about testing drug impurities, nonprofit starters. My friend is in a class right now helping Tesla on some environmental project.
Go read the 101 things about berkeley page. That’s good for go Berkeley ness.
I visited Claremont McKenna and they were like we have cool speakers come visit. It took me a while to realize, but Berkeley has a ton of cool speakers come visit. You just have to be on the right mailing list. The Nordic department sends me emails about Swedish ambassadors coming to talk. The bug email list sends me talks that are every Friday at 10 am with food. There’s speakers in every department where people present on research that sometimes has food and quite a lot of my professors watching. There’s classes like IB 77A and a poli sci one where politicians or researchers come and talk every week. BioBusiness has a freshman seminar (for anyone) where people in biotech come and talk about getting into biotech. There’s a ton of stuff going on.
I don’t know. Tell me one thing that you think whatever other school might do better and I can probably tell you how Berkeley does the same thing. Original meme page. Overheard. Missed connections. (on Facebook). Don’t go to confessions at berkeley (also Facebook). That’s weird and depressing.
I’m supposed to be paying attention to discounted cash flows with my Wall Street professor dude. Last Thursday of real school for the semester.
I’m graduating over the summer. I still think Clark Kerr is the best. You should get into labs phase one. Ignore prereqs. Take more units. Ochem is fun. Good Bio advisors with good drop in hours. Don’t look for housing until February or later. Use your meal swipes. Learn the names of the food service workers. We know who the polite ones are. If you ever feel lonely, get a job. It’s very likely that you and your roommates will be ambivalent. Get a triple in a dorm not suite. Coed dorms are fine. My sister says I need to write with more white space. Ask again later if you want class advice. I forget what the rest of my advices were. And this is getting too long and probably isn’t very useful.
Other than that… don’t let people who are too small to celebrate your achievements and your bright future rain on your parade. There are plenty of people out there who are beside themselves with joy to be going to Berkeley - listen to them and forge ahead!
), or Yale (as examples - I’m missing maybe half the list). We are evaluating whether their GPA is high in challenging, relevant coursework - if their letters of rec are strong - if they write well - and if have a bit of research experience under their belt. That gets them in the door for an interview.