<p>I really don’t understand why so many people to whom I’ve talked does not like Berkeley. I thought it was going to be old, run-down, depressing, ugly, anti-social, PRISON of a school. Geez was I wrong.</p>
<li><p>Architecture - Soooo amazing. Parts of it reminded me of Cornell. The clock tower and the surrounding area was really nice. The University Library had amazing architecture. Haas Pavillion was a very impressive building, and the area surrounding the gate (the administrative buildings) was very lively and beautiful.</p></li>
<li><p>Berkeley city - Sooo cool. Unlike UCLA where it’s surrounded by people with way too much money, or UCSD where it’s surrounded by…ocean, the city really feels like a college town, with MANY good restaurants and little stores. The streets seemed to be CRAWLING with people, very lively and high energy. Reminded me of Cambridge, Mass.</p></li>
<li><p>Students - all seem to LOVE the school ====> I’m one of them! I love Berkeley.</p></li>
<li><p>Girls - Admittedly, they weren’t as hot as the girls at UCLA or UCSD, but there were some cute ones definitely, and in general, nerdier, which I guess is my type. If you’re not into that well I guess you’ll just have a harder time finding a girl but they’re there.</p></li>
<li><p>Dorms - Hellll yes…I’ve heard bad things about the units and then I saw Unit one. The architecture was very beautiful. I took a tour inside and the main lounge room downstairs was absolutely amazing, equipped with pool table, ping-pong table, lounge chairs with TV for OC watching, PIANO (yesss!). The rooms were a little small but I could deal with it. The amentities were just really nice in general.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Now, I visited unit three and that one looked pretty run-down, both outside and inside, so I could understand if you were to complain about that. Then I visited Foothill which didn’t seem as social, but the rooms were bigger and it was still a pretty nice place. Good place to go if you like living in the mountains because it’s on a hill and relatively quiet and studying-conducive!</p>
<p>My tour guide was very friendly and told stories of how much we hate Stanford (WE HATE STANFORD) and did a great job of showing us around. He seemed to love the Berkeley experience. I think there are many people on this board that for one reason or another just didn’t like Berkeley but I personally thought that it’s an amazing place, so don’t let others’ criticisms deter you from coming here. I would really suggest visitng myself and see what it’s all about.</p>
<p>dude, the campus buildings reminded me of cornell as well...but with better weather lol. i was also extrmellllly apprehensive about cal day, but it ended up being a blast and i didnt realize id like cal so much</p>
<p>For me though... you can't really beat a stream and patches of forest all throughout campus. Love it every time I go through there.</p>
<p>Oh yes, and Unit 1 has become my first choice for housing at this point. Unit 3 actually looks very... drab and depressing--at least compared to Unit 1.</p>
<p>I loved it. I also expected a way ghetto city. It had culture and the living areas of Berkeley were goregous. I also loved the campus and all the restaurants, food, and life. I love my major too (Peace and Conflict). Cal Day was my first time visiting and it was definitely positive.</p>
<p>As for reason number 4: Why are there are so many guys on this board?? Or is it just the guys that are posting?</p>
<p>Good, be excited! On the average day it won't look quite as nice, but there is still culture and there are still a lot of people walking around. Beautiful campus, but you're probably not going to be looking at it a lot when you're rushing to get to class. But I definitely love walking through all the trees and seeing the squirrels and the streams. If you're in a dorm, be sure not to stay too much on the east side of campus and Telegraph. The nice parts of campus are all west of there, and Shattuck is much nicer than Telegraph, despite the name.</p>
<p>It's propaganda. Cal Day is the one day the university seems to dedicate resources to its undergrads, for the most part it is a pretty impersonal experience with large fixed/sunk costs to get anything productive done. For example, we never get trolleys at Cal normally, and the "engaged" students for the most part are but a tiny sliver of the 20 thousand undergraduates. The devil's in the details.</p>
<p>Perhaps that is true, but the campus is for the most part lively Monday through Saturday, at least if you're there at decent, not too early not too late hours. I'm glad you guys enjoyed Cal Day so much :D</p>
<p>The truth is that Cal's official propaganda is really pathetic compared to the private schools'. The tours, brochures, packaging and so forth is really weak at Cal vs the rest. </p>
<p>Anyway CST, you've set the expectations bar so low that those who have read your crap here and actually saw the campus afterwards must have been shocked at how great a place Cal really is. Good job man!</p>
<p>Future Cal students: think how beautiful the campus will feel when you will come to associate it with the wealth of experiences you will accumulate in your next four years. The best years of your lives.</p>
<p>My sentiments exactly!!!!
I'm completely in love with Berkeley. I spent almost 2 hours in the Life Sciences Building - yayyy and it was supposed to be raining according to the forecast, but hey it was pretty damn beautiful. Even though I disliked Stern Hall when I took the virtual tours and stuff, it's not that bad in person. Anyone on here live there? How was/is it?</p>
<p>
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Anyway CST, you've set the expectations bar so low that those who have read your crap here and actually saw the campus afterwards must have been shocked at how great a place Cal really is. Good job man!
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</p>
<p>Hehe...I think that is his only valuable contribution to this board.</p>
<p>ah good 'ole Stern Hall...here's a secret: you can climb on top of the Stern rooftop by climbing the walls/generator that is over the dining halls...it's an amazing view of the bay area from up there, not to mention plenty of room to hang out with buddies.</p>
<p>"Anyway CST, you've set the expectations bar so low that those who have read your crap here and actually saw the campus afterwards must have been shocked at how great a place Cal really is. Good job man!"</p>
<p>That comment really hits the spot. I'm glad the prospective students finally got a chance to see the campus itself and be able to make a judgment without wholly dwelling on the negativities as we have seen on this board for the last several weeks.</p>
<p>Did anyone notice the condition of the ping pong table and pool tables at Unit I? The ping pong table was completely deformed and the pool tables were all scratched up. Kinda sad they couldn't replace those. </p>
<p>In fact, I was very shocked at the condition of many buildings at Berkeley, especially many of the engineering buildings. And the architecture building (that huge gray structure with water marks staining the sides) was definitely the ugliest building I have ever seen.</p>
<p>Yes, ironically the architecture building is voted the #1 ugliest building by Cal students. During a tour, my tour guide told me it was the architectural style of the time it was built.</p>
<p>my tour guide told me because it was something about how the guy who built it was a teacher and wanted students to balh balh something and how the inside is diff from the outside...wasn't paying attention..</p>