<p>Hey Everyone,</p>
<p>I was in a dillema for the longest time about choosing Cal or UCLA. My parents ended up forcing me to go to Cal, and I'm sad about it. Right now, I'm not very fond of Berkeley, but I love UCLA. Could anyone please make me feel better about going to Berkeley? What do you like about that school that UCLA doesn't have? What are bad things about UCLA? I'm trying to change my mentality completely, so that I'll go into Cal loving it and hating UCLA.</p>
<p>i hear there are a ton of really really attractive people going this year</p>
<p>haha.</p>
<p>i dont like ucla cause it's so crowded in la and all the buildings are like the same color red. and i don't like the sunny weather much. or the la culture. </p>
<p>norcal!!!</p>
<p>haha, what bobobabob said!</p>
<p>Both are great schools, but Cal has wonderful history and character, and a beautiful campus in a fascinating, vibrant setting with public transport everywhere. UCLA is set in a once-interesting area of LA, now quite dispiriting and dreary and filled with traffic. Much more difficult at UCLA to get anywhere without a car; public transport not equivalent to that in the Bay area. And yes, I live in LA.</p>
<p>Go Bears.</p>
<p>I hate the traffic there. I know traffic is there in Berkeley too, but wow. I just absolutely hated it. It made me nauseated. I think I'm being like this because I'm from LA too and the traffic gets to me of course. But besides that, I love the history of it too, like Rosieo said. </p>
<p>I thought the UCLA buildings were nice but Cal's are great, imo. </p>
<p>What are your interests? What attracted you to LA first of all?</p>
<p>berkeley will force you to grow up and learn (if you're from socal). the city doesn't compare to westwood, but the people and experiences are what makes berkeley so great. you will get a new understanding of the word "activism." you will learn more because you're on semester system and it's eaiser to catch up than with quarter system. and you will find things out about yourself you never knew by talking to a stoned bum in people's park.</p>
<p>i know i'd be more comfortable in westwood, but I can't say I'd know more...</p>
<p>In regards to oceangomute, I'm from San Francisco, which is twenty mintes from Berkeley. So, being so close to berkeley is a major turnoff. When I visited LA during Spring Break, I FELL IN LOVE WITH it. The campus was so nice, the ppl looked really cool (I could immediately feel the different culture down there), the weather was nice, everything was great. Westwood was amazing, with all the shops and stores I would ever need. PLUS, Beverly Hills was right next door, we visited Santa Monica, and everything was really exciting and fun. At Berkeley, Ifeel I wont get that college experience. At LA, I know I definitely would and so that's why I really want LA.</p>
<p>Berkeley > UCLA</p>
<p>sorry no evidence to back this up though.</p>
<p>I guess I'm just in the opposite situation..sort of. I def. understand why you'd love LA especially if you live in SF. Ugh. I had a tough decision too, in deciding whether or not I wanted to go to LA or Berk. I agree..I absolutely loved Westwood, but I'm not helping am I?</p>
<p>I actually liked the shops in Berkeley too and the close proximity between the shops and the actual campus. And jeez, just the restaurants and what not.</p>
<p>Man, I would totally understand your predicament, ugh. And I'm sorry your parents forced you. Did they do so because of the distance, the namesake?</p>
<p>Wow, that's a bad way to start a college career.</p>
<p>LA is fun, I always enjoy visiting there, which I did every year at Cal, but I got the impression that I wouldn't want to live there and my friends there are hating it. Your first impression of LA is always going be better than later ones.</p>
<p>In your case though, it sounds like you wanted to get away from home, and that's a good reason to go there. </p>
<p>Well at least we should kick the baby blues' asses in football, many times over during your Cal tenure.</p>
<p>Okay...for this, you'll need a map of Oakland and the surrounding area. First, lets find Berkeley. It should be that shaded patch near the mountains whats labled University of California. The first thing you'll notice is probably the main campus, the place with all the buildings bunched together. This spans across some 100-something acres of land. Now go east a bit, towards the hills. You'll see a cluster of buildings labeled Lawrence Labs. Congratulations, as a student of UCBerkeley, you can brag your school manages the United States oldest national laboratory. Now go slightly south, you find the California Memorial Stadium in Strawberry Canyon. It's modeled after the Roman Coliseum, and one of the most breathtaking sights of all college atheletics.</p>
<p>Now go further east. You'll see the buildings disappear, but <em>gasp</em>. Why is this area still shaded like Berkeley's campus! Could it be? nooo... That 1000-something wooded acre in the hills belongs to UC Berkeley. It's like a national park in there and is perfect for biking and hiking. Located within these pinecrested hills is also Berkeley's cannon. Thats right. CANNON. UC Berkeley is the ONLY university in the nation thats allowed to own and operate their own cannon. You'll hear it sounding off evertime Bears score against the Cardinals in the Big Game. </p>
<p>Culture-wise, LA can not compare with Berkeley. Berkeley is like liberal central and is one of the most culturally diverse universities in the world. </p>
<p>I also completely agree with Calx, I've visited UCLA only twice in my life. The first time was the summer before senior year. I LOVED it. LA has a certain surface grandeur that is appealing at first look. I went home that summer with a very good first impression of UCLA. </p>
<p>The second time I've been to UCLA was not too long ago, for their Engineering open house, the glamour of their campus had a much less appealing affect. The "ivy-look" of their buildings lost the novelty, and I was greatly disappointed in westwood. Westwood is fun for a week. But after that, you start seeing the dirt beneath the shine, and with LA traffic...well you know what I mean. I was very disappointed with the attitude of the faculty there. At berkeley's Cal Day, you could literally taste the pride. There's a certain self-righteous atmosphere at Berkeley - that's prideful but not quite arrogant. It's like, they know they're the best but they don't really give a dam about it either. At UCLA, they clearly knew they were inferior to Berkeley, but were reluctant to admit the truth, thus I felt a sense of pompous smugness in their attitudes. It was like, "Berkeley!? Pftt. Whats so great about them. They're not that much better than us." Idk, I just felt that it was a really arrogant sense of pride, kind of pompous, as if they had an inflated ego that was struggling to establish a reputation.</p>
<p>Idk, that's just what I felt. I know this is going to draw a lot of controversy. Maybe I'm right. But maybe I'm wrong, which I do dearly hope so because I'd hate to lose my respect towards UCLA as a school. But for the moment, I just feel that Berkeley (The SCHOOL, perhaps not the students, and Certainly not the incomming freshman) has a sense of "Yeah, we know we're the best, but we don't care. Ranking's not important" attitude and I really respect that.</p>
<p>I don't think LA can compare with Cal.</p>
<p>Many people I know have described UCLA as "4 more years of high school."</p>
<p>I visited there and was like "wow this is a nice place...better than I thought."</p>
<p>But I went to Berkeley and I was like "WOW..." I mean the architecture, the campus, the campanile...just felt like a historic and prestigious university. You know like how when you visit Yale or Princeton and you're just like "this place is a CASTLE"...except Cal isn't exactly like a castle.</p>
<p>The University Library is awesome. Both the outside and inside. The floor was lined with marble and the little library to the side (starts with m) was very nice and a great place to study.</p>
<p>The city is amazing. Shops and stores and everything. It's such a college town. Whereas westwood...it's just a place for rich people. Million dollar mansions as far as the eyes can see...yawn.</p>
<p>Of course not to mention more prestige, better professors, etc. etc. I could go on.</p>
<p>Anyway, I think you should visit it for yourself you haven't done so.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone. I took a campus tour of Berkeley and I really liked it!...But, to be honest, not quite as exciting and amazed as when I visited UCLA last month. Hmm...I am beginning to like Cal. I've already made my decision and there's no looking back. I only have one concern now. Because SF is so close to Cal, it seems like I'll end up coming home every weekend. What do ppl at Cal do to keep themselves occupied during weekends/free time? Do SF ppl hang out with So-cal ppl while they visit SF? Do Cal ppl go to Oakland or some place to hang out? Or is there tons of stuff to do on campus that you really wouldn't feel inclined to go home so often? I guess, this stems from my only one thing that I'll miss about UCLA is that there would have been so much to do there, so much to explore, so much to see, so many restaurants, shopping centers, places to see, whereas Berkeley, I don't know what I will do considering home is so close.</p>
<p>Students often go to San Francisco, especially on the weekends. :)</p>
<p>For the most part, though, students stay on campus. There is a lot to do in Berkeley, and many things on campus. People go with their friends to SF. You can show people who have no idea where to go what to do, and hopefully experience the city in new ways than before. Oakland isn't as popular generally. Most students stay most weekends. Some students don't go home besides for breaks, although many go home for weekends or short times. </p>
<p>Berkeley and the Bay Area means
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so much to do there, so much to explore, so much to see, so many restaurants, shopping centers, places to see
[/quote]
, at least to the non Bay Area people that I know, and the Nor Cal-ers. i don't know too many SF people who go here, or at least I can't think of them at the moment.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I was in a dillema for the longest time about choosing Cal or UCLA. My parents ended up forcing me to go to Cal,
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Because ur parents know and want the very best for u !!!
No disrespect to UCLA, but Berkeley is on different level- World-Class</p>
<p>True that Rabban!</p>
<p>I heard Lake Anza is pretty fun too.</p>
<p>Honestly, I have nothing else of real significance to add to the Berkeley > UCLA argument, because everyone else before me has said it all. Simply put, Berkeley IS better than UCLA! You'll find out soon enough.</p>
<p>yea. i live in LA and visited UCLA several times.. I also had a chance to stay in its dorm for a week during summer. I mean it's clean and stuff, and its not that bad, but I knew i wanted something different from all these socal stuff i have been going through for last few years of living in LA. I'm sick of socal atmosphere and how ppl think, etc. People here are so shallow and superficial in so many aspects. that is why i chose to attend Cal over all the other UCs including UCLA, USC, and Wellesley(well in Wellesley's case... almost everybody who goes there seemed "boy-obssessed" and "boy-deprived" and i didn't really like that lol).
I have few friends at UCLA who doesn't like their school so much (i know a guy who goes to UCLA and likes USC better than his school! isn't that weird? lol). They say that it's like high school all over again(i think somebody mentioned this before).
well no matter where you choose to go, you'll be happy and successful there. that's what i think.;)
i'll see you at Cal after summer, aguo88! let's have some funnnnnnnnnnnn</p>
<p>Thanks so much everyone. Yeah, I heard UCLA can be a bit superficial and fake. My friend there hates it. But so many other people I've talked to LOVE UCLA. In a weird way, I really wouldn't have minded (is that a word?), if I went to LA, even if it was fake. I am so ready for change, and so ready to experience life outside the Bay Area. Oh well, I'm really content with going to Berkeley right now. Maybe UCLA in grad school? Anyway, Berkeley here I come! Hope I meet some really cool SOCAL ppl who can tell me about their lives in LA. Maybe I'll get to experience LA through your stories!</p>