<p>For a couple years now, I've been starting to really want to go to Berkeley... I love everything I hear about it, from its proximity to SF to its political scene.</p>
<p>But today, I was talking to some friends (also currently in high school) who went to Berkeley for a Speech & Debate tournament, and they said the campus looked horrible, and that I'd hate it if I went there.</p>
<p>Are my friends mistaken, or is it really a gross campus?</p>
<p>It's a matter of opinion. Visit UC Berkeley yourself to see if you like the look of it. I've been there a couple of times and I don't find the campus "gross"</p>
<p>Unless your friends had applied and gets accepted (March 30), I wouldn't let them convince you of anything.</p>
<p>I also live in a city in the Bay Area (which is an hour away), and there are quite a few students who said "Ew, no way am I going to UC Berkeley, it's too close." It's just all talk because they didn't even get the opportunity to decide since they were rejected. In fact, they began acting quite bitter towards those who got accepted.</p>
<p>There's been a lot of talk lately on this board saying the flaws of UC Berkeley and how there are other schools that are way beter, but the truth it, still ~75% of the applicants are rejected and never have the opportunity to choose to come here.</p>
<p>I live very close and I like it. It's interesting...if you are tolerent to alot of different cultures and peoples.</p>
<p>if you're from San Jose, you won't have any issues with the culture. Life in Berkeley around the campus is varied and entertaining. Socially, there's so much to do on both sides of the Bay. Classes are large. It is not an intimate atmosphere. You will get out of it whatever you put into it and the most if you have an open attitude. If you want a traditional college experience, this is not it. It is an urban campus with strong interaction with the community. The campus is not new (it has a lot of tradition) and the surrounding area is not pristine. It is flawed, has lots of character (and characters), and provides a slice of real life as opposed to a campus tucked away in a bucolic setting. You will see homeless people, drug dealers, and crazy people on the streets. If you want an education that includes all an urban environment has to offer, you will probably like it. If you want to study in an location with pretty trees away from real life, you may not be very happy.</p>
<p>The campus is actually quite attractive.</p>
<p>I've been in the Berkeley area and stepped foot in the campus several times. I would agree with everything NAgony said; its definitely a very colorful and interesting place. Right outside the campus there are homeless shelters, street vendors with hippie-ish items, people selling anti-war paraphernalia, a lot of weird and crazy things and people. Its a bit creepy walking around at night. But the campus itself seemed very well-kept and clean.</p>
<p>Thanks all, that's really helpful :)</p>
<p>I'll definitely have to go see the campus, preferably soon. I don't think I'd mind an urban setting, and I'm pretty open-minded.</p>
<p>And LetMeIntoCal, I love your username haha</p>
<p>I would never let the opinions of some friends decide where I'm going to college. Only Jack Bauer. He could tell me to go to college anywhere, and I'd listen.</p>
<p>I'm not letting my friends' opinions decide where I'm going to college. I'm merely listening to what they're saying, and getting myself more information. Hence this post :)</p>
<p>The campus is fine, great even. If you grew up in the Bay Area, maybe even anywhere in California, you might consider, as a factor, when if ever you are going to figure out the the east coast or the mid-west exists and whether you should get the hell out of Dodge. Seperately, I always thought that thriving as a freshman at UCB depended in part on certain personalit traits that not everyone has. If you don't have them, go to college somewhere else and maybe to Cal for graduate school.</p>
<p>But how can you know if you have those personality traits until you are admitted, accept, and start attending?!</p>
<p>I did grow up in the Bay Area, but I love it here. I would think long and hard about going to school anywhere out of California, in fact. I don't feel any pull to get far away from home or anything...</p>
<p>Two seperate questions. First, would it be good for you to get a long way from home, physically, emotionally, culturally, or in some other way, for college? Second, are you the type that would thrive at Cal or hate it? You must have sources of advice or gossip that would help you with the second question.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I don't know. I can't really think of any compelling reason why I should get a long way away from home.</p></li>
<li><p>I'm working on that... it's just so hard to know. For example, I know a lot of freshman classes are in big auditoriums, and I've had no exposure to that kind of environment, so I don't know how I would do.</p></li>
</ol>
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I can't really think of any compelling reason why I should get a long way away from home.
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<p>It helps you grow up, forces you to be independent, and gives you a very different perspective than remaining "in your bubble."</p>
<p>So you think it's a good idea for everyone to go to a college significantly away from home?</p>
<p>But what about the big discount UCs give to in-state applicants? heh</p>
<p>It's something that I got really use to, esp. after participating in FPF with those small class sizes where the professor=gsi as well, I really felt unhappy about the big lectures. The first few days of having lectures with 300+ people, I really hated the impersonal aspect of it. Well, I still do, but for engineering classes it should be much smaller in upper div again.</p>
<p>I also find it much harder to make friends this semester, whereas in FPF it was really easy to make friends since I see them so much more often.</p>
<p>The vast majority of freshman lectures at the VAST MAJORITY of colleges are HUGE. So that's not going to change whether you come to Berkeley or not.</p>
<p>Yes, vast majority, but still there are SOME that are MUCH smaller; ie Bowdoin where my freshmen friend has lecture sizes of <40 and professor does much than lecture (knows your name, grades paper, etc).</p>
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So you think it's a good idea for everyone to go to a college significantly away from home?
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</p>
<p>Not everyone, but lots of people could use it.</p>
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But what about the big discount UCs give to in-state applicants? heh
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<p>The distance between UCLA and the Bay Area is international in some regions.</p>