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I'm not so sure Eshlemann library is an "inferior replacement" - quite the contrary IMO. If you haven't noticed, it's in a very desirable spot. Most of the graduate/faculty lounges are not in desirable spots - by which I mean places like Eshlemann where food and coffee are readily accessible, even late into the night and early morning.
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<p>Oh, I don't know about that. Generally, what PhD students have is at least a desk, if not an entire office (although sometimes that office is shared). But that office tends to have plenty of food and coffee lying around. </p>
<p>But getting back to the idea of just having a desk - I would say that that's a pretty big deal. It basically means that you have a guaranteed place to store things and to study. Hence, no more need to be hauling all your stuff to campus, and hauling it all back home at night, day in and day out. Instead, you just keep most of your stuff at your desk. You can keep a computer there, which means no more lugging around a laptop and always worrying that it will get stolen. You can keep your books there, so less need to be lugging those things back and forth. You can bring your bicycle INSIDE your office, so you don't have to take chances on locking it outdoors. You can keep store some food there, so you don't have to pay confiscatory retail prices and you don't have to always be carrying your food back and forth. You can hang your coat there so you don't have to carry it around all day long. It's a quite nice deal. </p>
<p>I have often times wondered why Berkeley can't offer similar arrangements to its undergrads. In fact, some undergrads do get that, but only if they agree to take on extra responsibilities. For example, the officers of the student chapter of AICHE (the American Institute of Chemical Engineers) have a cozy little office in Latimer, overlooking the Chemistry Computer Lab. I know many officers used it as a storage and study space. The office has a microwave and a coffee machine, it has a community computer. It's pretty nice. But of course, you could only get a key if you were an officer. </p>
<p>Another example is the office of Tau Beta Pi (the honors engineering organization). That office is pretty nice too - with a bunch of desks and amenities. But again, only open to officers. </p>
<p>And then there is the after-hours access to libraries that graduate students enjoy. For example, grad students in chemistry/ChemE can get into the Hildebrand Chemistry library anytime they want to. That's a nice thing because that library isn't exactly open all that often. For example, it's only open from 1-5 on the weekends. That's pretty weak. </p>
<p>"For after-hours access, swipe your campus photo ID card on the unit to the right of the library doors. All rules regarding food and drink apply to after-hours use. Do not let anyone else in on your card. When you swipe your card, your access is recorded. There is a yellow emergency police call-down box in the reading room for use after-hours. "</p>
<p><a href="http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/CHEM/graduate.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/CHEM/graduate.html</a></p>
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It's not so much the price - it's the "invitation to be a part of the Cal family" happy feeling you get when you find out about the tickets.
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<p>Well, I don't know. Harvard undergrads get free football tickets too, but the fact is except for Harvard vs. Yale, game attendance is pretty sparse. I remember when Cal football was bad (i.e. in 2001, the team only won 1 game), attendance was pretty sparse. Football is a pretty dicey thing. Cal isn't USC or Michigan - there is no history of consistently good football recently. In some seasons Cal is good, in others, Cal is bad. So resting school spirit on the football team seems like a hit-or-miss affair to me. </p>
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The reality is that quite a few grad students don't pay anything, as they are on very special fellowships, usually because they have lower levels of testosterone than most tenured professors and because they have slightly opaque skin colors.
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<p>Uh, OK if you say so. </p>
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Plenty of grad students would like to take freshmen and sophomore seminars and are prevented from doing so by Tele-Bears. For example, last semester an MCB grad student wanted to take a seminar I was in. The professor allowed him to audit but he was never able to get credit, as he would have liked because the class was restricted to freshmen and sophomores even though the class was underenrolled. By contrast, it is often quite easy for undergrads to take grad seminars quite simply because grad seminars tend to be underenrolled. No matter which way you spin it, many grad students, especially those in the humanities who went to much lesser undergrad schools, would appreciate being able to enroll in a freshman/sophomore seminar.
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<p>I can appreciate the desirability of some fresh/soph seminars. But the truth is, most PhD students don't do their actual "learning" in classes or even seminars. Nor is most of their interaction with profs accomplished that way. Instead, as a PhD student who has reached the dissertation phase, you are generally expected to meet with your advisor periodically. THAT becomes your "real" seminar - basically a one-on-one meeting to hash out what you've been doing and what needs to be done. Frankly, you can't get a much better learning environment than a periodic one-on-one meeting with a prof. </p>
<p>Now, if we want to talk about professional-school grad students, then I think it's also quite clear that the grad students have far greater access to profs. For example, few of the Haas MBA courses are available to undergrads, not even Haas undergrads. Heck, the MBA courses don't even show up in the regular Berkeley general Course Schedule. I know that in the past, you couldn't even sign up for them with regular Telebears, as Haas MBA students had their * own * special signup procedure. Instead, these students have their own exclusive signup procedure.</p>
<p><a href="http://web.haas.berkeley.edu/Registrar/%5B/url%5D">http://web.haas.berkeley.edu/Registrar/</a></p>
<p>Furthermore, many of the best Haas profs teach * only * MBA courses. Hence, if you're not an MBA student, you will never see these profs. </p>
<p>The same is true of the law classes at Boalt - few undergrads are able to obtain the necessary approvals to take actual Boalt law classes, and many (probably most) Boalt law professors teach * only * law classes. While law students do use Telebears, they effectively get exclusive access to Boalt classes via their specially designated Boalt ID numbers. I seem to recall one undergrad initially being able to sign up for Boalt classes through Telebears, but later found that he was dropped from all those courses when the system discovered that he wasn't a Boalt student. </p>
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The Graduate Assembly is a joke. Surely you recognize that.
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<p>I don't think it's any more of a joke than the equivalent organizations at other schools. Of course, one might argue that they are ALL jokes, but that's a different issue entirely. Furthermore, I would argue that the Graduate Assembly is no less ineffective than is ASUC. Seriously, look at all of the times that ASUC got snubbed by the administration. So maybe they're ALL equally ineffective. </p>
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We've had different experiences. I've personally witnessed a professor telling a grad student to see him after seminar because "OHs are for undergraduates."
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<p>Yeah, but I would hardly translate that into a general truism regarding the time allotted to graduate students. Like I said, graduate students almost by definition have to have more time with profs simply because they have to be constantly checking in with their advisors. Hence, the advisors have to be making time for these students.</p>