<p>I have a few questions about living at Berkeley. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>How is public transit? Do I need a car? I know there are buses, but I have always been cautious of them since I do not understand how a bus could ever be better than subways.</p></li>
<li><p>How far is SF? Do people go there? I live in a Baltimore suburb, about 20 min away, but I NEVER go there. Do people at Cal go to SF often? </p></li>
<li><p>How late does the BART run? How late does the buses run?</p></li>
<li><p>How far is the nature reserve that Berkeley owns? Is it nice?</p></li>
<li><p>Do dorm rooms suck?</p></li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li><p>Fabulous (I’m from LA, need I say more?). No you don’t need a car and it would be expensive to house it if you had one. Don’t understand your comment about not wanting to use a bus because subways are “better”.</p></li>
<li><p>SF is 20 minutes by BART. Students, on average, go to SF twice a year. Some go more, others not at all.</p></li>
<li><p>& 4. – see response above</p></li>
<li><p>Depends on YOU.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>1) As a freshman, you won’t need a car and I don’t think there’s parking space available at the dorms anyway (might be wrong, I don’t know anyone at the dorms who has a car). Buses are fairly regular especially those that go from the downtown Berkeley BART (subway) station to the dorms/around campus. The downtown Berkeley BART station is also within walking distance of campus. (Take a look at google maps to get a feel of the area)</p>
<p>2) SF is about 20-30mins away by BART and about 40-50mins if you take the F bus. Bus is free since we our tuition includes costs for an AC transit pass every semester; BART isn’t free. Most freshmen go down to SF a couple of times a semester especially on weekends. If you’ve never been to SF before you won’t have trouble finding people to go with you; dorms also organize tours near the start of the semester I believe. Times given here are very general estimates, I haven’t been to SF in a while and I have a terrible memory.</p>
<p>3) I think ucbalumnus has a great answer for you. If you hang out around the Berkeley area there’s no real need to take a bus since lots of places are within walking distance from the dorms. </p>
<p>4) The UC Botanical Gardens at Berkeley are pretty close (again look at googlemaps to get a good gauge of distance). It’s a nice place to go if you’re into that kind of thing.</p>
<p>5) Dorms are hugely overpriced and the triples in the units are very small. You won’t have trouble making friends since people are usually very social. There’ve been lots of threads about housing over the last couple of days, do a search to find out more.</p>
<p>Buses run quite often and have great coverage, but the overall speed and reliability is quite bad. BART will get you to a select few locations really fast. BART runs until approximately midnight, and the same applies to most buses. However, there is an hourly all-nighter bus that runs when BART shuts down for the night. The all-nighter runs every 30min during Friday and Saturday.</p>
<p>Yeah, walking is definitely sufficient for getting around; most places you’d ever want to visit are within a 30min walk. In case walking’s not sufficient, I recommend a bike. The costs of parking the car, gas, and insurance just ain’t worth it.</p>
<p>Botanical gardens is reached by the hill line, which is a bus that runs every 30min from campus. It’s a 5min ride or 15min walk (up a very steep hill). Just like the AC Transit, this bus is “free” for Berkeley students (/w the bus pass, which you must obtain from the Cal 1 Card office).</p>
<p>Dorms: there are mixed opinions, but one thing that everyone agrees on is that it’s extremely expensive. Almost everyone moves out after their first year.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Public transit is fantastic, you don’t need a car. You shouldn’t be cautious of buses. AC Transit buses are great, they can take you basically anywhere in and around Alameda County, and they are free for all students.</p></li>
<li><p>SF is not far at all. About 20 minutes with BART, maybe 45 minutes with the F bus. I go very often. My roommate has a job in SF so we like to go there for dinner on weekends a lot. Most students probably don’t go as often as me, but it’s definitely there if you’re interested. I think as a whole, though, I would say that Cal students do go to SF fairly often. It’s very accessible.</p></li>
<li><p>BART runs until about 12:30AM every night. There are buses all night, although late at night your options become more limited and buses come far less frequently.</p></li>
<li><p>Pretty close?</p></li>
<li><p>Depends! But for the most part, they’re not exactly luxurious.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>The trail entrance is about a mile from the main campus (southeast). Basically it is at the southeast corner of the Clark Kerr Campus dorms (see a campus map). Of the other dorms, Unit 2 and Unit 1 would be the next closer ones, while Unit 3, Bowles/Stern, and Foothill would be further away.</p>