<p>I am considering taking courses at Cal this summer as a rising junior. For any of you who have attended Cal's summer sessions or know anything about it, how did you like it? What was the overall environment like? What kind of activities do precollege students usually do while at Cal? Thanks!</p>
<p>Ah I can answer this one! I highly recommend taking classes over the summer. A lot of people become very good friends with the ones they meet in the summer. Mostly because you have more free time and you get to chill with more people. I also recommend staying in the dorms. The RA’s in the dorms (resident assistants) hold a ton of activities compared to the fall, so you meet people during that time and in the dorms. There are a lot of international students, but there are also Berkeley students (mostly freshman). Int. students are usually 20+, so you know what that means. If you’re into that. Many people form groups and drink on their own (not at a frat), or they will go to Blake’s, the local club for 18+. If you are not into the drinking/smoking game, then San Francisco is just 20 mins away by bart.</p>
<p>I took precollege courses at Harvard Junior year, before taking Summer classes at Cal (before my freshman year at Cal). </p>
<p>I must say it was pretty awesome at Cal’s summer session and a little less structured than Harvard’s. You take classes like you would during college and you still have plenty of time to hang out with the many friends you’ll make.</p>
<p>They schedule activities but they’re all optional. There are a lot of trips to good food places, as well as trips to SF, etc…</p>
<p>I definitely liked getting units over the summer while taking interesting courses, but it was more even more worth it due to the number of quality friends I made.</p>
<p>Yes. I’m with you on that. The QUALITY of friends are MUCH better in the summer. lol I don’t know why but it is just that way.</p>
<p>I definitely agree about the friends. This summer I made at least 20 quality friends from my floor, and we still hang out all the time. During the semester my suite-mates are cool, but we don’t hang out at all.</p>
<p>It’s WEIRD isn’t it?</p>
<p>If you have the money, I highly recommend Cornell’s Summer College.</p>
<p>What I recommend is applying to several summer programs, and then pick the one you want to go to based on the courses they offer. I applied to several summer programs, but I chose the one that by far had the most interesting course for me. (Comp Sci course).</p>
<p>So, look for courses that interest you and that has units that will transfer to whatever college you go to. These past two summers I had a blast for very different reasons, but if I were taking courses I wasn’t interested in I would’ve been fairly miserable.</p>
<p>What I would do is look at the courses of several different programs, rank the courses you’re interested in and go from there. Most of the time you’ll take 2 courses, so make sure the program you’re interested has at least 2 interesting courses. I happened to take an 8 unit course (basically 2 courses in 1 that met every day for 3.5 hours), and that also worked out fine.</p>
<p>I definitely made more friends at Cal, but I’m not sure if it’s just a group of people getting ready to have the best times of their lives (esp. during the summer which is easier) forming stronger bonds, but it definitely is a different experience than during the normal year.</p>
<p>Whatever you choose, make sure you’re going to a school you’re interested in going to (doesn’t have to be your top choice, just one that is similar to the type of college you want to go to. I probably would recommend going somewhere different than the one you think you are going to go to), make sure you’re taking interesting classes with units that’ll transfer, and try and find a place that will be fairly social.</p>
<p>If he/she is going to Berkeley, it’s better to go to Berkeley. Oh nevermiiind. I thought the OP meant he/she was a transfer junior or something. In that case, go to any college. I don’t think Berkeley was very good for having high school kids over the summer. I knew two girls who were in high school and they were taking the session at Berkeley. One was really obnoxious and loud but she had confidence so the new freshman would let her hang out with them because she got herself into the group. And a person like that always gets in a group, whether they’re liked or not cause chances are a few people might like this person. </p>
<p>The other girl that was here was really pretty but had little confidence and so the freshman here thought she was cool in the beginning but didn’t hang out with her much in the end.</p>
<p>You have to be pretty mature if you want in and even then, it’s kind of hard. I recommend looking into programs JUST where other high school kids are staying. The summer sessions for high schoolers here mix you in with the older ones and then there’s an awkward age separation.</p>
<p>Yeah, entering freshman will really group up because they’re so many more of them, and they’ll be there the next 4 years. We had 1 HS student in our group, but she was pretty cool.</p>
<p>If you go to another school, where it is more of a program than taking courses over the summer, there will be a lot more HS students. My junior summer, we had several entire dorms of rising seniors and rising juniors there. My class actually had 7 HS students, 14 undergrads, 2-3 MIT undergrads, and 3-4 grad students in it, but the social groups were mostly HS students.</p>
<p>If you’re not overly social it’ll be harder to find a good group at Cal, because you’ll be in separate dorms from entering freshman and the HS students (at least last summer) were fairly anti-social and studious.</p>
<p>Thanks for all your responses! I was also considering applying to Stanford’s HSSC program, but it’s way too expensive for me. Cal’s is affordable and offers the courses I’m interested in, so that’s what made me want to apply. I’m considering taking the Intro to Cognitive Science course, since I want to major in that area when I go to college. I heard Berkeley has a pretty good cogsci program too. In terms of the social issue, I really hope I won’t have a problem. I’m pretty social and don’t usually have a problem befriending people older than me so hopefully I won’t end up being some antisocial loser who never leaves their room to hang out with friends or whatever.</p>
<p>With that information, I think Cal would be an excellent place to spend a summer for you. It doesn’t sound like you would have any trouble making friends either.</p>
<p>Good idea, but remember that your grades over summer will stick with you if you end up coming here for college.</p>
<p>That’s a good point. But as long as you try and don’t take insanely difficult classes, it can start you out with a good gpa. </p>
<p>You can also think about the reverse of this, if you get an A somewhere else, the units will transfer but the gpa won’t. I wish I had the 8 units worth of A I got the last summer as it would be helping my gpa right now.</p>
<p>I’m definitely thinking of applying to Berkeley, since I’ve got pretty good grades so far and I live in California (woohoo in-state tuition!) Do any of you know how difficult the Intro to CogSci class is at Berkeley based on a scale of 1-10? I’m thinking of taking that course this summer.</p>
<p>Course Rank. Google it. It will tell all.</p>