Greetings all – I am a future MechE student, current HS senior, graduating 2017 May. I’ve been accepted to USC, UCLA, and UC Berkeley.
California Native - San Fran
3.97 GPA with AP Calc 1 and AP Physics
Mechanical Engineering
I’ve checked out all three campuses last December and selected UC Berkeley to pursue my engineering passion. However, after recent events at Berkeley with riots and suppression of speech, I’m reconsidering USC. Jeez libs – from a fellow lib. UCB has been getting such terrible press in the past few days and my family is now saying it would be “TOXIC” to go there. My uncle even says that all these graduates now have disgraced degrees–I think that’s a bit of a stretch but you get the point.
PROS UCB:
-close to home
-LOT cheaper (price is not a big issue for me really though)
PROS USC
-close to LA beaches which I love
-smaller class size
-doesn’t seem to mind free speech, seems to be more balanced in political thought, lol
My mom is a graduate of UCB and my father from UCLA. Both are supportive of my decision to switch to USC.
Question for UCB students and those that selected UCB over USC:
1.) What made you not select USC? (I know USC is located in a bad part of LA, but other than that…)
2.) What benefits did you find at UCB that are not available at USC?
My son hasn’t heard from UC Berkeley yet, but it was among his top three (he was already admitted to Stanford, and waiting on Berkeley and Carnegie Mellon for CS). These events are giving him pause (he is actually a conservative and loves to debate issues, so really nervous, especially after seeing video of the students who were attacked).
Carl, I don’t blame him at all. I lean left and this is making me rethink my decision as well! I haven’t officially accepted UCB. Please tell your son that not all libs are like the current UCB students. Although, my lib friends were too supportive of what happened at UCB a few days ago.
I’d be interested in what your son selects and if he has any input into my decision making process. Thanks for your quick reply and insight so far.
I’m glad your parents of supportive of USC. I would suggest a visit (your dad may have to hold his nose, as a former Bruin) to see if you think it’s a fit, and visit UCLA at the same time. UCB has a great engineering school; I would be interested in hearing from current students whether the engineering school/students are more removed from the political environment.
UC application didn’t open until November 1, so how can someone submit in August?
My S is a sophomore at Cal engineer school. He loves Berkeley and he’s leaning conservative. He told me he’s not too interested in politics so the riot didn’t affect him too much.
It would be unfair to blame Berkeley for what happened. The Berkeley administration supported the organizing students’ group’s choice to bring the controversial speaker to campus. Berkeley did not impinge on free speech. An anarchist group that may or may not have even included any Berkeley students showed up and was violent and the police said they could not guarantee the speaker’s safety. That is not the fault of the college.
Some students were prepared to protest the speaker’s hate speech peacefully. That is what should happen. The violence was deplorable, but not the fault of the college administration.
I agree with TheGreyKing, it’s not fair to blame the school admin. It’s also not fair to blame the student body. UCB has an enrollment of 38k or so. The LA Times said there were 1500 protesters that night, and many were peaceful. But, I agree it was bad news - it wasn’t a protest, it was a riot. I just don’t know if it’s a great reason to reject UCB if it was truly your top choice before that night. That will be your decision in May, but put the numbers in perspective. If all 1500 protesters were UCB students, ninety-six percent of the students weren’t involved.
Thanks all so far. Seems like there were some peaceful students but just reading some other forums and watching Youtube videos of what Berkeley is like politically is turning me off a lot. I sadly admit I did not look into this before (shame on me). Students don’t seem to be open to political thought and discount the rhetoric from those they do not agree with as hate speech too quickly. This riot was really a wake up call it seems to me. I’m sorry that it happened but it really is making me think.
My Dad (UCLA grad, so he’s gonna hate it) and I will be driving down this weekend to check out USC again. I’m going to call tomorrow and see if I can talk to some faculty. My sister who is graduating next year is now also considering USC instead of UCB so that is good for all of us. I hope we are at the same school, my parents would love it.
UGH, college section is stressful. Im glad these forums exist.
Unfortunately, the police seemed to be unable to catch any of the masked group whose intent was to cause trouble. It appeared to be a well-planned attack (apparently, they attacked both the police and the peaceful protesters, and used the latter as “human shields” when attacking the police) that the police were not prepared for (in fairness, the police were in a defensive role, and defense is more difficult than offense since defense must be 100% perfect while offense just has to find one weakness in the defense).
Protests happen at all universities. There’s nothing toxic or disgraced about the university and most of the disruption in last week’s event was caused by outside agitators that came from all over the Bay Area, not Cal students.
Cal is an incredible school. For the opinions of those who actually matter for a career (i.e. recruiters, employers, and hiring managers), it is a top school and a target school. It is a brand known around the world. One event isn’t going to change that and Cal has always been known to be at the forefront of social justice, rights, politics, etc. So if you think this is anything new, then I suppose that’s kind of funny and you might want to take a few minute and learn more about Cal’s history.
You can be as involved or removed from politics as you’d like. It will have little to no impact on your educational endeavors while at Cal and its reputation isn’t and won’t be changing. If anything were to change it, it would have more to do with the financial situation of the school as education budgets have been cut by the state.
I find it alarming that the Berkeley College Republicans would invite this speaker to their campus. I read the transcript of his speech at UC Irvine and found it vulgar, offensive and lacking in substance not to mention solutions.
I am a republican and I can’t believe smart students who want to promote a conservative agenda would choose this method to do so. It shows such a lack of compassion for their fellow students. I would love to hear what value the BCR feels this speaker would bring to campus. In my mind this is not about free speech or the speaker, it’s about the type of kids that would extend this invitation. Not the kind of students I want on my childs campus.
^^That’s a mystery to me, too. But at Cal, Cal Poly, UCD, UCI, University of Washington, CU Boulder, to name a few, it’s the College Republicans inviting him.
“Students don’t seem to be open to political thought and discount the rhetoric from those they do not agree with as hate speech too quickly.”
In this instance, it is difficult to classify this particular speaker as anything other than hate speech. He has bullied and ridiculed audience members at many of his talks. Read some of his articles and see if there if you find anything substantial there.
But that is neither here nor there. This speaker has been on a tour of campuses across the country. There have been peaceful protests in many instances. This protest was marred by violence, but it has not been proven that any students were involved. Should the university be held accountable because the crowd was infiltrated by a group of highly organized masked agitators?
However, if your main qualm is that you prefer a less politicized campus, then perhaps Cal is not the best fit for you.
LA Times article this morning says indications are the ninja-like group of ~100 rioters were something called the “black bloc” based in the Bay Area and primarily in Oakland. Of course, none of them were arrested, so not certain. Twitter photos of the student protest that started earlier were much more peaceful, including a large dove on poles.
Republican groups in CA tend to be pretty strongly right-leaning, since there are so few actual Repubs in CA. Center-right folks have largely gone “decline to state”. In other states with more centrist Republican groups, this speaker has rented rooms through individuals. For example, at Texas A&M Richard Spencer (similar views) was “sponsored” not by a student group, but by an alum still living in town.
Indications are that this speaker wanted something like the event that occurred to happen at some campus, considering how quickly alt-right news and certain Twitter users jumped on putting the news out. Cal was the place that obliged with their desires after mostly peaceful, but obstructionist, protests elsewhere.
I’m also curious about how OP is “admitted” to Cal, since I haven’t seen reports of Regents going out. Regents is out for UCLA, which is closer to an acceptance than the Alumni scholarship email. OP should be aware that some students who get the Alumni scholarship email turn out to not be admitted to UCLA (particularly in engineering, anecdotally).
Agree that Cal may not be the best fit for this OP.
