<p>@jdom24 what do you dislike about the living conditions at Berkeley?</p>
<p>if you want a job out of undergrad, don’t be stupid and go to cal.
if you want a good gpa for grad school, go to ucsb, cal kids are crazy competitive and a lot of the classes are graded on a curve.</p>
<p>@mmisphone you make excellent points and I appreciate the feedback. But I guess I’ll see you around campus.</p>
<p>^ luckily you won’t be seeing me around campus, I’ll be at UCLA by then :)</p>
<p>I don’t go to Cal, but I’ve lived in Berkeley for the past 2 years and have roomed with 7 Cal students over that period. They’re not an easy bunch to get along with. The cultural vibe I get from the students and campus is kinda off-putting. Drab and boring for the most part. Lots of people walking around with “Cal” or “Berkeley” hats and sweaters as if they need to constantly reassure others that they’re students – perhaps a lot of campuses are like this though, but I don’t get it.</p>
<p>Berkeley is a super *<strong><em>ty and dangerous town overrun with deranged homeless people. I vividly remember the one night where I opened my window to what sounded like a woman being strangled only to find two elderly homeless people having sex in the gap between our house and the next. The neighbors called the cops but the old lady thought it was me and cursed me out. She swung by our house periodically after that to *</em></strong> in our front yard, scatter our trash, and curse at the top of her lungs. The cops knew her by name but would never arrest her.</p>
<p>Bay Area weather sucks compared to any city in Southern California.</p>
<p>There are some decent restaurants. Berkeley is close to the much more culturally authentic and interesting Oakland, and not too far from the yupster, tourist wonderland that is San Francisco. These could be pluses or minuses depending on how you look at things. I personally prefer the beauty of Santa Barbara, so your decision makes sense to me.</p>
<p>^
the part about students wearing their school’s attire… You are probably mistaking school spirit with arrogance.</p>
<p>I didn’t think of it as arrogance.</p>
<p>At the last 4 year, highly branded university that I attended, this wasn’t anywhere near as prevalent. This school also happened to be way, way more “spirited” than Cal, being a perennial football power in the SEC. To me, the difference was that it was in a more traditional college town cut off from other cities and urban areas, so it was assumed that if you were a certain age and strolling around town or campus, then you were a student. In Berkeley, however, you’d be wrong half the time.</p>
<p>@blackbird I’m at vandyland</p>
<p>@stephen u r saying Cal for jobs after graduating. UCSB for grad school. Im glad I chose the latter.</p>
<p>@harrijustin do u still have a place to rent up there? Where do u recommend people look if they Need a place to live?</p>
<p>I posted this in another thread but will put it here too. I will also add that the 3 guys at Cal I knew who were vets were really scornful of the student body, which seemed full of a lot of really entitled kids to me. Of course, they were all older, so that made a difference in their opinions too. I think you made the right choice.
"I haven’t been on this forum in 2 years (and made a new username since my old one had my real name in it) but I just wanted to offer my experience. I transferred to Cal last year and was shocked to find out that I hated it. And this was after wanting to go there my whole life (my dad went there), having friends that went there, and having visited multiple times. The area was just horrible, I was harassed several times walking alone at dusk (even as a girl dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt). I started carrying pepper spray whenever I had to walk back from late classes. I was screamed at once by a homeless guy who hangs out in front of Asian Ghetto and gets in your face and roars at you. He’s a big guy and it’s quite intimidating. The area was very isolated and the buses were not reliable, and of course parking a car is prohibitively expensive. If I wanted to go a grocery store that was not Walgreens or Sam’s on Telegraph (where everything is priced doubly) I would have to bus past downtown Berkeley or below Shattuck, and then walk back up the hill carrying all my food.
My classes were good academically but all of my teachers were too busy with research/other stuff to really interact, and I had terrible luck with GSI’s my first semester. My friends had good GSIs so that’s just a matter of luck. It was also really annoying trying to meet with a counselor and they were generally not wonderfully helpful.
I tried to join Young Democrats but chose not to when I learned that I would have to participate in protest in favor of the affirmative action bill, which (as a minority!) I do not support.
The student body I just found to be not very cohesive or rational. It’s just like a bubble. You get 3 types = greek system people, people who study 24/7, and self-righteous white vegans in co-ops. It was like you had the smartest kid in every high school in the country there, but therefore nobody had any social skills and was used to being the funny one. I have never heard so many people talking about how brilliant they are.
I was really devastated at my experience but this semester has not been better. I had friends and went out quite a lot, but all my friends are those I know from high school or CC who went to Cal. It was the antithesis of everything I expected from my dream school. And it’s not like I came in with a bad attitude - I moved in ready to fall in love with the school and community and was met with a bunch of cliches.
I applied for UCLA (I got in last time too) to transfer last fall, just so I would have the option if I was still disliking Cal as much as I did at the time. Since I’m a double major and have at least a year and a half more, I’ve decided to switch there this fall. It’s cheaper, easier to get classes, just as prestigious, but with a better campus, area, and attitude that I’m familiar with (I used to tutor on campus).
I’m sure Cal is a great fit for many people - but for others it’s not. Just because it’s a good school doesn’t mean it’s where you have to go. College gives back what you put into it, and every school, including Cal, is going to have brilliant students and students who slack off constantly. Most importantly, if you don’t love where you are, you won’t have the motivation needed to earn good grades/get involved with extracurriculars, which are what’s really important for grad school/getting hired. "</p>
<p>@blah thanks for sharing your cal experience. Good luck to you at UCLA. I’m not a hardcore military dude and if I did go to Cal I wouldn’t take anything personally. I also dont take many things in life serious and think life should be enjoyed. UCSB is definitely the better fit for me because of it.</p>
<p>I’ve heard a lot of negative things from Berkeley graduates, which is what has deterred me. Also, weather and surrounding area matter.</p>
<p>On the flip side, I’ve heard wonderful things about UCLA from literally every person I know who has gone there, or currently goes there. I’ve heard mostly good things about UCSD, though a couple of my chem major friends told me that their lower divs were brutal.</p>
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<p>@mmsiphone</p>
<p>Shhhh… let him find out the hard way 
Now a spot has opened up at Berkeley.</p>
<p>You should have checked out Cal before you rejected their acceptance.</p>
<p>A lot of generalization going on in this thread about coincidental events. No biggie, good luck wherever you go. Sad to see a potential Golden Bear go.</p>
<p>I’m left just as unsure as when I started this thread. but I guess that’s life. I’ll never really know if I made the right decision. I like how you all are making me feel like its both a good decision and a bad decision. I appreciate my CC peeps!</p>
<p>Now, the question is: Why would you make that decision if you’re sure you’re going to regret?</p>
<p>Instead, you should make a decision you know you will not regret.</p>
<p>I hope you haven’t actually officially rejected UCB because you are still far to unsure to make a decision you are comfortable with for the rest of your life. Think about it some more.</p>
<p>It boils down to this:
UC Berkeley - very competitive. What this means: your classes will be harder, your GPA will most likely take a hit. BUT! This is something that hard work can remedy. You will however have graduated with a good name and prestige. Something that gives you an edge over everyone else who isn’t in the same league. You won’t have too much fun and might hate yourself a little, which turns into sheer happiness and pride after you graduate.</p>
<p>UC Santa Barbara - not competitive. What this means: you will have an easier time. But don’t get carried away, it’s still no walk in the park. This is University after all. You will probably have a higher GPA. Going to UCSB won’t give you that edge. You will probably have more fun and like yourself more. When you graduate, cool. You have a Bachelors now.</p>
<p>^ I chose UCSB because I knew it was a decision I wouldn’t regret. Yeah I know Berkeley has the Prestige and the academics that will all look great rolled into a degree. But I’m not your average transfer. I have 9 years experience in the military too. I already have enough to fill out a resume and to separate myself from the other people in the job market.</p>
<p>Well then it sounds like you have made up your mind. </p>
<p>Grab a beer and kick it with the bros on DP and take a load off for the next two years.</p>