If it should come to pass in the future that the city and university decide to remove the name Berkeley, I’m casting a vote for the flagship campus of the UC system to go back to calling itself the University of California.
I vote to rename Berkeley South Albany 
Ohhhh, come on now! If a rebranding is to one day take place, we need to think big – like, real big:
The city of Berkeley could be renamed “Golden Sunset” or perhaps “Bearville” or maybe even “Dreamland.”
I could live with University of California, Golden Sunset. Give those party animals down at UC Santa Barbara a run for their money for the title of most “California-esque-sounding” place name!
1 Like
Dreamland is nice…reminds me of John Waters
Or maybe Wavy Gravy Unicorn Rainbowville?
Villa del Ben Affleck?
Patty Hearst Township?
Stanford East Bay?
Ok that should get your Cal card revoked.
How about UC Top Dog, since we are the top dog, aren’t we?
Nice one. Or maybe Peet’s could go in on a corporate sponsorship?
You inspired me to visit the Top Dog website to see if it is actually a native Berkeley business and the first line on the home page is: “top dog grew out of a boy’s love of sausage,”
I didn’t get any further than that lol
1 Like
That idea puts me in mind of the real estate agent 20 years ago who told my husband and me that the little cottage we were considering buying basically near the intersection of Ashby and Shattuck was in “Baja Elmwood.” 
“Baja Albany” has a nice ring to it. 
I’ve been looking at the On-campus Meal Plans for next year and can’t understand why anyone would purchase the Gold plan instead of just ordering the Blue plan and adding flex dollars?
The Blue plan includes 12 meal swipes per week plus 600 flex dollars (per year). If you “upgrade” to the Gold plan by paying $350 more, you get 2 less meal swipes per week (10 per week), but 400 more flex dollars (total of 1000 flex dollars per year). But if you just stuck with the Blue plan and spent that same $350 to add flex dollars to the Blue plan, you would be able to keep the 12 meal swipes per week (instead of reducing to 10 per week) and you would have 985 flex dollars (only 15 less than you get with the “upgrade” to Gold).
So comparing apples to apples, for the same price (Blue plan base price + $350), you get…
Blue Plan + $350 -- 12 meal swipes per week, 985 flex dollars per year
Gold Plan -- 10 meal swipes per week, 1000 flex dollars per year
If you use 12 meal swipes just one week in the entire year, you would come out ahead with the Blue Plan + the same $350 it would cost to upgrade to the Gold Plan.
Am I missing something here? Is it just very rare for students to use more than 10 meal swipes in a week?
2 Likes
Just reminder for those who have not taken any AP English tests (or maybe SAT scores also count for this, if you’ve taken that?)…BUT if you do not have any English standardized test scores and would like to pass the college writing requirement at UC Berkeley, you must sign up for the writing assessment by May 3rd. The assessment will then be administered May 13th.
If you don’t meet the college writing requirement through testing, you can take the accelerated college writing/R&C class in the fall: but be forewarned that this is a 6 credit class that will take up a lot of your schedule (although there are worse skills to focus on than writing!).
If you satisfy the college writing requirement, you take the regular R&C two semester sequence - unless you AP out of them (4 or 5 on AP Lang/Lit).
So just a heads up that this is something that you might need to do some advanced planning on if, for example, you want to take UCB’s writing assessment - deadline is approaching!
3 Likes
how does SAT scores count toward English requirement? what score is needed?
I believe a 680+ in verbal will waive the writing assessment.
So it looks like you can AP out of the Writing Requirement (or use ACT/SAT) but it doesn’t say that you can AP out of the R&C requirement.
I think you can waive out of R&C A if you had a 4 or 5 in AP English Lit or AP Lang.
My understanding is that a score of 3 on an AP Eng test will satisfy the college writing requirement; a score of 4 or 5 on AP Lang will satisfy R&C 1A and a 4 or 5 on AP Lit will satisfy R&C 1B. But definitely double check that with your advisor! A score of 4 or 5 should however waive you out of at least one semester of R&C.
If you are in College of Engineering, you can’t waive out of R&C 1B even if you get a 5 on AP Lang & Literature. This will be waived if you are in L&S/non-CoE.
I am advising my son to get this done at our local DVC this summer (it’s an Online course) so he can focus on the main subjects at Cal.
1 Like
Do you know what the corresponding course is at DVC for both R & C 1A and 1B?
I had it a bit wrong. Please note that is specifically for L&S and may not be the same for other colleges:
i think you have to get a 5 on AP lit in order to get out of 1B. for L & S at least
