First off, pearl-clutching is not a gendered term in my world. It refers to sheltered yuppies being irrationally afraid of poor people. Anyone can be guilty, as evidenced by this thread and countless others on CC.
I’ll extend a courtesy to you, one that was not given to me, by not assuming anything about your life or gender. I’ll just say that you don’t need to explain to me that women and non-men are disproportionately affected by violence. The thing is, it’s dangerous to be a woman anywhere men are, not just urban areas. I’m more wary of frat boys than I am of crackheads in general. Only one of those demographics is emboldened by the fact that they’re statistically very likely to get away with their crimes against women.
Crime statistics are complex, and often misleading. Is the fact that urban areas are much more likely to be over-policed accounted for? What about the fact that crimes committed against upper and upper middle class college students much more likely to be prosecuted, especially if committed by a POC. If one could account for all of these factors, I would not be surprised if it was statistically just as dangerous to be a woman at UCSB as it is at UCB. A lot of the fear-mongering starts to fall apart under even moderately critical analysis.
I’ve lived in Oakland and worked in Berkeley for the last 5 years. CC first place I’ve ever seen Berkeley referred to as dangerous. To me, that says something, and it isn’t exactly complimentary.
Berkeley has plenty of mansions past frat row and to the north and east sides.
Westwood definitely is nicer if you compare it to Berkeley south side, but keep in mind Westwood does have quite a bit of auto theft and burglaries also. You think of swanky Palo Alto for example as being a super nice place but tons on auto break-ins and burglaries there too. Just be cognizant of your surroundings no matter where you are at.
Safety always starts by not over-looking facts, but rather taking them into consideration as you move about. That doesn’t mean Cal is not a great campus. But be alert as @ProfessorPlum168 said.
Despite have very little interest in attending Berkeley I have been checking the portal twice a day. Just incase they go through with the whole "before " April 19th thing even though they most likely wont lol. I just want to know I have 2 midterms and 2 papers due this week and admissions is all I can think about T__T.
I don’t know why but I am weirdly calm even though the decision date is so close and I’ve been anticipating BERKELEY ever since I started writing the application??? Me being calm is freaking me out more than the actual decision, haha. Good luck everyone, only a few more days!
@hodol2006 I don’t know what’s going to happen. I did send them my Calc 2 grade which is an A on april 3rd and they responded on the 4th so I don’t know if they’ll consider it or not. It is my last major pre-req so hopefully they’ll admit me.
On the other hand, I am taking 29 units this semester so who knows what will happen. I did take 30 units last semester so it’s kinda on a fence over thinking what they’re going to do with my situation.
@BBoy99 Pain is temporary, it may last for a minute, an hour, a day, or even a year, but eventually, it will subside, and something else will take its place. (one of my favorite quotes!)
Really bro I just managed my schedule more effectively and was in the library most of the time, to be honest. Most of my classes were taken traditionally in class so I was taking like 4 classes back to back on Mondays/Wednesdays and 4 classes back to back on Tuesdays/Thursdays. So I was pretty much stuck at school the whole day.
Also had to manage my financial activity in my business on Fridays and the weekends, plus had to spend like 4 hours on Fridays on my aunt’s daycare center too. Yeah, fall 2018 was not fun, but when it ended in December, I was really happy that I was able to do this.
@GoodAfternoonSir Random but I honestly admire your work ethic really. I honestly need to be more efficient at managing my classes. I know I probably wouldn’t be able to handle 30 units haha but even two or three heavy credit classes I feel like I have trouble with (mostly STEM classes in my case)
Stem classes are hard man, my cousin is actually attending Berkeley right now as a computer science major and right now his GPA is about a 3.32. He didn’t transfer, he got in out of high school but this guy is literally one of the best students I’ve ever seen. He had like 30 academic awards and played soccer and all kinds of neat activities. He’s currently regretting attending Berkeley at the moment due to the sheer workload.
Not saying that if you get in you’d face the same difficulties, I’m saying that his experiences inspired me (or rather instilled fear) into me, prompting me to work harder during community college and take an exponential amount of units. This way I’ll feel like I’m preparing myself for the situation I’ll be in over there. In other words, I’d like to think of it as building “mental and physical stamina”, so I can handle the long hours.
Speaking on the safety I will say neither I nor any of my friends have felt like we’ve been in danger, but at the same time, there was a mutual friend who got robbed at People’s Park area. I’m a commuter student who tends to do school work at the libraries pretty late so I’ve walked to downtown and traveled home with public transport late many times and haven’t gotten into any trouble (though I don’t want to push my luck either so I’m starting to go home earlier some days). Lastly, almost every week to every other week I get a UCPD notification of how something happened to a student or a person who was near the campus (sometimes these notifications come 3 times in a week). Most of these crimes tend to be strong-arm robberies (no guns involved) so the robber just takes what they need from you and you walk away physically unharmed at least (though sometimes people get punched). There have been few cases of sexual assault and armed robbery but it’s not prevalent from what I’m notified of at least. Overall, there is a lot of crime that happens, but percentage wise it’s not that big and these notifications and stories of what happened to other people can give a skewed perspective. Overall I say don’t let the crime stop you from attending the school as it’s really not that bad. Just be careful and keep in mind most of these crimes happen to people at night and they happen when the victim is alone so walk with groups of people when possible. Honestly, you should be fine, but you’re probably attending the school for about 9 months each year for 4 years (give or take) so it’s likely that in that time you’ll hear of a friend or mutual friend who may have gotten robbed. Never be afraid to use the services you have or ask a friend to walk with you if you feel unsafe and carry pepper spray if needed especially if you have to walk far. Wish you all good luck on getting in and GO BEARS haha.
Also for anyone concerned about the competitiveness of Berkeley, I will say academically it’s tough, definitely don’t get that wrong. I took 20 academic units in my last semester of community college while also competing in track and field and doing 13 units at Cal was a lot semester and sort of still is this semester (the comp sci classes I’m taking are pretty tough and time-consuming). You will eventually adjust and do better but that first semester can be tough (though transfers tend to handle it more maturely than freshmen). However, I want to dispel these social rumors of competitiveness. Before SIR’ing to Cal, I was worried about stories of sabotage that my friends would tell me they heard about, but when I stepped foot on this campus day 1 of orientation, I could already see that’s far from true. There’s not much mercy academically (for those going for that A or B at least) and these students will wreck you on the curve if they need, but almost everyone here is ready to help you understand the material and support you to do well. In CS especially there’s tons of TAs, Lab Assistants, and Academic Interns who are there to help you learn (the latter two work for free just because they want to help). The class sizes are huge but with all that course staff support you tend to have a great student to course staff ratio. The support I’ve received is so great that I am no currently lab assisting for two of the classes I took because I want to provide the same help that was provided to me. Yes, there are some pretentious students and there might be somebody in this population of 40,000 students that may sabotage others cause they’re that worried about their GPA and they’ll cross ethical boundaries to get it. But overall most people are supportive. Cal doesn’t tend to hold your hand though so you will be the one responsible to seek that help. You will likely receive that help when you do ask.
Sorry for 3 long posts in a row, but these are just things I wish I knew when making my decisions (plus there are two projects I got due tomorrow lol and I’d rather use my break to offer some advice). This school can push you very hard academically because they want you to be the best you can in your field. When you take a class, this school wants you to walk away being an expert in that class no matter how introductory it might be. If you really want to learn and push yourself I highly recommend coming here. The important thing to keep in mind is if you ever score average or below average on an exam, keep in mind your competing with some of the brightest minds in the nation. It will be hard to see this when you are here and you may get hit hard with that imposter syndrome when you’re here feeling like you know nothing compared to some of the top students especially. Trust me this is something most students deal with here. Lots of my friends are doing way better than me and they’re always complaining about how they’re “dumb” and I have to keep reminding them of how great they really are doing. Even I myself in classes where I am not scoring that well acknowledge this and it’s important to do so cause it’s what helps you get through to not lose motivation. However, once you leave this Berkeley bubble you will truly realize how smart you are not only compared to the average person but average college students. You are competing at a very high level against some of the smartest students in the nation and it’s hard to see that when you’re only surrounded by them. Most people come from perspectives of being the top student in their high school and community college so I get that it can suck now being what feels like “just being average at your school” now. Just try to keep in mind that you were selected here for a reason; Berkeley believed in your abilities to succeed. Also as much as this environment pushes you to do well, this school cares a lot about your mental health. You will see in some classes professors will say on the syllabus “if this class if affecting your life in any way, please come talk to us.” Everyone knows how stressful this place can be and we’re all here to help each other get through this. If anyone has any more questions, feel free to dm me and thanks for reading all of this haha.
@AndrewH90@stressexpress@nickidreaming@anne123456789 I legit have heard stories out of the movies. This dude I know transferred last year from my CC and says that he’s used to forming study groups but that people don’t wanna join him at all at Cal. He even says that one person led him to believe wrong info about the material because they don’t wanna share their work or work in groups (just so he could fail). Not sure if he just believes that of if it was a misunderstanding but everyone there is only looking out for themselves it seems.
Again, I trust this person, but it could be something he perceived to be more malicious than it is. He is a very chill person though! The more I hear the more I’m scared because although I have managed to keep at UC 4.0 during 3 years at my CC with two jobs I don’t believe I have the greatest self-discipline or work ethic and I might not be the most successful there. But there’s prestige and the dreams of going to Cal, so I am really torn rn!
this might be an unpopular opinion but all schools that we get into will be very good, especially if you happen to be in the CCC system. “prestige” that differs just by a few scrolls down an arbitrary ranking is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things because it is obvious that we all work hard and strive to do well. we will all be successful because of OURSELVES, not the school.
of course this isn’t to say we shouldn’t hope of getting into or attending Berkeley. im just saying that even if we don’t get in or get in and choose not to go, it won’t make our break anything because at the end of the day the school does not determine success, we do. Idk if that makes sense but i hope everyone gets what i mean. instead of wishing for berkeley maybe we should just be wishing for a place we will be content and enjoy our time learning in!
@capacapa It is possible that the person you knew may have gone through all of that, but I feel part of it might be exaggerated. I know sometimes it’s very easy to get the wrong impression of people here especially when we’re not vocal enough to assert ourselves and clear up misunderstandings. I myself have been paranoid when I’ve helped people out on assignments and then they go silent when I ask for help, but it turns out they really were busy and they help me out later. At times it seems like people don’t want to study together, but sometimes we fail to follow up when someone’s busy that one time you wanted to study. It also happens that sometimes we’re so frustrated with the academics and the things going on in our life that we project that frustration toward other people especially when they say something that again might give us the wrong impression. We are all of us course trying to succeed and look out for ourselves to go and be the best, but to say “everyone” is “only” looking out for themselves is simply inaccurate. A lot of people here tend to be shy and don’t know how to show they’re interested in studying, or some people are introverted or may just want to study alone ( I sometimes get talkative studying with other people and sometimes it helps when I’m stuck on a concept). If he did indeed perceive something to be “more malicious than it is” than that makes a huge difference honestly. That’s why at Cal our number 1 motto is to never assume and you’ll understand it better if you get accepted and choose to come here. Also keeping that 4.0 will be very tough, there’s no way around it but depending on what you want to do that GPA may not matter that much. The experiences you gain from the internships you try to get is way more useful than a number used to measure how great you are in studying. If you’re truly passionate about what you want to do and if Cal really is your dream, don’t let the rigor stop you. Your passion will allow you to succeed. If you’re going to grad school AND you’re only choosing that major for financial reasons, then it may be a different story
@transferrrrrrcc I agree, at the end of the day you define your own success. If you’re able to get into Berkeley, decide if you want to take it and if it’s right for you. If you don’t get in, you’ll still be fine wherever you go. I like to think of this whole thing as getting from point A to point B. You might take the quickest way, you might take the shortest way, you might drive or walk, you might make the wrong turn, etc. but what’s important is that you get there. Even if you go down the wrong path in life you can still come back and be successful it’s like when you miss turning left at the signal, you’d rather not miss it but you can still make a U-turn. In this case, the school you go to isn’t even a wrong path it’s more like those alternate routes that literally take the same amount of time to get somewhere. When you choose a prestigious school, you’re choosing a route that you’re used to going while going to other schools still makes no difference in how you become successful, it’s just not a route you may be familiar if you’ve always been pushing yourself to go to the top schools. There’s definitely pros and cons that can almost balance each other out where prestige allows you to not seek those opportunities out for yourself to make you better, but at the same time at least you have the luxury of not having to seek your own opportunities. I think Cal offers a good balance on that where you’re not handheld like Stanford, but you still have a great rep that you utilize by still working hard. So overall I say if you get into Cal great hope to see you here. If you don’t, it’s fine because the UC system is wonderful.