<p>Just curious.</p>
<p>Can we merge these “downside” or “top-10 reasons why you hate the school you pay 25k to attend?”</p>
<p>Unfortunately on this forum, the downsides are mentioned much more than the upsides. If you’ve been readings threads on here you probably know of everything that could be twisted into a “downside” already.</p>
<p>I agree with flutterfly. There is no downside that I have not seen mentioned here.</p>
<p>Why don’t u just post on the thread that’s called “top 10 reasons to hate cal”, instead of creating threads that most people don’t/won’t find useful.</p>
<p>^ berry, how many threads have you created that could just as easily been put in the Cal Bar thread? Please learn to use it.</p>
<p>First coming into Berkeley, I was like, holy crap why are classes so hard. Or rather, it was just chem 4A that was slaughtering me, which in turn affected my performance in other classes since I was stressing and losing sleep over chem labs so often. On the other hand, this collective suffering in chem lab helped me form bonds with my lab mates. =) I’ll miss them next semester…</p>
<p>Now that a semester is almost done…I don’t know. I’ve gotten used to the workload a bit so I’m slightly happier. Then again, my academic standards have plummeted. 3.0 in technical classes ftw…that sounds so sad. In my experience, I’m not too bothered by the ghetto environment or lack of friends. It’s the GPA. It’s especially frustrating when I know my stuff yet make stupid errors on midterms that count for so much…</p>
<p>But in the end, I suppose I am content. I still think about the other options I turned down last March/April, though…even back then, it was a struggle to finally submit that SIR. To be completely honest, I probably would have been happier going elsewhere.
Oh well~ I made my choice. I don’t hate it enough to seriously consider transferring, so I’ll have to live with it. Just hope that I can make my experience better.</p>
<p>cal is okay, it’s not the greatest place to be but it’s not the biggest s h i thole either (although one could argue that it is more of a s h i thole than most UC’s).</p>
<p>A few disconnected thoughts on my experience so far:</p>
<p>I haven’t met everyone but from the ones that I’ve interacted with, they are less friendly than your average Joe. Some didn’t develop social skills in high school, others just don’t care about being amiable…there could be may reasons.</p>
<p>The students aren’t as intelligent as I expected and had hoped for. I heard stories of being surrounded by geniuses and having classes filled with the most intelligent people in America. I would say this is more true for the graduate students (my GSI’s are brilliant and Cal ranks in the top 10 in most if its graduate programs).</p>
<p>The location blows. Hobos, hippies, crazies, druggies, ect…intimidate most new students and ruin their initial experience by making it less comfortable. When a UCLA student goes out for a nice dinner at a popular eating place, they don’t see hobos everywhere screaming at them, streets that aren’t well lit, and lots of SES people. They go to westwood, high SES, clean, comfortable, and relatively safe.</p>
<p>Everyone is a political genius in Berkeley and they believe that everyone who disagrees with them are morons. I’m a liberal and I consider myself a part of the left but the uber-liberal’s there are just…crazy. They protest when army recruiting centers open, when republicans come to town, when someone in power says something that they take offense to. The busybodies in the city dilute issues and act like idiots to a point where no one really gives a flying f u c k about what they’re protesting about. So when a real issue needs attention, no one cares.</p>
<p>In my opinion, there are just as many good things to say about Cal as there are bad (and I’ve only listed what I consider the bad). But if you’re looking for a “college experience”, go to any other UC. If you’re only looking for prestige, UC Berkeley is obviously choice. If you want the “college experience” and prestige, UCLA or privates are the best place to look.</p>
<p>Overall, the city of Berkeley ruins what could be a mediocre college experience at the #1 public school in the nation.</p>
<p>What’s cal bar?</p>
<p>Found it. The reason I don’t use any of those threads that have a long list of pages is because I don’t get the emails sent to my real email, so it’s easier to check on each thread of my own. And some of them wouldn’t even work for cal bar anyways.</p>
<p>I used to live in Westwood the past two years before I came to Berkeley (I didn’t transfer from UCLA but lived right next to it with other UCLA students)
I gotta say that I am absolutely not happy here. With “not happy” being an understatement I seriously considered getting counseling at some point but then I didn’t have time because I had too many things on my TODO list…</p>
<p>Well, the school is great. I like my classes and I think there are tons of opportunities here (I am an EECS major, not sure about others). Yes, curves and grading may be harsh, but that doesn’t bother me too much. Academically I am pretty happy, it’s just as I expected it to be. The campus is beautiful as well.</p>
<p>However, I hate the city. Whoever said that Berkeley and Westwood seem to be “similar”, nope, 100% different. After living in Westwood, to me Berkeley is just a ghetto full of homeless and pot-smoking hippies (nothing against you, but that’s not the crowd i want to hang out with, if you do, come here). There are almost NO good food places here. Yes, it’s cheap and everything but the quality is as well. Food in LA seems “real”, Berkeley fake. If you like healthy food, Asian food or international food, have fun finding something “real” here. If you can live on Hot Dogs, pizza and Donuts then Berkeley food is not too bad though.</p>
<p>Yes, SF is nice. The only problem is that I don’t have time to go there! In this semester I’ve been to SF maybe 5-6 times. I really don’t wanna spend 2-3h every day just for getting good food in SF because I need that time to study. SF may be prettier but it doesn’t come close to what LA has to offer in terms of entertainment, food and diversity. I’d probably be happier if I lived in SF, but the commute is not worth it.</p>
<p>I also have problems finding people to hang out with here. I never had any problems finding friends in LA, but people here are totally different.
That might also have to do with the fact that I am transfer student + international. And since my major requires a lot of studying I didn’t have time to go to clubs anymore after a little into the semester. I hope that situation is gonna change soon, at least I can do something about it. Anyway, I feel that it’s gonna be extremely hard to find people I can be close to here.</p>
<p>There’s nothing I can do about the “city” of Berkeley, unfortunately
I can’t wait to go back to LA <3</p>
<p>Are you sure you’re a transfer student and in EECS, anonym0username?</p>
<p>You said in another post that you’re in chem 4a and you may consider transferring in the future.</p>
<p>Why does everybody have to make transfers feel so downtrodden…</p>
<p>Transferring - as in after finishing undergraduate.</p>
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<p>No, he just likes to copy my posts: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/821743-people-happy-berkeley-6.html#post1063674394[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/821743-people-happy-berkeley-6.html#post1063674394</a></p>
<p>OMG. lol I knew something was fishy about him. I read something else where he tried to get everyone all riled up. Sorry he copied ur post : /</p>
<p>Yeah right thomas. I know you… you were that one roommate that asked me to help you write an essay about how I felt about Berkeley. And now I find out that you copied my essay? How disappointing.</p>
<p>"There are almost NO good food places here. "</p>
<p>Wow, I’m surprised by this comment. What kind of food do you eat?</p>
<p>I think Berkeley has excellent choices for food. I often find myself missing food from La Mediterrane, the farmer’s market, Cheeseboard and amazing gelato that you can’t get in LA.</p>
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<p>Dude, that was an essay? That was a “tl;dr” forum post</p>
<p>It is improper etiquette for females to use the word “dude”.</p>