Getting into Cal and what to expect when you finally get there. - Page 6

astro30 · 08-15-2006, 03:45 PM

Andrewtdx....

...by chance, are you a brother in TDX at Berkeley???

Smallz3141 · 08-15-2006, 03:52 PM

astro30, are you by any chance an Astrophysics major?

astro30 · 08-15-2006, 04:59 PM

haha, sadly I must inform that I am not. (Hopefully an english major actually)

It is/was my highschool mascot (Hometown & highschoo of Alan Shepard, astronaunt, thus the "creative" name)

berkeley_dude · 08-16-2006, 04:12 AM

I have two questions about your post.

1. If a student has a Jewish name (mine is kind of Jewish sounding, though I'm not), are you saying other students will discriminate against me? I have to say, I haven't encountered that thus far.

2. About this part:
"which has resulted in the supermajority of asians, while other races like whites, latinos and blacks are being squeezed out -- much to the detriment of the quality of life at the university for other students)"

It seems like you are being a bit prejudiced here by saying that having more asians is detrimental. Am I misunderstanding?

ecko · 08-16-2006, 05:13 AM

tough luck eecs major ftw....robotics II

SATS 1620

I SHALL SURVIVE
taking math1a as starter TT but took calc i over the summer muahuahuah
i hope i win....lol

andrewtdx · 08-17-2006, 01:45 PM

To Matt and Berkeley Dude:

On the Asian majority? Am I saying its detrimental? Absolutely not, what I was saying it is can be detrimental for some students, especially since the culture the students bring with them can set the tone for the university. It's a fact that if the student culture is geared towards studying heavily, there will be lots of studying. If the student culture is set towards parties, there will be lots of partying and the university will adjust itself accordingly. Is what I said I being prejudiced? Perhaps, but that was not my intention. I'm just making notes on my observations. The inherent problem with a majority and claiming a diverse (if we are defining diversity by racial makeup) environment, means you can't have a majority of individuals. One group may gain a slight foothold from year to year, however, there has to be a fairly even balance of races and cultures to keep diversity truly alive. Under the logic of diversity in its purest meaning -- let's say there are 5 main races, and please excuse my lack of political correctness: Whites, Native Americans, Asians, Hispanics/Latinos, and Blacks. Now, under the racial diversity definition, the school should be about 20% for each. However, if you REALLY want to get deep into diversity, let's say there is 50 major cultures in the world. That means, the school would have to accept 2% of its student body from each subgroup. Side note to Max: Relax -- I know there are differences between the different cultures, however, Berkeley bills itself as racially diverse, at least when I applied.

Mainly for Berkeley dude and to come back to Matt's point:
As far as being Jewish? It really isn't much of a problem unless you run into an intolerant bigot. These people tend to be far leftist "liberals" or far right reactionaries. Note, that liberals is in quotation marks. A true liberal, regardless of whether they are libertarian or socialist leaning, should tolerate, if not accept everyone, regardless of race, culture, creed, religion, or belief. However, there are a few students (a small, but shrilly annoying and vocal minority) at Berkeley that seemed to have missed that memo. Back to your worries about being Jewish, I saw derogatory graffitti against Jews and things that have eminated from student's mouths towards whites and jews that bordered on hate speech, but keep in mind, this is the exception (especially lately), and not the rule. I don't abide racism in any form.

I should have clarified a few things when I wrote that piece, what is it almost two years ago? The piece was meant to be somewhat raw as well. If it offended or came off as a callous, close-minded, and crude, I apologize, but I did say, take everything with a grain of salt. My intention was to give people some idea what they are getting into. Honesty is sadly subjective. What I see as truth might be seen as a fallacy by another person. Of course opinions change, especially after you spend a year in Europe, and I very well may write a followup piece in the next couple of days.

And to Astro:
Yes, I am. Why do you ask?

...and I can't believe this thread was dragged up from the dead.

NeedAdvice · 08-17-2006, 05:46 PM

Berkeley_dude:

Ok, so I have no reason to respond to your post but uh
1) No. There's really no discrimination. Jews comprise of 1/4 of Caucasians on campus.
2) I'm 3/4 Asian and I want more diversity on campus. I want to go to school with people different from me. However I'm not a big fan of AA, so I don't know how that works.

DRab · 08-17-2006, 06:14 PM

No discrimination against Jews? That's essentially true. It seems that there is basically so little you could say there is none. There are some rabid anti-Israel people (some of whom are probably masking anti semetism), and many anti-religion people. There is almost or essentially none, but some, discrimination against Jews. Nothing else could explain, for example, the anti semetic comment written on the AEPi house this past year, other than a hoax or some other unlikely alternative. It's very rare, certainly, almost non present.

andrewtdx · 08-17-2006, 08:37 PM

Drab:

Indeed, but it was more prevalent following 9/11 and leading up to the Iraq War and up til the original post, though it was declining at that point. Fortunately, such things have settled down even more in the past year and a half to two years.

astro30 · 08-20-2006, 10:49 AM

I have friends that are TDX brothers but in different schools (Dartmouth, Stanford). Who knows, maybe if I end up at Berkeley, I may try to as well.

unlimitedx · 08-20-2006, 11:01 AM

So... my Jewish friend told me I can tell who is Jewish by looking at their nose. Is this more or less true?

dobby · 08-20-2006, 01:13 PM

Sort of.

http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/vi...d=345&letter=N

quickflood · 11-11-2006, 03:57 AM

bump for the 2011 applicants
one question that's still not answered:

Quote:

Hey I read about how in the impacted majors u shouldnt expect a social life? Ok how about majors in Engineering(other than EECE)? I'm assuming that people in it are also zombie-like? If so, then bekerley is not right for me, despite its great academic reputation...

Smallz3141 · 11-11-2006, 11:08 AM

You social life is what you make of it. You can be in an impacted major, work your a$$ off, and still have time to hang with friends. You just have to learn how to schedule your time, and not put off everything to the last moment. It is very doable.

LetItBe · 11-12-2006, 07:23 AM

Andrewtdx has an agenda. Berkeley was one of the best experiences of my life.
Everything good that flowed from my years there socially, academically, intellecutally, romantically and aesthetically started at Cal. PM me if you'd like more details. There are many ways to have an intimate experience at Cal, but you have to (in high school speak) "make good choices."