Advice for a new Freshmen?

Pixel2012
Sat, 19 May 2012 16:39:27 +0000

In your opinion, where do most people usually hang out in the weekend? Do people generally go to SF? Is there any cinema or some sort of entertainment at Berkeley during the weekend that I should know?



People usually either: (1) hang out with friends (2) stay at their dorm (3) go to parties. Surprisingly, people don’t go to SF that often.



Unfortunately, I’m not allowed to bring my bike with me to school… I also don’t want to skateboard either because I heard that the north side of campus is pretty hilly. So, do you find it’s feasible to just walk on bare foot and/or use public transportation to get to class and/or around the city?



Walking is fine. If you get lazy sometimes, you can always use the bus. A bicycle is really inconvenient unless you live off campus. Bicycle tickets… theft issues, etc…



What is your overall experience with the dorms? If you have any experience with Foothill specifically, would you mind sharing it with me?



The experience is what you make of it + how your floor interacts. If your floor is active, you’ll be very active as well. I lived in the units, but Foothill tends to be quieter than the units. Try no to travel at night b/c the Foothill area is extremely quiet/unsafe at night. Use bearwalk!



Where do people usually shop for food and some other trivial stuff? When I visited during Cal Day, I only got the chance to check out the Walgreen right across Telegraph (buy some batteries for my cam) and the Asian Ghetto (boba!) and they were both pretty good with reasonable price. Any other recommendations?

You can buy your food at SafeWay / Trade Joes. Wal-green is a decent place, but they are usually overpriced! South side has Asian Ghetto, North side (Foothill area) has Asian Gourmet. There are La Val’s Pizza, CheeseBoard Pizza, etc… Decent places!



Back to DeCals/PE, if you have taken any of those, what was your experience, in terms of workload and time commitment? Specifically, I want to do some sort of tennis/swimming, and a couple of interesting DeCals. Like, there’s even a DeCal in Pokemon here at Berkeley! But seriously, even though the workload in Berkeley classes are high, I shouldn’t expect a term paper in Pokemon right? haha





Finally, what is one thing that you wish you had known prior to starting your freshmen year at Cal?

Lets see… don’t overpack! Going back home was such a hassle and most people overpacked…