How prevalent is biking at Berkeley?
i walk, its just easier, but theres a lot of hills and people to avoid so i feel like you would need strong thighs…? lol but yeah and bikes get stolen a lot
Although Berkeley is a crowded city, and UC Berkeley is a crowded campus, there is a strong cycling community in Berkeley. Commuting by bike is very doable, but as Xinjie said, if you are fairly close, it’s easier to walk. The campus is somewhat more bike-friendly than it was back when I was there (yeah, 30 years ago), but it’s still the kind of place where you ride your bike to get to campus, then park your bike and walk until it’s time to ride home. Not worth it to try to ride from class to class.
If you like hills, the East Bay has a lot of great road riding, and also a fair bit of dirt road (gravel bike) riding.
@jlevi22 If you want a bike school, UCSB or UCD are the schools for you. Cal is a lot of hills - I’ve only seen a couple of students trying to bike on campus and they looked pretty miserable. If you are thinking of biking, use a crap bike. I too have heard that bikes are the #2 stolen item (after laptops).
UCLA vs. Berkeley for Political Science??
wowee this thread was dead, sorry 4 necro
Is pre med terrible at Berkeley due to grade deflation? Berkeley has always been my dream school but I’m scared to commit because of this
Premed is going to be difficult at Berkeley because the classes are pretty tough and GPA is very important for med school. However, a lot of pre-med students come here and go to med school, so it’s not unheard of!
my S got into College of Chemistry and intends to do ChemE…deciding between UCB vs Tufts any thots? also how easy or difficult it is to change to college of engg
UCB vs Cornell Poli Sci?
@astrophysicistx I just committed to Berkeley yesterday and I’m a premed! I was accepted to UCSD and UCLA and heard their premed program is a lot better than Berkeley (especially in SD because of their bio department) and a lot less competitive. So that kind of tempted me to consider SD and LA but overall Berkeley was just a better choice for me. I’ll just have to study harder lol
What does Berkeley undergrad engineering offer that makes it better than other UC’s and poly? Been hearing mostly negative stuff about the undergrad experience
If I were to go to a community college and apply to Berkley for transfer, what stats would I need to be able to get in? I’m a HS senior. Really want to go to Berkley with transfer 2 yrs later.
Hey guys! I posted this as a separate discussion too but I was wondering if y’all could help me out a bit 
Thanks!
Just a few questions:
- How can I best prepare for my freshman prerequisite courses for CS? I know Berkeley, especially their CS program, has a reputation for very hard, stressful intro classes; I want to avoid that as much as possible. Is there any summer online courses or books I can go through?
- Just how difficult is their CS program?
- What does a 3.3 GPA exactly mean to declare a major? In high school this would mean an unweighted GPA of mostly B's, what about at Berkeley? What happens if I don't meet that GPA to declare CS?
- How can I maximize my freshman experience at Berkeley? Any things/tips I should look out for?
- Senior year right now.... I'm being extremely lazy and erring on bad study habits. I'll have to rebuild them over this summer What study habits/routines especially worked for you at Berkeley and how should I best approach my studies?
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this! I’d really appreciate any and all advice!
@icurryx3 Honestly, I know 8 people who are transfer students got into UCB. It is still indeed competitive, but I think because they lived near the area I don’t know. They went to Berkeley CCC and transfer. BUT I DON’t know if that’s the cause.
Hi! I was accepted to Cal as a MCB major. However, I’ve heard a lot of horror stories regarding bio majors at Cal. I think I’m going to apply for med school, so a high gpa is definitely important. Can any pre-meds give me some insight on whether I should major in MCB, integrative biology or public health. I know that public health is a capped major but the students have a significantly higher ave. gpa. Also, do the different concentrations (ex. cell and neurobiology) differ from each other in terms of difficulty? Thanks!!
Can anyone share experience or information regarding changing major in engineering, from EECS to ME? it appears that everything works on the petition but ability to change is an important factor for me. I have heard that changing college is almost impossible… say EECS to Economics. Is that true?
It’s coming down to the wire now with the deadline to issue SIR May 1. So some thoughts, any thoughts, would be appreciated.
Accepted to UCB, UCD, UCSB, and UCSD, but I’ve narrowed it down to the two in the title for various reasons but mostly because their locations allows me to go home whenever I want. Of course the cost is roughly the same but, while distance to home is the same I prefer Davis’s location as I find the town of Berkeley ugly and will not enjoy seeing homeless people on campus and having to walk through them to get to the dorms.
Speaking of dorms, Berkeley’s are old and dingy while Davis has fairly new housing. While I love the old, stately buildings of Berkeley like the Campanile and the library and that nice classical style, I’m afraid I’ll be worried about those old buildings since the Hayward Fault runs under the school.
As far as majors go, as UCSB’s chancellor Henry Yang said at his reception, I picked the most popular major of undeclared. I truly am undecided as I could see myself pursuing either a science or a humanity. Since I just don’t know, I think Davis has the advantage since it has more open majors. It doesn’t have capped or impacted majors like Berkeley, right?
So I’m really leaning towards Davis but I feel like I’ll be missing out if I don’t choose Berkeley, the number one public university in the world. I’m worried that I’ll always regret not going there and think “shoot, I could have gone to Berkeley.”
lol seriously? I had to stop what I was doing and create an account just so I could comment on this. I can understand comparing it to UCLA maybe but LOL please go to Davis if you like being in the middle of BF nowhere with absolutely nothing to do except drive to Berkeley or SF - or drink, or join a frat (as evidenced by my friends’ past 4 years of experiences).
hahaha there are no homeless people on campus. nor do you “walk through” any homeless people to get to anywhere. if you’re that superior you can avoid telegraph and people’s park, which no sane person does. if you’re so uppity about dorms live in a CKC suite and make no friends and pay $50k/sem for your own private parking spot. PLEASE don’t forget Cal is about being progressive and inclusive and visionary.
haha ugly? berzerkeley? really? more history than you can imagine, situated between the water, mountains, lakes, beaches, and the city? trees on trees on trees on bay views on architecture on hiking trails that make you forget you’re near civilization? VS miles and miles and miles of cow country? lol you’re seriously comparing davis to Cal? 16 elements discovered here, one of which is named after us? CRISPR? Laura Nader? Robert Reich? Ananya Roy? Alice Waters? all those founders and cofounders of now-huge tech companies? honestly i cant even – just compare wiki pages
lmao hell fn yeah you’ll be missing out if you choose Davis over Cal but if you plan on coming to Cal you should really reconsider your attitude and check your privilege because people can and will call you out v puclicly if you don’t, especially if you end up in the humanities.
P.S. the Hayward fault runs under the stadium - not campus. And have ya ever heard of unknown faults…? or faults that have been asleep for a while? Davis aint immune, bro. once upon a time i also said, “waaaaa i’m never gonna live in the Bay it’s cold and there’s earthquakes!” ah the naivety.
@CalCNR2017 Please calm down a bit… Yes there are homeless people on campus. I saw four in two hours while I visited. As for the housing and the and the faultlines, it’s not my biggest concern but it is a factor, especially considering the decrepit nature of many buildings and the dorms.
Why do you seem angry when I point out that the abundance of homeless people is negative? Someone, will call out my “privilege” since I’m “uppity”. Umm, okay.
I’m I bit of a conceited person in all honesty, so my ego will take a blow if I back out of Berkeley, but maybe going there would be humbling if it’s extremely competitive. If I choose Davis, I suppose I could take it as a personal triumph as I did not let my hubris get in the way of my decision making, not let my arrogance cause me to automatically choose the school with the best reputation.