@visigoth With the Cal housing crunch, you will be lucky to not get a forced triple. They are supposed to be opening up a new dorm building by next fall, so it will hopefully mean they won’t have to ship freshman off to Mills or wherever the heck they had to stick them these last few years. You can request what you want, but your 5th housing choice should be “anything available” so you get in somewhere.
Hi, I applied for CS in the college of letters and sciences. I am wondering if there is any way at this point for me to change the major I am applying to into the EECS program in the college of engineering?
So I wanna get into CS for Cal but a lot of my friends that went to Cal wished that they want to some other college like UCI or UCLA because the atmosphere in Cal was just “too competitive” (I feel like I did not word this correctly but the general idea is that the atmosphere was just too uncomfortable). What’s your experience with Cal, do you actually like the school or do you wish you went somewhere else?
Notes: I’m not in a sorority. I know ½-⅙ of everyone in the CKC dining hall at any time. I’m optimistic, not yet cynical, and this is my one woman petition to attract more people to Berkeley (don’t worry. Not a description of everyone at Berkeley).
UCB: I don’t like the current alternative acronym. I want a new one. University of Capable Believers
GBO
Know that the people in your GBOrientation group are not the people that you will have to be friends with and are not necessarily representations of everyone at Berkeley. There are a lot of Greek people at Clark Kerr, which is very visible in GBO groups, but there are a lot of other people in Clark Kerr too, who you will find and make friends with if Greek life is not your thing. Also, GBO leaders don’t care that much, because they’re not getting paid, so it’s pretty relaxed.
Clark Kerr
Clark Kerr has big rooms (Units are ⅔ the size), and in some buildings, such as Building 12, beds aren’t bunked. The Clark Kerr dining hall has the same people every day, in a comparatively short time frame, more than Cafe 3 or Crossroads, so it’s more tight knit. Foothill is probably the same.
Most of the dorms are coed, with coed bathrooms. You get over it within a week. What’s the difference really anyways? You’re in your stall and they’re in their stall. It’s nice to have friends of different genders and if there are transgender people, no worries about bathrooms. I used to want a suite but suites are sort of expensive and halls are way more social. In suites, you’re stuck making friends with suitemates, while halls have a lot more options for friends, people to interact with, ask questions, talk to.
Ways to help make your decision (or to make it harder):
Big college: So. Many. Niche. Classes. I took a History of the Celebrity class and a Peace and Conflict Studies class. There’s City Planning Classes, Archaeology of Food in the US, Biomimicry, Drugs and the Brain, etc. For major requirements, there’s more elective options than liberal schools, some of which might be that tiny area that you’re interested in. For example, I’m hoping to take two Health Economics classes.
Homeless people: All of you suburbia people, get out of your comfort zone, learn about humanity, don’t be isolated in your socioeconomic bubble. Talk to some elderly hippies and mildly crazy people. Billie is the Dinosaur man who dresses up every weekday and can have an intellectual discussion about feminism or Tolstoy. Common Terry might yell at you about oil and conspiracy theories but he’s a pretty nice guy if you ask how his day is. Thomas sits and does crossword puzzles on Sproul. BTW Sproul will keep you up to date about everything that is going on at Berkeley, ever, so take a flyer every now and then. Plus there’s bake sales always going on, so buy easily accessible food that supports something.
Protests: They don’t happen that often. The news helicopters are annoying. Protests were bigger in the 60s. Berkeley people aren’t passive. Some of us have strong feelings and we are willing to do something about it. We’re idealists who believe that we can make the world a better place. Plus, if anyone messes with us, mistreating employees or something, someone will protest and fix it. It makes the administration more inclusive of students. They keep us in the loop; there will never be accusations of a cover up.
Liberalism: There’s definitely an outspoken republican minority. But not everyone is liberal either, and there’s a good number of people who go to church. I will get a number on that later/tomorrow. People are moderate, with strong opinions on some things, usually different things. Which is interesting for debates. Anyone can find their group to agree with them or find someone who disagrees with them.
City: It’s not really a city. It’s more of a town. No skyscrapers or office buildings. Just a lot of apartments, victorian style houses, and good places to eat. I am not going to be able to try all of them in four years. There are also, of course, a lot of coffee shops. Find your favorite. So many possible parameters.
Academics: Are hard. You won’t be bored. You won’t get all As. Learn how to fail, but everyone around you is also not getting straight As so it’s alright and it’s a good experience. It makes you that much more excited when you get an A. Grad schools supposedly weight Berkeley GPAs slightly higher because of that.
The one thing that you need to like about a college is the people. You can’t get used to hating everyone, not relating to anyone. Find out the most you can about who goes to school, who from your school also got in or is going. Berkeley has a lot of really cool people who have started businesses, joined startups, started nonprofits, created cool things, and are really inspiring to be around. Your friends inspire you to try and get internships, or research, preparing you better for grad school. Everyone is smart, so no one brags. We aren’t competitive, don’t talk about grades much, although we do talk about cool stuff that we’re learning in classes and have philosophical discussions. We’re not fake happy (except for me and only sometimes); we’re real, sometimes cynical, but we believe that the world can be better. There’s people from all over, from Lebanon to New Zealand to China to France.
Who gets in: If everyone in your high school (California) thinks that you’re smart, you’ll probably get in. They do actually read the essays, so if you can write a really great essay, say that you did something cool, and be eloquent, you have a chance, even if your grades aren’t the best.
Anyone else want me to say anything? Or clarify anything?
I’m in Clark Kerr. Hopefully double majoring in Econ and Bio. Because you probably want to know, 2300 on SAT, 35 on ACT, 4.32 GPA (I’m not the norm, but I’m not really an anomaly either). It’s currently 2018. If you’re visiting in the next few months, I’ll happily show anyone around. I’ll try to answer any questions that I can regularly or find someone with the answers, so ask away (remember I’m a freshman though).
I will write more in this section, just later. I figure it’ll take me a few hours.
@berkeley101 Major only matters if you’re not L&S (So engineering, chemistry, CNR)
@PawanGhimire You have to tell all of the schools that you’re applying to, but yeah, physics looks better than bio for EECS (but does physics transfer?)
@Walter924 Yes its a community college course…physics with calculus… So it does transfer.
Is it a hard transition to live in Berkeley coming from Socal?
Also how bad are the living expenses? Is it better to live on-campus or off?
Also for anyone that is a transfer student… how hard is the transition? Everyone talks about how hard Berkeley is and how I’m going to have to be ready to watch my GPA die if I go there etc. etc… How much harder is it than CC?
@ericbadmon It’s not a hard transition. It’s about half north half south california. There’ll be people from your school and from schools that you’re familiar with. It’s 50$-100$ flight (one way) with Southwest, which is cheaper than flying anywhere east of Utah (ish), so people from socal can fly home semi-often. Some girl/boyfriends fly up too on long weekends.
Half of my dorm building is transfers. Berkeley is definitely hard, but everyone else is in the same boat. I’ll get a few transfers opinions tonight. For now:
Tim’s a Biology major. He had a hard time with biochemistry last semester, but he says that now all of his classes are really great and he’s enjoying all of them. He’s pretty relaxed now.
What city or community college are you from? Or what major are you going in for?
@ericbadmon
Living expenses: 85% chance of a triple. 1,300 a month (includes food. 13,500 a year. 3,000 of which is food). On campus apartments 11,000 so proportionally same cost as dorms. Off campus apartments: You’re probably going to have a roommate for most if not all of your time at Berkeley, and even then it’ll be about 800-1200 a month for an apartment a month, averaging around 850-1000 (and then utilities and food, and you’re paying through the summer). Do you want to put in the effort to find housing your first year? Do you want to stay over the summer?
Transfer vs freshmen: Freshmen have to do stuff outside of their major and interests with breadths and they have to do some of the harder classes like Organic Chemistry, so probably overall, the GPAs of Transfers and freshmen are probably about the same by senior year.
No one gets straight As. It’s okay. Graduate schools weigh our GPAs higher than other schools. Any A that you get just proves how awesome you are, unlike other schools where it’s like A ehhh, who cares, everyone gets As. Going to Berkeley is viewed well by companies. You got into Berkeley. That says something about your work ethic, your training. It’s a good stereotype.
Everyone has an adjustment period, every semester, figuring out the best way to study and do homework for classes. It gets shorter as you go along. The first semester is harder than the semesters that come after.
There’s a lot of information. They do ask about some small details. They do give harder questions. The essay grade default is a B, and you have to have interesting analysis and good organization to get an A. It does require more effort. Isaac, an Econ transfer, says you can get a B with average work, CC level (ish), but getting an A takes a lot of effort. That’s the difference.
@Walter924 Ahh I see. So it seems like what I’m getting is that for UCB to get an A you have to go above and beyong the rubric, whereas at CC you can get an A by fulfilling the rubric.
It sounds tough but I am ready for the challenge. I think what you’re saying about the good stereotype that Cal students get is true. My dad is an engineer at Northrop Grumman and he talks with the people who are in charge of hiring, and apprently they informed him that there is a level of respect when they see “UC Berkeley” on an applicant’s resume, certainly more than they give when seeing any other UC including LA.
Anyone know students in the environmental economics and policy major in the college of letters and science? How selective is it for freshmen applicants? Thanks !
@walter924 thanks for being so generous with your time and information. DD has been admitted and we are heading out next week for the hands on tour. She/we know nothing so you might become our new BFF!
@dowzerw I’ll be happy to show you or anyone else around campus (informally).
@walter924 You are so awesome! I’ll find out from my daughter about what she has scheduled. We are in the area Mon and Tues the 12th and 13th and also have to visit that school down the road. Thank you for your offer.
@celine12 BA in L&S. BS in CNR. Same advisors. Same major basically. CNR isn’t capped. L&S is. In L&S, you get accepted just to L&S, doesn’t matter what your major is (not taken into consideration. Different for the other colleges). You just take the prerequisites and if you have a good enough GPA (usually 2.0 if uncapped, 2.5-3.0 if capped depending on major), you’re in the major, declared sophomore or junior year. You can transfer into CNR but it’s harder than transferring out. CNR is smaller and nicer.
All according to Evan who’s a sophomore CNR Environmental Economics and Policy major.
bl
Just got accepted to College of Natural Sciences as an international student. How do I go about changing colleges to CLS as I now want to study languages?