<p>What can you say about its facilities?</p>
<ol>
<li><p>labs</p></li>
<li><p>class rooms</p></li>
<li><p>libraries</p></li>
<li><p>computer rooms</p></li>
<li><p>dorms</p></li>
<li><p>campus environment/landscape</p></li>
</ol>
<p>My chemistry lab section for chemistry 4a is in many ways inferior to my high school chemistry lab. After performing the lab, we are merely required to write down a purpose, a basic procedure, which does not need to be detailed enough to reproduce the experiment, and record our measurements. After doing this, we complete a worksheet that guides us through using our data to obtain a result.</p>
<p>In our lab we have an abundance of glassware, but not enough space for it. Simply getting our lab drawers to close requires a good deal of cleverness in your arrangement. I estimate that by the end of the semester, the average piece of glassware in our lab drawer will be used once. </p>
<p>There is also a inefficiency in the procedures which is infuriating! For example, suppose everyone needs 10 ml of two chemicals. In high school, I would expect one pipette at each container which everyone would use. At Berkeley it is much more likely that everyone will use their own 10 ml pipette for one chemical, rinse the pipette, and then use it again for the second chemical.</p>
<p>Classrooms are exactly what you would expect. Chalkboard, desks, students, etc. Yep.</p>
<p>The library is huge. Before visiting main stacks, I could not imagine such vast collection of books. And then there are the other libraries that the various departments have.</p>
<p>The computers vary. In the academic services center, the computers are surprisingly good, almost on par with what I have at home and definitely better than this hand-me-down laptop I’m currently using. The computers we use in our labs, however, belong in museums, but computing power isn’t very important for those computers anyway.</p>
<p>I’m currently staying at the Clark Kerr campus. My room is huge. I’m in a triple, but we have 3 separate beds (no bunking), 3 separate desks, and 3 separate closets. Clark Kerr Campus grounds are very nice and the food is good. The only downside is the 20 minute walk to campus.</p>
<ol>
<li>labs</li>
</ol>
<p>Sub par. We don’t even get our own lockers, just some crappy little plastic box. My CC gave us lockers, clean equipment, and enough room to work; I can’t say the same about Cal. I’m in Chem 3A and the instructions/corrections to the lab manual are written on the chalkboard that only the front 2 rows can see. Sand baths are sooo freaking slow…how long does it take to boil some goddamn water and benzene. The glassware is crap, small beakers and nothing larger than a 10 mL graduated cylinder. Reagents are only on one side and they’re in such small containers that ****** bags take the entire class supply and keep it in their area. Sub, very sub par.</p>
<ol>
<li>class rooms</li>
</ol>
<p>Primentel = Salvation Army (everything has been there for a long time and the only people who go in are tired, sleepy, and hungover)</p>
<p>Stanley = Barneys (it’s so comfortable) </p>
<p>Dwinelle = K-mart (getting out without being groped by some mid aged student mother is impossible)</p>
<p>GBP = Costco (so much space…but no room to move)</p>
<p>Tolman = Prison</p>
<p>Tan = New York (nice view but smells funny)</p>
<p>North Gate Hall = Have you ever heard of Auschwitz?</p>
<ol>
<li>libraries</li>
</ol>
<p>we have libraries? </p>
<ol>
<li>computer rooms</li>
</ol>
<p>Computer rooms?</p>
<ol>
<li>dorms</li>
</ol>
<p>went into one I felt like I was in the House season premier. </p>
<ol>
<li>campus environment/landscape </li>
</ol>
<p>the construction kind of ruins what could be a mediocre campus </p>
<p>overall the first month has been cool…the campus is nothing spectacular</p>
<p>lol you sound miserable anonymous</p>
<ol>
<li><p>labs
they’re okay. i guess it depends on which science class you’re taking exactly. i took chem 1a in latimer and the lab room wasn’t really that great. first off, it’s really small in size. you’d expect labs to be smaller in class size, making it easier to work on an experiment but with cuts in funding and increase in class sizes, the size of the lab room makes it difficult to work. in addition, lots of equipment need to be replaced. a good example is the pairs of goggles that look like they’re from the sixties.
i know that this doesn’t include studios but i think i should mention studios in this section as well. they suck. i’m taking an art class and you would not believe just how dreadful the building truly is. there aren’t enough lockers for students and in studio rooms there isn’t enough storage space for student materials and artwork. and the stools, tables, and easels need to all be completely replaced. it really isn’t an encouraging facility to get you inspired to do work on your art… i prefer to work in my dorm.</p></li>
<li><p>classrooms
stanley-very nice, quite comfortable. the auditorium looks like a movie theatre.
kroeber hall-for the main location of art practice it is far from impressive. i think the whole building needs to be remodeled. the only thing fairly nice is the small lecture hall on the first floor.
pimentel-probably one of the worst lecture halls on campus. i say that not because of how it physically looks. it looks mediocre. but it’s the fact that you have nearly six hundred people filling up those seats, more than half of whom are either asleep or as anonymousername said, hungover makes it so uncomfortable. in addition, like half of the desks are broken.
valley life science building-oh what a maze. from the outside it looks beautiful, from the inside, it’s a whole different story. you honestly wonder what architects were thinking when they built some of these buildings. the auditorium is quite impressive in size, except for the fact that all the seats are squished together and as a result, are very very uncomfortable.
wurster hall-similar to kroeber in my opinion. i think it should be remodeled. although they do have nicer facilities than kroeber.
latimer-that’s where i had my lab (description in #1) this building should also be remodeled.</p></li>
<li><p>libraries
go on a campus tour and about 90% of your tour will consist of info about the libraries, which can be annoying but proves that they’re definitely impressive, well the ones at the university library at least. the locations for the department libraries are often in random locations and that’s annoying. the librarians can also be very unhelpful and rude at times. </p></li>
<li><p>computer rooms
not impressive. there’s the fact that they’re always crowded and never available and that there’s always a long line per computer. in addition, several of the computers are very slow, not updated, and are up to 20 years old. there isn’t a good supply of macs either. </p></li>
<li><p>dorms
the inside of units 1, 2, and 3 are very nice. new furniture, recently built, and they have better dining halls and better computer rooms. not to mention that they have access to berkeley’s wireless network while unit 4 does not. they’re downside though is that there are nearly 1500 students in each building. unit 4 is very isolated. depending on what classes you have it can either be very far or very close to campus. i got lucky since when i was in unit 4 i basically had all science and math classes which are literally right across the street. however, the walk uphill definitely sucks. i guess the benefit is that the freshmen 15 don’t apply to you. as far as the rooms go, they need to be remodeled. bowles and stern are apparently some of the oldest residence halls on campus and that is very evident. furniture needs to be replaced, walls need to be repainted. i don’t understand why residence halls in unit 4 are more expensive than the newer units. another pro/con of living in unit 4 is living next to the greek hearst theatre. if there’s a crappy band playing then you’re going to go insane because you can hear EVERYTHING. you hear their two hour rehearsals from 1-3 then their performance from 6-11. however, when a musician you like is performing, it’s great because you don’t even have to buy a ticket. clark kerr is pretty, has large rooms, but is far. </p></li>
<li><p>it’s beautiful. not one of the most beautiful campuses i’ve seen but still fairly beautiful. some parts of it are much nicer than others. i just wish it was flat… the hills everywhere make it exhausting and irritating. it also makes it a lot harder to ride a bike, which is why most people walk, which in turn makes it more difficult for people who do choose to ride a bike to pass through crowds. also, another immensely frustrating thing about the campus is that you feel like everything is scattered. i don’t mean spread out. i mean scattered. there are random buildings at random locations and i wish that the buildings were all relatively in the same region. it’s really hard to believe that the city was built around the campus instead of the other way around. you’d think that with that being the case, their buildings would all relatively be at the main part of campus, not just a random location like twenty blocks away. that’s as far as landscape goes. now as for enviornment, well it depends on you. personally, i’m more into an isolated campus rather than one surrounded by so many things. i know that that can have its advantages but i’m not really interested. i feel like it distracts the student body and prevents it from really being a community. another thing that i’m personally not too fond of is all of the commotion that’s at sproul. sproul gathers a lot of random hobos, some of which are harmless and some of which are harmful. a lot of random people from the city come in and start to protest and preach about how communism is good and how revolution is the solution and whatnot. and people are always infesting you with papers and pamphlets, throwing them in your face, and following you till you accept it. it’s good to stay informed and activism is great. some people love that about berkeley. i’m not ignorant or inconsiderate, i care about what’s going on ,and i do actively support some causes but i’m excessive activism gets on my nervs. if you’re pretty apathetic like me then berkeley’s pro-revolutionary, active, and rebellious spirit is definitely not for you. one last thing about the enviornment is the sink or swim feel. you don’t feel like people want you to succeed. frankly, they don’t really care if you do. if you do then great and if you don’t then too bad. don’t expect anyone to inform you about anything or update you on resources or what’s available. you are on your own in every aspect and you have to be the one to take intiative, look things up, and seek help when you need it. i like the indepedence factor but personally I find the atomosphere far too cold and impersonal for me.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I’ll speak solely on the place about which I know the most: the libraries. </p>
<p>I work for one of the main libraries, so I spend a decent chunk of time there. I love working there (and yes, I have a job in the library that actually requires me to <em>work</em>). I love being there. I love studying there. I love napping there. I would live there if it were open 24 hours a day. Our libraries are beautiful as well as functional. I can’t help but be humbled when I scan the compactors and realize just how little I know. (We have over 10 million volumes!) I think many people take our libraries for granted, but they really are the best places on campus. Studying in the library actually makes me happy!</p>
<p>I spend fifteen hours a week working there, and I still come back whenever I have a spare moment. I think that says a lot about the quality of our libraries.</p>
<p>Hey, what about saying something about Berkeley students’ school spirit? If such a thing exists amongst Berkeley peeps…</p>
<p>Spirit is irrelevant. Frankly, I’d rather be somewhere apathetic - at least that way I wouldn’t have my studying interrupted by bands and cheering every time anything goes right for us in sports. Which is often.</p>
<p>If you’re looking for school spirit, then you’re looking for it in the wrong place. Most spirited kids aren’t on collegeconfidential. Most people come on here to complain and commiserate about how public schools screw them over.</p>
<p>And this is especially true for Cal as it is filled with overachievers who just realized “oh ****, maybe I am not as smart as I had believed, but no it can’t be! It must be the system trying to weed me out.” It’s more or less a combination of both-- the system weeding out students and Cal admitting some students who just shouldn’t have been here in the first place.</p>
<p>Time for lovefest.</p>
<p>you guys are partypoopers.</p>
<p>What can you say about its facilities? I’ll speak in terms of Computer Science.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>labs
are pretty amazing. UC Berkeley just got a new building, the Sutardja Dai. There’s a new computer lab inside with brand new Apple equipment. Some of the specs: 3x4gb DDR3 RAM, 7200 RPM 640 GB HDD, 30’’ monitor, and a pretty new graphics cards. The other computer labs are pretty sweet since they’re open 24/7 for people with cardkey access to Cory, Soda, or SD. The computers are pretty old, but if you’re just programming then that’s all you really need.</p></li>
<li><p>class rooms
are not amazing, but not sub-standard either. Some don’t have air conditioning which sucks (like 10 Evans and Donner Lab classrooms), but others are really nice (all the classrooms in Stanley).</p></li>
<li><p>libraries</p></li>
<li><p>computer rooms
belle123 basically said everything about the libraries.</p></li>
<li><p>dorms
are a coinflip. If you get an interesting floor that matches up with your personality, you’ll have a rockin’ time. If you get a quiet isolated floor, you’ll have a really boring time…</p></li>
<li><p>campus environment/landscape
is what you make of it. Be involved in clubs if you’re interested in making new friends and being active with college life.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>this is how i sum up my school spirit:</p>
<p>we have a football team?</p>
<p>(btw, what is the loop? in those golf carts)</p>
<p>loop carries handicapped people to their destination. or old people too i guess. lol
i have tons of school spirit. no shirts and t-shirts unless they’re free though. moreover, i just don’t like buying t-shirts with Cal on them and seeing someone else wear the same one. lol Stealing mah steeze yo.
as for cal screwing me over, i’d say a little bit. over 75% of the stuff i’ve learned so far has been basic stuff i learned in high school. yet when we get tested on this information, the tests just try to be tricky as hell or unrelated to what we learned in class (thus far, chem 3a tests and math 1b with Borcherds have been the fairest, not to mention the *** curves in bio).
go buurs. i still don’t understand the rolling on. like bears doing barrel rolls and **** just doesn’t seem right to me.</p>
<p>Don’t listen to those guys. There is so much school spirit here it’s ridiculous at times. Case in point: today. It’s homecoming and we’re playing USC. I’ve seen only a handful of people walking around not dressed in blue and/or gold! </p>
<p>If you want to get involved in school spirit, you have abundant opportunities to do so. For example, join Rally Committee (of which I’m a proud member!) so you can show your pride and go to games for free! </p>
<p>Frankly, I find it impossible not to have spirit here. Just two nights ago, the Cal Band paraded down the street, stopped at our dorm buildings, and performed for us! It made me proud to be a bear, even if I listened to most of it through my window. (I had studying to do.)</p>
<p>There is plenty of spirit at Cal; football games are especially fun :).</p>
<p>I can’t speak for the chem labs but the new computer labs in Sutardja Dai Hall are godly. The old labs are slightly dilapidated, but it does its job in terms of serving the needs of most CS students.</p>