Off-Topic Discussion from "Colleges Crossed Off List or Moved Up After Visiting"

[sbinaz]

Colleges your child crossed off the list after visiting, schools that moved up on the list. Why? (NO REPLIES)

UC Berkeley - off the list. Went up to accepted Cal day. Campus was OK, but homelessness and overall feel of the place was not right. My kid said it was like living in a trash can. Plus the frats in the middle of campus were loud and vomiting/drunk kids at 11 AM on top of how rough the town was… let’s just say we left half way. Later on we found out a kid fell off one of those frats on the same day and is paralyzed in the hospital. It’s too bad. We had high hopes.

I agree re: UC Berkeley. Last time I was at UCB visiting was in the early 2000’s. Thought it was gross, gritty, and a bit of an arm pit and didn’t understand why people seemed to be so in love with it. Sounds like not much has changed! Even 25 yr ago, UCB had a boatload of homeless people. H and I had a friend who attended Berkeley in the late 90s and the friend said that homeless people would regularly try to steal their electricity by plugging extension cords into outside electrical outlets at the rental house that the friend and roommates were renting at the time.