If looking for engineering, NC State would have been a much better tour than UNC (UNC, I believe, still only has biomedical engineering). NC State’s campus, however, won’t give you Duke or Davidson vibes (and is located in Raleigh).
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Thanks for the detail. Interesting stuff.
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.
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I do have to say it makes me sad when people make such extreme comments about the wonderful city I live in, based on a brief college visit, or a memory of a visit 20+ years ago. I don’t love Southside, but Northside is pretty chill, there are many picturesque spots on campus, and there are also lots of other lovely & serene neighborhoods not far from the university. I thank my lucky stars every day that I get to live here.
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There are indeed some beautiful areas. And D19 and her friends used to go to Berkeley after school to hang out - many cool spots.
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Daughter just returned from Berkeley and it’s so much nicer now than it was back in the early 90s. Cal Day is a bit of an exception as is 420 day. I heard there was a lot of drinking and people carrying their BORG. Hopefully this doesn’t turn people off to a great school, beautiful campus, and a very unique city.
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Yes, indeed! There’s a reason it is so dang expensive to live here! We are paying for perfect weather, incredible food options, interesting and intelligent people, easy access to SF and the Sierra, amazing Bay views, charming homes, etc. Lots of people come to attend UCB and never leave!
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I’d love to see where the College of NJ ranks in USNWR on the alternate timeline!
Yup same at UMich. Where, I’d note, our kids had options from $700/mo to over $2k/mo per person, with everything in between. Fortunately for our wallets they’ve both settled toward the low end of the spectrum. These are well-located houses/apartments btw, so you don’t have to rent far-off junk. You just have to be on the ball 
Maybe somewhere close to the University of Pennsylvania? 
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As a NYer, I’m not so sure!
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Downtown Berkeley has some areas like this as does any urban center. The campus is gorgeous and the surrounding areas are really cute. Frat kids partying on Cal Day- yeah some. But it actually has small percentage of kids in Greek life for the size of the school.
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I didn’t check those, but '25 was vaguely considering UC Santa Cruz – I come from very a high cost area on east coast and have relatives with houses in Silicon Valley, and still about fell off my chair looking at the rents there anywhere near the school. I can only imagine Berkeley (is Boulder as bad as that too!?)
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The entire premise of this thread is making rash judgments about a location/school based on a single, often highly curated, visit. So don’t be sad that they often turn out to not be very reflective of reality.
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Yes, this is absolutely true. But I’m not sure most schools get the same kind of language tossed at them, based on a brief, or second-hand, or long-ago experience. I lived in Cambridge MA for 9 years and experienced many unpleasantly gritty urban moments near the universities there, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone comparing Harvard to a trashcan or armpit? Oh well!
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My sister had me review my nephew’s lease for living on the Hill in Boulder (right near campus in old houses) in 2015. It was the garden level of a house for 4 (maybe 5?) rooms. It was a basement, don’t kid yourself. It was 48k for 11 1/2 months (no one lives there for 2 weeks in August so they can fix it up). And a $7k security deposit, of which it was unlikely you’d get $3k back (cleaning, re-keying, replacing some things). For an extra fee, you could pay in installments (um, like monthly rent?) This was a 3 level house so they were also renting out the main floor and the second floor. $150k in rent per year to the landlord.
He did find a cheaper place on the other side of campus for the last years. A friend’s daughter is a few years younger and did find a tiny single apt close to campus and lived alone. There are places available, but you really have to look for them.
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Definitely expensive!
that is plain weird IMO.
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As an immigrant, we have seen some options like this - gets around having to do a credit check if the lease is paid upfront. (New immigrants don’t have credit history and neither do most foreign students I guess)
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The last time I was on Telegraph Avenue I didn’t think it looked very cute.
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People like to trash talk the Bay Area (as well as Portland, and Seattle where we live) as riddled with homeless people, dirty and unlivable. However, there are good reasons people choose to live in these cities. I won’t elaborate more.
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