Didn’t say Berkeley campus; I said the surrounding areas. Berkeley’s surrounding area is definitely more run-down than UCLA’s surrounding areas. I agree that Berkeley’s surrounding area is not that bad; I was comparing it to Westwood area.
I was including the surrounding areas as I didn’t get the “Berkeley struck me as a CA college in the middle of slightly run down NY city” vibe while there.
And this goes much more so for some older relatives including my grandmother who lived just two BART stops away and did so independently up until her passing in her late '80s in the late '90s. And Berkeley/surrounding areas were further spruced up when I visited again some years later.
We currently live in Silicon Valley and I can say that Westwood Village felt to me very much like areas of Palo Alto and Mountain View – well-maintained streets, restaurants/cafes/stores that are mostly upscale – not Beverly-Hills-type glam, just on the more upscale side, and also seeming to be locally owned, not cookie-cutter chains. Berkeley, at least the streets near the Cal campus, is much grittier, grimier (I mean that literally, as in the sidewalks just look grimier) and edgier.
I went to U of Chicago and then lived for years in not-very-upscale parts of San Francisco, so the Berkeley streets feel very familiar to me. That’s what I would have chosen when I was young (now that I’m middle-aged, urban grittiness has less appeal than it used to!).
@cobrat It would be a losing argument if you try to convince anybody here that UCB area is on par with UCLA’s Westwood/BeverlyHills/BelAir areas! Let’s consider legitimate strength of each school into the discussion, in which UCB has plenty (academic strength and so …).
As nice as the Westwood area around UCLA is, they don’t have a Top Dog! A point to Berkeley.
I think the non-glamorous feel surrounding campus serves to remind the students that they aren’t there on vacation. It strikes me as a highly focused student body.
My daughter had s similar choice (add in Cal Poly SLO). This weekend during Cal Day she committed to Berkeley. She came to the conclusion that she’d be stressed out anywhere and it might as well be at Cal. While she loved UCLA she has an anti-LA bias. Some advantages of UCLA are guaranteed dorms for more years (3 vs 1), and better food. UCB advantages are slightly better academic reputation, better mass transit, cheaper rent. In addition Berkeley has more flexibility in their meal plans and they allow students to dine closer to their classrooms.
Berkeley does have a LGBTQ themed section of the dorms that may be a good option though I don’t know what sort of guarantee you have.
@youcee Yes, Top Dog and Cheese Board Pizza!
@Old_parent, we have investigated LGBTQ theme housing on both campuses – it’s available at both, though as you say there are no guarantees. That’s not an imperative for D, although I think it would be a good way to find a community of people who are congenial – one thing I worry about with my D is that she is not at all social and not good at reaching out and making connections with people, so it’s very important that she be able to easily plug in to a community of like-minded people. That was always my worry with her attending a huge school like either Cal or UCLA. Obviously she’s not going to get along with every random stranger just because they are LGBTQ, but at least we wouldn’t have to worry that one of her roommates would actually be homophobic or something.
I got a text from D this morning saying that she’s leaning towards UCLA, so she may be ready to make a decision!
my cousin just finished her first year at cal and she said it was the most stressed she’d ever been. every day she was stressed out and everyone else is like that too. if you visit their meme page, you’ll realize that stress/depression is so ingrained that all of their memes/jokes always surround that topic.
and she’s a rhetoric major so it’s not even stress that comes from being in a competitive major like engineering/cs/pre-med/pre-law ect.
you seem already set on UCLA, and so did your daughter according to how you wrote about her. why is this even a question then?
My point was taking issue with equating Berkeley and its surrounding area as being a slightly run down version of NYC…especially considering I am a NYC native and grew up at the tail end of the high crime era.
The comparison didn’t fit when I visited in the late '90s and it fit even less several years later on a subsequent visit.
There’s a chasm of difference between saying Berkeley isn’t as spruced up as UCLA and saying the surrounding area around Berkeley is so gritty to imply it’s dangerous/unsafe.
We have a rising senior at UCB. Campus is pretty safe and dare I say picturesque. The view from Sather Tower of the GG bridge and Bay area rivals any real estate. UCLA Day is magical. The band comes out (oh men in capes, like Supermen)…arches of blue and yellow baloons, photos with the mother bruin. Meet and greet Jose and Josefina…Royce Hall…Starbucks adjacent to campus…Let’s just agree they are both tough to beat. Both have worldwide status of academic bastions. Both have unheard of number of applicants. You can’t go wrong with either!
Indeed. One of the great positives about Berkeley’s campus was that parts of it seemed like a serene forest.
Then again, I also loved UCLA for its campus layout and sunny Southern California vibe.
Loved both campuses for different reasons.
@cobrat I got your point. Thank you for clarification.
Coming back to update: D has committed to UCLA. Thanks everyone for your input!
Congrats to the family @dustypig!
Congratulations!!