<p>No sugar-coating. Let’s try to condense things into at least a 50/50 opinion kind of statement…it makes things easier on me; anyone can make a bad thing seem good with the right words, and vice versa.</p>
<li><p>Are kids social/is there a good social scene?</p></li>
<li><p>Is housing comfortable?</p></li>
<li><p>Is the weather generally above 50 deg. Farenheit, no wind or rain?</p></li>
<li><p>Are YOU happy and, given the option to go anywhere else, would you stay?</p></li>
<li><p>Is it hard to make friends/go to parties if you don’t go Greek/join special clubs?</p></li>
<li><p>For the MOST part, do kids prove to be nice, friendly kids who offer stimulating intellectual conversation? I.e., despite the morons, does it feel like you are among smart people most of the time?</p></li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li> Too many people to lump together. Some are, some aren’t</li>
<li> Not really</li>
<li> Yes</li>
<li>Yes and yes</li>
<li>It wasn’t for me</li>
<li>Yes (unless you ask politeantagonis)</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li><p>Are kids social/is there a good social scene? eh. </p></li>
<li><p>Is housing comfortable? yes. </p></li>
<li><p>Is the weather generally above 50 deg. Farenheit, no wind or rain? above 50 deg generally; but lots of rain</p></li>
<li><p>Are YOU happy and, given the option to go anywhere else, would you stay? Eh to the happy, and if I had the option to go anywhere else, I would </p></li>
<li><p>Is it hard to make friends/go to parties if you don’t go Greek/join special clubs? A bit </p></li>
<li><p>For the MOST part, do kids prove to be nice, friendly kids who offer stimulating intellectual conversation? I.e., despite the morons, does it feel like you are among smart people most of the time? Eh. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>but that’s just my experience. there are from what i can tell more kids who are in love with cal than not.</p>
<p>Sweetdreams, what year are you? And are you just having a hard time meeting people?</p>
<p>Edit:
I’m not trying to be a jerk. I feel for you if you’re not clicking with people or whatever the reason. I’ll help point you in some different direction if I can.</p>
<p>Keep in mind, I’m a first-year, so this only reflects less than one year of experience. It may or may not change as the years ago by.</p>
<ol>
<li>Yes</li>
<li>Yes</li>
<li>Neither, I would say. It is general around or above 50, but it’s often at least breezy, if not windy.</li>
<li>Yes, and depends. My ultimate dream school my high school sophomore year was Columbia, but I knew my own personal academic level won’t cut it at that school and Berkeley eventually became my top choice as time went on. I may choose Columbia over Berkeley, though, if given a choice now. But any other school, I’d probably still choose Berkeley.</li>
<li>No</li>
<li>The conversation may not always be intellectual and/or stimulating, but everyone I’ve met are generally friendly and fun to be around.</li>
</ol>
<p>I know, I know, I know I’m just a first year and things will be better blahblahblahblah. :)</p>
<p>It’s weird. I don’t think they’re trying to be jerks, but Berkeley CC people always get really defensive whenever I say that negative things about Berkeley, or negative things about the social aspect of things, and it’s frustrating. I’m not at all antisocial, I’m one of those people who smiles at everyone in the hallways/bathrooms, I was the president of a million clubs in high school and tons of leadership stuff…and here I’m involved in activities, I take a full (but not overly heavy load), etc. </p>
<p>Last semester I was completely miserable here, and this semester…it’s definitely better (hence the “eh” to happy), but there are definitely schools I would transfer to if I could. I think it’s hard to click with people here…it’s so large. I do admit also that I am pretty demanding in terms of friendships/relationships, and I need some sort of chemistry/click-ness. Academically…I feel like I’m much worse a student now (i.e. missing class, procrastinating, quality of work, effort, etc) than in high school and I don’t know if it’s me or if I just don’t feel engaged with my classes or whatever.</p>
<p>I went to a small-ish prep school (actually we were pretty large for private schools…) and I had a really close group of friends, maybe that’s why it’s been hard. But…it’s tough because all my other close high school friends (none of whom went to public universities) are all madly in love with their respective colleges, and I’m…not.</p>
<p>The only time I go out of my way to be a jerk is when people come here and say “the social scene sucks here and everyone sucks and they’re all stupid ■■■■■■■…” If someone says they’re not having a good time I will usually empathetic to their situation becuase it took me a while to find a comfort zone too. And I won’t tell you that it will get better. Maybe it wont. It probably will, but who knows.</p>
<p>Well if I’ve said that I’m sorry. I meant most … as in over half. And don’t say you can just ignore them. I’ve pointed out several ways in which they can demean the berkeley experience. They drag class discussions down and make it easier for people to be anti-social to each other (since its more of an accepted norm). Freshman are always nice; I’ve found seniors in general to be far more jaded and quiet. That’s something I’ve definitely noticed about the Berkeley experience.</p>
<p>Anyways back to the original topic:</p>
<p>1) 1. Are kids social/is there a good social scene? Depends its a big school and will depend on your major and the activites you do. The more of a commitment an activity is, the more likely you will be freinds with people in that activity (Band, or a sports team for example). Clubs generally do not fall into this category. Many times you will be friends by proximity rather than interest. ALl the clubs about majors and professional stuff (i.e. economics club, premed club) are poor proxies for interests that make peopel friends IMO. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Is housing comfortable? Depends. North, east is a nice quiet suburb. South/West is the ghetto.</p></li>
<li><p>Is the weather generally above 50 deg. Farenheit, no wind or rain? Yes, but there is lots of wind almost all the time. This year it has rained a lot but it is usually rainy during the winter which is end/beginning of Fall/spring semesters.</p></li>
<li><p>Are YOU happy and, given the option to go anywhere else, would you stay? Not really, and yes.</p></li>
<li><p>Is it hard to make friends/go to parties if you don’t go Greek/join special clubs? See above. You need to do an activity that has a big commitment and be willing to make friends that may not have more than a few things in common with you. If you are not selective about friends this is not likely a problem.</p></li>
<li><p>For the MOST part, do kids prove to be nice, friendly kids who offer stimulating intellectual conversation? I.e., despite the morons, does it feel like you are among smart people most of the time? </p></li>
</ol>
<p>First question: Niceness depends. Some majors produce jerks. Intellectual conversation? I don’t find it so, but there are smart people at Berkeley if you try hard enough to find them. Second question: No, I feel most people aren’t motivated, and Berkeley allows for a lot of people to fall through the cracks. I’ve met a lot of weird jerks here in a lot of avenues. Clubs, in housing, etc. Berkeley’s impersonal nature breeds anti-social behavior in my opinion.</p>
<p>^^^If you would’ve come out of the gates speaking like this you wouldn’t have got so much shyt. Instead you came out swinging, saying everyone here is a liberal/crazy idiot. I still don’t agree with you, but atleast now you’re being a tiny bit civil.</p>
<p>You know I’m a part of that group too so you shouldn’t take offense at it And if you remembered my very first post:</p>
<p>“4) Poor quality peers. This is subjective but most of the people you meet will be not smart and many times will slow down the class by asking dumb questions. They are the “cream” of the crop of the 2nd worst high school system in the US, where 1/3 of all students drop out, and it really shows many times.”</p>
<p>I said nothing of the sort that all people were dumb, just that many peers were pretty apathetic.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Are kids social/is there a good social scene?
It’s a huge school so I think that there is something/someone/a clique for everyone here. It may not be easy to find, though.</p></li>
<li><p>Is housing comfortable? N/A</p></li>
<li><p>Is the weather generally above 50 deg. Farenheit, no wind or rain?
I keep hearing that it’s been raining a lot more this spring than last year (I started here last Fall). In general the weather is pleasant though - 60s, sometimes 70s, often with a bit of a breeze.</p></li>
<li><p>Are YOU happy and, given the option to go anywhere else, would you stay?
Yes, yes</p></li>
<li><p>Is it hard to make friends/go to parties if you don’t go Greek/join special clubs?
I’m not a party person, but I’d imagine that to be invited to the really cool parties, you have to know someone. As for friends, you can always meet people and make friends in your classes. Or in your suite or floor or dorm. I guess it depends on what kind of person you are, too.</p></li>
<li><p>For the MOST part, do kids prove to be nice, friendly kids who offer stimulating intellectual conversation? I.e., despite the morons, does it feel like you are among smart people most of the time?
You don’t always have stimulating intellectual conversation outside the classroom. If you strike up a conversation with some random stranger say in the elevator in Moffitt or Main Stacks, the topic would probably be something like the weather. Discussion sections, though, are something else. You can meet some really bright people who do know what they’re talking about (or know what they’re asking about). </p></li>
</ol>
<p>There are of course bad eggs in every batch, and Berkeley being populated by roughly 23,000 undergrads, we probably have more bad eggs than other top-tier schools.</p>
<p>so much for yes/no, lol. the point was, despite the generalizations it would produce, OVERALL does it lean towards yes or no. That way I could get a clearer picture of what’s sugarcoating and what’s literal ‘this is pretty much the gut feeling I get at this place’</p>
And if you remembered my very first post:</p>