Berkeley kids are gonna just like want to screw you over and they're gonna steal your laptop wet because everyone is like thirsty for research here Hey today, I'm gonna be telling you the 10 things about UC Berkeley that they do not tell you I'm gonna be talking about five good things and five bad things that you may not know the more like Low-key low-key things that are maybe not super low-key, but maybe they're like not high-key not low-key more like Mid-Key. Things about UC Berkeley. I'm gonna try to go as fast as possible because this building is gonna kick me out in 20 minutes I'm at the hospital of business and this is Choo Hall and it's really nice and it's a Sunday So it's really really empty and I like to do work here sometimes.
It looks like So the first bad thing about UC Berkeley that you may not know is that when people say, oh go to office hours, get to know your professors, gotta get that letter of rec, mingling stuff, whatever they tell you to do, that a lot of the big to medium-sized classes, when you go to professor office hours, it's like another mini lecture in there. there's like 30 40 kids there the professor is either lecturing going over concepts or just asking questions it's not really the most convenient time to be like making a connection with a professor trying to like snake up and get that letter wreck or try to slide into his research group if If you want to do something more like that, you might need to schedule a one-on-one appointment with your professor. That might be a big issue if you want to try to apply for like law school or grad school. You're probably going to get closer to the mentors that are upper division courses or seminar courses, which is kind of like eh for people who are not those specific majors that are not in those upper div classes. For example, like I'm pre-med, but I'm not a bio major.
So I'm probably not going to be taking a whole bunch of upper division bio classes, meaning I won't be able to get that one-on-one connection with like a STEM instructor. So I have to go a little bit more out of my way to get that personal connection Two, kind of going off of the first one It's pretty hard to get research here as an undergraduate because everyone is like thirsty for research here I feel like a lot of like lab cleaning, lab like BS positions, not as hard But if you want to get actual research, it's pretty hard And I think everyone and their goddamn moms are like wet to get into a research lab here For a school that does so much research I feel like the opportunities are not that easily accessible and they have URAP and programs But I feel like it doesn't really work very well, you can cold email all these labs and they won't even get back to you. So you have to know someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows someone who's like uncle knows someone, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah to get into a research lab on campus.
So that can be kind of a pain in the Kind of going off of this side note, the area has limited opportunities. If you're a pre-med student, Berkeley doesn't have a medical school, right? So we don't have a connector medical school that you can volunteer, shadow doctors, and stuff like that. We have technically UCSF, which is University of San Francisco, which is a very good university. which is a phenomenal medical school, and that was supposed to be our sister medical school or whatnot.
There's like four or five different schools in the Bay Area that also compete for the same resources at UCSF, so it's not really fair. It's not like if I went to UCLA undergrad, where the UCLA med school, they probably have like special programs or better opportunities for them to volunteer there, work there, research there, lab there, whatnot. So that can be kind of annoying.
Number three is that nobody told me that it's going to be this gloomy and this. not sunny. I grew up in Southern California where the weather is always awesome and I definitely took it for granted and here most of the days are gloomy, gray and then every like once in a while It's like a beautiful sunny hot day and you almost forget what it's like to... I don't know, wear short sleeves, wear short pants.
Maybe I'm being a little dramatic. People who come from the East Coast love NorCal weather because it's cold and breezy, but it's not that cold. But I think it's freezing cold half the time and it rains a lot and I'm like, I don't know about that because the more it rains, the more I use Uber and the more I use Uber, the more money I spend on Uber because I'm too lazy to walk to class. And honestly, every time it rains, I just don't want to walk anywhere and it's wet. So the fourth bad thing about UC Berkeley is that it's kind of in sketchy.
KetchTown, okay, maybe because I grew up in such a sheltered area There's a lot of homeless people there not to say that all the homeless people create all the crime But there's also a lot of crime. We're near Oakland, San Francisco These are like very big cities that also have a lot of high crime So that can get kind of annoying and pretty scary as a girl walking home alone at night So either always have like my friends walk me home. I take uber or lyft religiously or take the buses But honestly, it just gets kind of annoying because on our phones we do get like emails every time there's a crime report.
And like people would be just sitting at a cafe and someone in broad daylight would just like take their laptop and run or like jump into a van and stuff. So I'm like, what are you talking about? Like how, how's that even happening?
I don't like to work in outside cafes anymore because people's stuff is just get like, when they just come up to your table, take your laptop and run and run into a freaking sketch van. Like kind of concerning, you know, it's not like, oh, like she was out about at night. It just happens in broad daylight to girls and guys.
So freaking sketch town. And go. going off of that point it's pretty jank in terms of like housing and stuff housing is one freaking Freakin' expensive, right?
And two, like, you can make the argument it's just as expensive. Like, SoCal and LA and LA's expensive. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
But at least the stuff in LA is decently nice and it matches that price point. But stuff here is, like, ridiculously expensive and super jank and run down. And the people in the Bay Area, freaking annoying because the landlords in the Bay Area, they know that students aren't going to be looking for housing anyway. They don't have to renovate.
So it's, like, super jank, super run down, and super expensive, and super gross. What else are you going to do, you know? So the last thing about UC Berkeley no one tells you about is that I know people definitely mentioned how competitive UC Berkeley can get and I think I'm gonna mention that in another video, but no one mentions like how clubs can be like Annoyingly, I don't know pretentious and competitive for absolutely no reason Everyone at UC Berkeley is just as qualified as one another and some of the clubs on campus have like five six round interviews and socials Networking events coffee chats like dude. This isn't like the real world.
Stop taking yourself so freaking seriously, right? I know from being on the recruiting side of taking interview and applications from clubs that I'm in for clubs that I have a position And we'll do recruiting but I also know from being on the other side of like actually being the one like applying to clubs and stuff I hate both sides of it And I think it's unnecessary and super annoying some clubs will have like four or five hundred people apply and only take two people people actually Get so emotionally invested I feel like some of these clubs are harder to get into than top banking firms or something dude like you're just a school club like Freaking relax, you know, I think it hurts more that like your peers are saying no to you rather than Like a firm and a whole bunch of professionals are saying like, oh you got rejected from a job That's like different from when your peers are saying Oh like we don't think you're good enough or we don't think you're a right fit, right? Or whatever like BSA tell you Like my advice is like join the clubs you want to You know, you're gonna find a great group of people wherever you go And it's really what you put into it, not necessarily what exact club it is and what they do, you know? And now I'm gonna be talking about the five good things about UC Berkeley that you might not know of The first thing is that going alongside people are competitive I don't think that that stereotype is correct UC Berkeley kids are all super snaky You They won't help you with notes, won't help you with exams.
I know it happens and I'm sure that happens at every campus, but I don't think that's- it happens enough here to make it like a stereotype that Berkeley kids are gonna just like want to screw you over and they're gonna steal your laptop and stuff so you can't study. For the most part, I think people are pretty decent, um, good people. You're gonna have to find good people like wherever you go, right?
Number two good thing about UC Berkeley is that I feel like most people here don't care about like looks, image, and you know, I feel like maybe going to a different school in like different areas, like maybe like wealth and appearance and like the way your body is and like makeup and all that is like really important But I feel like at UC Berkeley people are just so caught up in studying and they don't have a time of day to do That not a big deal if you go to class no makeup, obviously Berkeley weighs importance on other bulls You know, that's not any better. But for this argument sake I do think that's a thing to note especially for girls You know number three, I think classes here are pretty approachable I didn't say doable because obviously there are some other classes that are way more difficult than others and it all depends your work ethic Like the amount of effort you're putting into your natural talents, just luck, right? But I do think that the classes here, even at the intro level, are pretty approachable. And there are a lot of resources that help you.
And you just have to look for it. I know Berkeley gets a lot of crap for like, oh, we don't have a lot of resources. There are resources. You have to really dig for it and really want it. SLC tutoring, peer tutoring groups, whatever.
Like even just like posting on the Facebook page. Hey guys, I'm in Bio 1A. And anyone want to make a study group? And like nine times out of ten, you're going to get a response.
people who add me to chat, add me to the doc. I do think it's fairly approachable to do classes here and although there is great deflation and set grading bins because exams are so hard. I do think it's not hard to pass a class, you know what I mean?
Maybe it's hard to do well in a class, but I do think generally they make it approachable for you to at least pass a class because honestly they don't have room for you to fail the class, right? They don't want people repeating the course. They need people to like get out because the incoming class is coming in.
And the fourth good thing about UC Berkeley is that activism is really, really big on campus. And I know we get the negative stereotype of like, oh, all you guys do is protest. But actually it's not all the Berkeley students are protesting. It's like Berkeley. Berkeley is a hub, central ground.
It is where free speech started. So a lot of local activism groups will come on campus to protest and to voice their opinions. And whether that's beneficial or not, I think it's something kind of beautiful to see so many people passionate about whatever they believe, regardless of whether I agree with them or not. I feel like only thing people see on the news is like, I don't know, riots, things burning down on campus, which happens like every once in a while when it's really, really bad. But on a general sense, I actually think it's pretty great to see people so passionate about.
what they believe in. You just gain so much more respect for different perspectives. The last good thing about UC Berkeley is that I know sometimes people say Berkeley is so huge and like just geographically and like physically and yes it is big. A lot of the buildings are squished together pretty well so it's not like other UCs where everything's like super spaced out and you have to walk like 20-30 minutes.
The class buildings are pretty like Like you know put together in a little square and it's Probably from to gets from one end of where most classes are to one end of where other most classes are The longest distance would be like 15-20 minutes going from east side to west side But which I don't think is that bad Especially if you speedwalk. Thank you so much for watching and I hope this was informative. Let me know if you have any questions.
And I'm pretty responsive and receptive to answering questions about Berkeley and Haas and pre-med and stuff like that. And... Go Bears!
My face is so hot because I spoke non-stop for 20 minutes. One take, you know, because your girl is a one take wonder.