So Many Options...

Introduction
I think one of the most difficult challenges for freshmen to overcome showing is being faced with so many different student groups, so many different opportunities and not having a good mentor or a good advisor to show them the path. I think that’s why a lot of kids go for the Greek system just because there are Seniors who can say “try this, this is what I did.” Freshmen are really just thrown into this pool and told, here’s where the advising office is and, by the way, the advisors there are old and have no idea what’s going on.” So the most difficult thing for freshmen is just that there’s so much to do, in addition to the fact that it’s so super competitive. It’s so competitive here and I’m over it. I’m over it because I’m smart and I’m not competing with people. I’m just trying to teach myself, and you’ve got to get good grades at the same time.

Campus Life and Social Life
Some classes are curved, others aren’t. You definitely have to do study sessions. Work with other people. You’ve got to teach yourself a lot of stuff. You get a lecture with about 500 kids, you get a discussion with about 30 and then they say, “okay, good thing you’ve had a relaxing 8 weeks, now it’s time for your final and it’s worth your entire grade.” You got to go to Berkeley, man. Don’t go somewhere else. We’re the #1 public university. We compete with Harvard and Yale and Princeton and all the big ones. It’s in an amazing location. We’re a city ourselves. We are a large student body so you’re always around kids. You can’t go anywhere and not be around peers. Academics
We have a huge athletic program. There’s UC Berkeley, and that’s where you get educated, and then there’s Cal, and that’s athletics. Football’s huge, Rugby’s Number 1 in the nation, Crew’s Number 1 in the nation, women’s Lacrosse is fantastic, Men’s Soccer’s great, baseball’s great, basketball’s great. We’ve got everything.

Student Body
I wanted to come to a college where no matter where I was, I could turn somewhere and there’d be someone in the grass reading. And this is it. We’ve got the hippie vibe. For as much activist liberalism as there is, there’s just as much conservative moderation.