Cornelia Binkley

Review of UC Berkeley

I love CAL. My son, who is a frosh this year (2013...

I love CAL. My son, who is a frosh this year (2013/14) love Cal. Maybe there is less beauracracy at Yale, as an earlier commenter stated, but he, me, we made the effort, and have had personalized, hands-on tremendous service. No, they are not knocking on doors fluffing and spreading red carpets, like perhaps at Princeton and Yale where students are royalty and treated as such, but WOW, with a minimal amount of effort my son has , with my help, navigated all and it's all there, every kind of service, help, one can imagine, and UCB is just as well-thought of nationally and internationally as if it is Harvard or Stanford in enough circles and those closed circles may be able to be accessed with a jump from public ugrad UCB to snootville/connections U Ivy League grad school later.

There are NO Final Clubs (Harvard) or Eating Clubs (Princeton) where just money, but you and your family best have plenty, and power, and influence. there are notable social stratifications at the Ivy League, Dartmouth (drunkards with nothing to do but haze), that is absent from UC Berkeley. Cal is a dream-come-true and there are plenty here who prefer CA, SF Bay to freeze your patootie off, over-crowded East of Mississippi. At least we're warm at our bus stops! Pacific Rim, so much closer, too, I love and admire my son's Administrative Staff who are there with answers quicker than one can blink, if approached. Go Bears!!!!! Go Admissions. Go L&S Advising. Go Haas Advising. Go Polit Econ Advising. Go Russian and Mandarin departs and and and,...he's only touched the tip of the iceberg of CAL. Go Fin Aid. Go Go Go, wonderful students and staff everywhere...so says my son. I am not attending - didn't make it past Cupertino's De Anza's RN School community college. I live vicariously as so many parents do.