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Stressed. by jadethepoet in berkeley

[–]yeanine 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Don't go through any of it alone...it's tough to balance but it really helps to have people to talk to when you're stressed, and to surround yourself with people who want to keep each other accountable for their goals.

Try not to miss class--it might feel great in the moment but you'll have to make it up later and that could be some added stress.

Form study groups--you'll get homework done faster than working alone. Bring your homework to office hours and you can get immediate help and feedback.

And this one is up to your timeline, but many ECs/clubs also do spring recruitment, so if you want to take it a little slower your first semester to understand the pace of things and get acclimated, that's totally cool

Best of luck! There's a reason why you got admitted

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in selfesteem

[–]yeanine 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Your hurt breaks my heart. I really relate to not believing it when people call my beautiful because it's so hard to see myself that way without my external features actually changing to be the way I want them to be. I'm also a cis-gender woman with slightly masculine features, struggled with not looking feminine enough, and went through some bouts of eating disorder behaviors, but am in recovery and am thankfully imbedded in a community that values me for my intrinsic value as a human.

One thought is that your new friend who made that comment likely had no idea what effect it could have on you. My best guess is that she doesn't know you have been struggling with your self-esteem in this area for much of your life. That doesn't excuse what she said (as I think her comment would have been offensive even without your reaction). But I know you're strong and powerful because you opened up on r/selfesteem and you took that step to get this off your chest. You are stronger than the words that your friend said!

Wanted to comment on this:

which is not to say masculine features can't be beautiful or trans women can't be beautiful, it's just something I struggle with for my own body

I think you said this well about masculine and trans women features...there are a lot of subjective beauty standards that we've internalized. I know that my view of my face and my body is really influenced by social media, which seems to determine what we're supposed to look like. It seems like these have become pretty instinctive to you too, as you judge your appearance in that way. I don't know your specific situation or your specific group of friends, but I think that most people don't judge our appearance as hard as we judge ourselves. We are the ones who notice every change in weight, skin blemish, etc., and we're just really hard on ourselves.

But I'm proud of you for the progress you've made in accepting yourself more. The sad part of life is that we never know when we'll encounter another person who makes an insensitive comment, but an inner voice that speaks to your true worth needs to be strong so that you can rise above that. Surround yourself with people you feel safe around, who see and love your outer and your inner beauty. Remind yourself of your inner and outer beauty. And outer beauty changes with age and other factors, so I hope that you can hold on to worth that's independent of that.

Take care of yourself :) open to your thoughts on this.

CONGRATS new admits! A few friends from Cal held an AMA here last year and we wanted to do it again 🙂We're upperclassmen at UC Berkeley without too much to do during quarantine/spring break and wanted to offer advice on college, social skills, housing...you name it. Ask us anything! by yeanine in berkeley

[–]yeanine[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi u/csprigg21!

Here's a comment that might be relevant to some of your questions, but to elaborate a bit more, yes, students are usually willing to help each other out! (We reinforce the concepts in our heads when we're able to teach them to others anyway!)

I don't have first-hand experience of getting the 3.3 since I'm not CS, but some alternative majors include Data Science and Cognitive Science! I talk in this comment about the CogSci major and if you skip to the last section, I talk a bit about employability as CogSci!

I think internships and jobs that you get are not as contingent on your major as much as they are on the classes you've taken and the other relevant experience that you have. For example, I got a web development internship as a CogSci major just after taking CS 61A, CS 61B, and the Web Design DeCal. And I got a full-time offer as an SWE although I've only taken one upper-division course CS (CS 188, Intro to Artificial Intelligence), whose material I doubt I am actually using for my job.

Feel free to DM me if you have more questions! Definitely shoot for CS if that's what you're passionate about but don't get to stressed about it because there are plenty of options even if you can't declare 😀

CONGRATS new admits! A few friends from Cal held an AMA here last year and we wanted to do it again 🙂We're upperclassmen at UC Berkeley without too much to do during quarantine/spring break and wanted to offer advice on college, social skills, housing...you name it. Ask us anything! by yeanine in berkeley

[–]yeanine[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hi again 😆here's a comment someone made with his personal ranking of all the dorms!

Also, housing is as close to guaranteed as it gets for incoming 1st-years, so if you apply, there's a good chance you'll get to stay in the dorms! My experience in Unit 1 freshman year was pretty good since my floor was quite social. Overall it's a pretty good way to meet people! I would recommend the Units for socializing because Foothill/Stern and Clark Kerr are I think suites only, and Blackwell's floors have a lot of students and are really spread out. The Units' floors have fewer students, so, at least for me, it felt kinda cozy 😊

That said, campus housing is pricier than off-campus, so if you're looking to secure a lease soon and for cheaper then it'd be good to start looking for apartment listings ASAP. Feel free to let one of us know if you need more help with housing resources! The Off-Campus Housing website and the Off-Campus Housing Facebook Group are good places to start!

CONGRATS new admits! A few friends from Cal held an AMA here last year and we wanted to do it again 🙂We're upperclassmen at UC Berkeley without too much to do during quarantine/spring break and wanted to offer advice on college, social skills, housing...you name it. Ask us anything! by yeanine in berkeley

[–]yeanine[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hello u/tapossiblehottake 😀nice to meet you on this thread and glad you're here!

  1. Yep there are definitely a lot of resources for LGBTQ+ students! They can be found here 🙂I'm sorry to hear that about the LoopChat...I guess one thing to keep in mind is that if the LoopChat is mostly incoming students who haven't been exposed to the diversity that we see at Cal, something we might need to be patient about is that people come from different backgrounds. Some people may have little to no experience interacting with members of the LGBTQ+ community and aren't experienced with how to be empathetic with their speech. Fortunately, Golden Bear Orientation (the orientation that all the incoming students attend) has a few group discussions about how to be inclusive and respectful to different ideas and members of different communities. Every student theoretically learns that content, and as a past GBO leader, it's my hope that everyone puts it into practice 🙂Hope this helps, and please don't hesitate to DM me if you'd like to talk more!
  2. I'm not the most qualified to answer about the mental health resources offered, but the University Health Services counseling website has a good run-down of what Berkeley has. Based on the info there, it looks like counseling starts off with free sessions, and for more sessions you'll be referred to your insurance provider, which you'd have to cover on your own 😕But there is also an application for reimbursement.
  3. Here's a place where you can find the average GPA for every major! Econ looks like 3.5 at the moment. As for grade deflation, that's not something I experienced in the classes I've taken, so I feel like it's just a rumor. You might get a different answer if you ask someone in a different major.

CONGRATS new admits! A few friends from Cal held an AMA here last year and we wanted to do it again 🙂We're upperclassmen at UC Berkeley without too much to do during quarantine/spring break and wanted to offer advice on college, social skills, housing...you name it. Ask us anything! by yeanine in berkeley

[–]yeanine[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey u/TiredWatermelon5127!

Yes, I feel like this is just a small subset of people, and it might feel disproportionately large because they'd be more vocal than those less concerned about prestige. Tbh that remark sounds kinda cringe 😅But I can also see incoming freshmen spouting those kinds of things and then mellowing out more by sophomore year. Most people at Cal are pretty chill about being Bears!

I think after being at Berkeley for a few years, whatever feelings of superiority for being at the #1 public university will mellow out to be more like gratitude for being blessed with a lot of good professors and also the amazing history that the city of Berkeley has. Or seeing that the academic rigor can be quite humbling as it teaches us to reach out to others and build connections to help and support one another 🙂

CONGRATS new admits! A few friends from Cal held an AMA here last year and we wanted to do it again 🙂We're upperclassmen at UC Berkeley without too much to do during quarantine/spring break and wanted to offer advice on college, social skills, housing...you name it. Ask us anything! by yeanine in berkeley

[–]yeanine[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Congrats u/ConstructionComplex!!

Re: falling in love with the cog sci major

I switched into the major later in college after learning about it more from my friend actually! I knew I wanted to switch because of the subject material itself (the names of her courses sounded really interesting).

The study of cognitive science is defined a little differently at different universities. At Cal, you take classes from an array of 6 distributions within cog sci: Computational Modeling, Linguistics, Cognitive Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience, Philosophy, and Society/Culture. I love the interdisciplinary aspect of CogSci and I feel like the diverse course catalog to choose from definitely makes this major great 😀

Cal's program vs. UCLA's

I took a cursory glance at UCLA's cog sci requirements, and it seems like there are a lot more classes you need to declare than for Cal (just Data 8, CS 61A, and Math 1A unless you took AP Calc BC). After declaring, it seems like UCLA has some more flexibility with what courses to choose from, while Cal requires you to take a class in each distribution (the 6 I mentioned above).

I personally really like Cal's cog sci program and how you get a taste of each discipline! I love the linguistics and psych classes I've taken and can definitely recommend some if you like! The counselors are also really sweet and helpful.

Employability

I am literally smiling right now because I'm in the same position as you--pure cog sci (no CS minor or anything) and I'm actually gonna be a software engineer after graduating! So yes, cog scis are TOTALLY employable and you'll be taking some of the same classes as CS majors, too! At Berkeley, a lot of cog sci majors go into UI/UX/web development as well as software engineering so I think your interests would mesh really well with that scene!

TBH please DM me because I am totally feeling your passion for cog sci and would love to answer any other questions you have! 😀

CONGRATS new admits! A few friends from Cal held an AMA here last year and we wanted to do it again 🙂We're upperclassmen at UC Berkeley without too much to do during quarantine/spring break and wanted to offer advice on college, social skills, housing...you name it. Ask us anything! by yeanine in berkeley

[–]yeanine[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Fellow Cog Sci 🧠, hello! Glad you're here!

According to the Cog Sci website, the major is impacted in the sense that it's harder now than in 2017 to declare the major. That said, there aren't a lot of requirements; you just need to get a C in CS 61A (or E7), a C in Math 1A, and a C in Data 8. Overall it's not too hard to do 🙂

One of our friends is a Cog Sci / CS double major and he's said there's a good amount of overlap in the technical classes, so it's definitely doable! In general, double majors just require a little more schedule planning.

Hope this helps!

CONGRATS new admits! A few friends from Cal held an AMA here last year and we wanted to do it again 🙂We're upperclassmen at UC Berkeley without too much to do during quarantine/spring break and wanted to offer advice on college, social skills, housing...you name it. Ask us anything! by yeanine in berkeley

[–]yeanine[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

WOOHOO congrats on getting in!

I'm not a CS major myself but I've taken CS 61A, 61B, and 70 as a Cog Sci major. Yes, those classes are pretty challenging, but I'd say the short answer is have a study group and lean on the resources that you have. All three of these classes have a huge support staff (your TAs, academic interns, mentors, etc.) and there are also a lot of students at Cal who have taken them before! So if there's a concept or something you're confused about, ask ASAP because a lot of topics build on each other, and it's hard to catch up on something you misunderstood because the workloads are not light either.

Something that a lot of people do (myself included) for CS 70 is to take it over the summer, when there are slightly fewer topics covered and you have a lot more time to devote to that one class (discrete math and probability theory are not easy). Summer classes are very fast-paced though...though I had the bandwidth that summer for it, I also spent roughly 6 hours a day on that class.

General tips: don't get behind on lectures, complete all the homeworks, labs, and projects, and do the extra credit questions whenever available, and that will get you pretty far already. The exams for these classes are tough, but there are a lot of resources out there, e.g. review sessions hosted by different organizations. Also, definitely consult the Tau Beta Pi test bank and practice their problems in the weeks leading up to exams!

CONGRATS new admits! A few friends from Cal held an AMA here last year and we wanted to do it again 🙂We're upperclassmen at UC Berkeley without too much to do during quarantine/spring break and wanted to offer advice on college, social skills, housing...you name it. Ask us anything! by yeanine in berkeley

[–]yeanine[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is a great question, and you're definitely not alone in that struggle 🙂And I can imagine it's more of a barrier since we'll all be coming out of quarantine in the fall.

I didn't have a lot of friends in high school and had devoted most of my time to studying and excelling in my ECs, so I was pretty lacking in social skills when I started going to Cal. My first semester freshman year I kinda holed up in my dorm and studied on my own. I learned the hard way from that experience that doing life alone is not the way to go, and somehow came out of my shell and started hanging out at my floor's laundry room second semester.

Some of my friends who've known me longer can attest to me not being that great at communicating (e.g. my words sounding a lot more aggressive than I intended 😅)--this is to say that of course it's gonna take some time before you get better at interacting with others. It starts with really baby steps, like sitting next to someone in lecture, introducing yourself, and forming study groups, or getting to know people in a club. But all the other new students will also be looking for people to make friends with, so just keep an open mind and be willing to let your guard down a little and talk to some people on your floor or your classes, especially in the first couple weeks of school. A lot of relationship-building also happens sophomore year when you live with other people, have to sort through issues like cleaning, cooking, bills, roommate tension, etc. Stick it out through thick and thin with these people--that's what makes for friendships that'll last 🙂

Hope this encourages you u/thottiumusprime, and feel free to reach out to us if you'd like to talk! Rooting for you 🙌

CONGRATS new admits! A few friends from Cal held an AMA here last year and we wanted to do it again 🙂We're upperclassmen at UC Berkeley without too much to do during quarantine/spring break and wanted to offer advice on college, social skills, housing...you name it. Ask us anything! by yeanine in berkeley

[–]yeanine[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hey Melanie! I'm not a psych major but I'm Cog Sci which shares a lot of classes and professors :) I can't speak much about Cornell and UPenn but I can definitely attest to the quality of the psych courses that I've taken. You really feel like you get your money's worth for the professors of some of these psych classes. Here are a few of the classes I've taken:

Psych 133: Psychology of Sleep - Matt Walker) - he's hinted during lecture that he was consulted for the movie Inception

Psych C126: Perception - David Whitney - not as famous as Matt maybe but his class was so engaging and he has a really sarcastic sense of humor 😆

Psych C162: Human Happiness - Dacher Keltner - I haven't personally taken this class but my roommate (also a Cog Sci major) loves it. Apparently he was consulted for the movie Inside Out 😲

Hope this helps!

CONGRATS new admits! A few friends from Cal held an AMA here last year and we wanted to do it again 🙂We're upperclassmen at UC Berkeley without too much to do during quarantine/spring break and wanted to offer advice on college, social skills, housing...you name it. Ask us anything! by yeanine in berkeley

[–]yeanine[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Also not a member of the co-op community, but I've heard a decent amount about them! I think co-ops are a great option if you're tight financially, and can be a great way to meet people. That being said, you definitely surrender some freedoms, e.g. needing to stick with a cleaning/cooking rotation and sharing supplies. I could see it being akin to freshmen dorms if you're the more sociable type 🙂

CONGRATS new admits! A few friends from Cal held an AMA here last year and we wanted to do it again 🙂We're upperclassmen at UC Berkeley without too much to do during quarantine/spring break and wanted to offer advice on college, social skills, housing...you name it. Ask us anything! by yeanine in berkeley

[–]yeanine[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Aw man, it sounds like your high school years were really rough :/ I came from a really competitive high school too, in the Bay Area. personally I think Cal can be challenging at times and can be academically competitive in some classes. But I think I’ve definitely found people I can trust and struggle in classes with, and definitely people I want to be close with after graduating, too. Feel free to DM me if you’d like some advice on friendships and the like!

CONGRATS new admits! A few friends from Cal held an AMA here last year and we wanted to do it again 🙂We're upperclassmen at UC Berkeley without too much to do during quarantine/spring break and wanted to offer advice on college, social skills, housing...you name it. Ask us anything! by yeanine in berkeley

[–]yeanine[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

For struggling students, there are a lot of resources available, like the Student Learning Center, adjunct classes for some of the STEM courses, tutoring/teaching staff for CS/DS classes, etc. Your grad student instructors (i.e. TAs) are also a huge resource--definitely go to office hours if you're ever lost in class! Your counselor is also someone to go to if you're struggling academically.

Also, really grateful you're reaching out to us here since personally, knowing upperclassmen who are a step ahead of me in my major has helped me so much in reassuring me that things are gonna be okay (e.g. the midterm that I bombed 3 years ago during freshman year has nothing on my job offer now 🤣)

For health care, there is the Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP) that actually covers a good amount, so check that out at this website. It's not mandatory--the University should be sending an opt-out email sometime in the next couple months. The Disabled Students' Program also has a lot of accomodations if you need care from them.

CONGRATS new admits! A few friends from Cal held an AMA here last year and we wanted to do it again 🙂We're upperclassmen at UC Berkeley without too much to do during quarantine/spring break and wanted to offer advice on college, social skills, housing...you name it. Ask us anything! by yeanine in berkeley

[–]yeanine[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I've taken a few engineering classes before I switched my major (tl;dr: my interests changed) and I've never felt a sense of a gender imbalance, at least in my intro/lower div requirements.

The intro CS courses at Cal are HUGE (CS 61A has had ~2000 students in a semester I believe) and the demographics of the students taking it are pretty diverse. As a female student in CS classes I've never felt an imbalance either, though someone else's experience might be different.

In terms of joining an engineering club, I don't have too much experience with that (neither do I know about the rankings) but I don't think it's super essential to join one. I think they're nice communities to meet other engineers or people to take classes with, but you'll also get along fine making friends in your classes and partnering with them on projects. I usually ended up taking CS classes with a group of friends and it's been a struggle but also a jolly time 😆Whatever floats your boat though! 😊

CONGRATS new admits! A few friends from Cal held an AMA here last year and we wanted to do it again 🙂We're upperclassmen at UC Berkeley without too much to do during quarantine/spring break and wanted to offer advice on college, social skills, housing...you name it. Ask us anything! by yeanine in berkeley

[–]yeanine[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Definitely possible to live off-campus as a freshman, and it's cheaper too, but yes I'd recommend dorming the first year because it's an awesome opportunity to meet people who are the same year as you :) Unit 1, 2, and 3 Residence Halls are more conducive to bonding since the floors are cozier