1st year on campus

Living On My Own & The Reality Of It

March 20, 2024

Unlike most college students, I didn’t move out at seventeen. No, instead I moved out at nineteen, when I transferred to Berkeley to finish my college career as an upperclassmen.

After realizing that I was going to be moving to Berkeley from Southern California and living on my own, hundreds of miles away from my family, I was excited but also scared.

There are so many positives when it comes to living on your own and the expectations that I had were most definitely met.

The first thing was making my own schedule without...

[Re]Finding My Academic Passions

March 8, 2024

Coming into Cal, you’re thrown into a university with much to offer. With six undergraduate colleges, there’s definitely a lot to choose from for your academic pursuits. In the College of Letters and Science alone, there are over 80 different majors to explore and 500 courses you can take alone. Constantly, new majors and minors are being unveiled, and students can engage in a wide variety of different academic departments and programs. When I started at Cal in 2021, I came in as a pre-law student interested in a whole bunch of majors. I switched around a lot (and I mean… A LOT)....

How Trial & Error Helped Me Find My Passion

March 6, 2024

I’m an English major, but how did I get here?

When we are young, there are a plethora of things that we want to be, but as we get older, dreams change as we do. What I wanted to do when I was younger is vastly different from what I want to do now, but to get where I am, I went through what I like to call phases, until I found something I truly wanted to pursue.

You see, when I was in elementary school, I wanted to be a fashion designer. Although that idea died as quickly as it was formed. Not only was I a terrible artist, my ideas were...

Asks from the Past: Answering Random Questions From My Freshman Year

March 4, 2024

Incoming college students are often told that the answer to any specific question is just to Google. But what if there’s no Reddit post or YouTube video with your specific query? In my freshman year, I compiled a list of my questions so my future self could respond. And here I am as a sophomore, providing answers to both arbitrary and serious asks from the past.

First up, we have the dorms: I lived on a single-gender floor in Unit 1 my first year.

1. Can we bring a hair dryer? Can we bring a kettle?

Yes, you can bring...

Why I Chose to Boycott Advice During My First Semester

March 1, 2024

If you thought this was a blog providing advice on political boycotting, you would be woefully mistaken. Let me take you on a journey of failure, revelation, and self-actualization – as Maslow would have it.

I started what I thought would be my first of four years at Cal with great anticipation for future achievement, like I was inching up a black diamond knowing that momentum would release me into a good life once I have earned a sizable academic spread. But four semesters later, I have accumulated a snowball that has brought me further down than up and...

The Breadth Class That Took My Breath Away

February 28, 2024

Berkeley’s College of Letters and Science has a unique requirement called the Seven-Course Breadth. Essentially, L&S students must take at least one course in several distinct subject areas, regardless of their major. The hope is that through taking a diverse course load, students will be exposed to more perspectives and areas of intellectual curiosity. As a humanities student to my core, I can’t say I was thrilled about fulfilling the Biological Science requirement. Taking a semester-long class completely irrelevant to my major seemed like nothing but a waste of time and energy...

Being Undecided is Okay!

April 20, 2023

For most of my life I have known that I wanted to do something related to books later in life. I’ve almost always either wanted to be an author or work in publishing. So when applying to college, it was only natural for me to put English down for what I wanted to major in.

The summer before I came to college, I spent a lot of time talking to people about going to Berkeley and began doubting my choice of major. English made sense to me and what I wanted to do, but a lot of people seemed judgeful of it as my major. I worked in a small coastal...

Takeaways From My First Year at Berkeley

April 18, 2023

Just now, Berkeley decisions have been released and prospective new students are making their college decisions. I remember this time last year when I committed to Berkeley. I would stay up for hours reading and watching YouTube videos about people’s experiences, not sure what to expect and somewhat nervous about the end of my freshman year.

Now, looking back at it, I wish I could give advice to my scared high school self. I wished I could tell them everything would work out, and that they would now be looking back on their freshman year with...

Schedule Planning 101

March 21, 2023

Schedule planning can seem like a daunting and arduous task, but as a type A person, I love the idea of planning my classes. Here’s some advice from a soon-to-be-graduate on how to get the classes you want and plan out the perfect schedule for you!

Step #1: Make a Plan

Scary, I know. But having some semblance of a plan can really ease your stress when it comes down to actually choosing your classes. You don’t need to have every specific class laid out, and honestly, not even a four-year plan is necessary. Just...

All About the Global Management Program (GMP) Experience

February 28, 2023

When I first visited UC Berkeley during college application season, I was sure that I would not be attending. Coming from a small high school with less than 60 people in my graduating class, I imagined Berkeley to be too large and lacking the specialized study abroad programs and major I was looking for. All of that changed when my campus tour guide introduced me to the Haas Global Management Program, which she was an inaugural member of. After being accepted into this special program, I am now one of its biggest advocates. It is a truly amazing opportunity that most...