My first semester of college is over, so I thought I’d dump all of my survival tips and observations here if anyone finds it helpful. It also doesn’t hurt to think about everything I’ve learned. Who knows? Maybe I’ll rediscover this blog post in 10 years and it’ll give me a good chuckle.

🚫 Disclaimer

I’m one (EECS) student at UC Berkeley in Fall 2021 so take my advice with a grain of salt.

✅ The Basics

1. Do everything you can to sleep at least 8 hours a day

This will sometimes be a struggle depending on your schedule, but sleep is essential so that you can remember what you learn and stuff you need to do. Also, it helps to not feel terrible and groggy when you wake up. You’ll be much happier, focused, and productive if you get a good night’s sleep.

2. Do everything you can to eat regularly and eat well

I can’t function if I don’t eat breakfast so I always make sure to set aside time to do that.

🍎 Academics and Extracurriculars

3. Despite the rumors, UC Berkeley is not cutthroat. Like at all

One of the main reasons why I hesitated to commit to Berkeley was the reputation Berkeley has of being an extremely elitist and cutthroat school. Imagine my surprise when I attended SWE OHP, where I got the chance to meet other admits and current students, who were extremely friendly and supportive. That atmosphere didn’t change when I attended classes either – the 2 technical courses I took this semester, CS 61A and EECS 16A had welcoming professors, course staff, and students. So if you’re an admit or prospective student making a decision about whether to commit to or apply to Berkeley, I wouldn’t really worry about the school culture.

A small caveat to this, at least for EECS/CS majors: Berkeley is a top school for computer science, so yes, there are many “cracked” people who have been programming since they were very young and are very smart and accomplished. There is also much stress over getting good grades, since admits who were at the top of their class in high school are suddenly just “average” at Berkeley. As long as you have thick skin and don’t let this get to you, you should be ok. Also, see #6.

4. Ask for help and figure out resources. Struggling together > struggling alone

I feel like a lot of people, especially EECS/CS people, have this issue where they were really awesome in high school and suddenly they’re at a college where everyone is smart and accomplished, and so no one really is. In high school, I didn’t really need to ask for much help so I didn’t have much practice with showing vulnerability.

But college is hard. You need all the support you can get, so go to office hours. Knock on your neighbor’s door. Make study groups and go to them consistently. I bet you’ll find someone who’s having the exact same problem you are, and when you talk about it with them you’ll both learn how to solve it.

5. Stop comparing yourself to others

Comparison is the thief of joy

You’re in college. There are people from all walks of life, who had varying resources and opportunities because of it. More likely than not, you will find tons of people who are “smarter” and “more accomplished” than you are and you’ll just need to deal with it. Instead of comparing yourself to others, I’d recommend focusing on doing your best. You should really only be mad at yourself if you’re not performing to your full potential, not someone else’s.

6. Talk to upperclassmen

In a similar vein with #4, talk to people who’ve gone through the college experience: upperclassmen! If you join general clubs like AWE (Association of Women in EE/CS) or SWE (Society of Women Engineers) you will find many people with similar majors/interests who can provide advice. In fact, many club Slack workspaces have dedicated #advice channels!

I highly recommend joining any club group chats/Slack Workspaces/Discord servers/subreddits/Facebook Groups as a way to talk to others too! I was (and still am) inundated with advice, opportunities, mentorship programs, jobs, etc. on those mass messaging platforms and it’s super helpful to peruse the text channels when you have the chance. (Just make sure you set your notification settings accordingly so you’re not overwhelmed.)

7. (Try) to join clubs, but don’t overload! (Depth > breadth)

Berkeley is notorious for its competitive club applications (at least, for STEM or business clubs. There are plenty of leisure clubs or performance clubs too; I’m not very familiar with their processes though). I wasn’t really aware of this until I arrived on campus, and I think it helped me by making club applications a little less daunting.

Club applications were basically College Apps 2.0. The cool part is that you can really just recycle your college essays for many of the prompts that clubs give to you. Be prepared for multiple rounds of assessment as well – in addition to the written application, I had multiple interviews (both technical and non-technical) and was lucky enough to land a spot in Berkeley Codebase, a club that builds software for high-growth companies.

If you are able to join a club, congratulations! For me, joining Codebase was a transformative experience which allowed me to gain real-world software development experience and allowed me to meet new people/make friends/network/get mentorship. Joining AWE and SWE gave me a sense of community with other female engineers and gave me access to opportunities I otherwise wouldn’t have had, like mentorship or company recruitment events. I highly encourage you to find a club (or two) that aligns with your interests and goals – or make your own – and reap the benefits. And remember, not all of them require applications and even if they do, you should shoot your shot!

8. Start early

I’ve always felt that each successive year of my life has felt faster than the last, and my first semester at college has felt no different. It’s very easy to fall behind and the best way to prevent that is to jump off the procrastination train before it crashes. In other words, start everything early.

College is not like high school where you have a 6-7 period day where everything is blocked out for you. You need to have the discipline and time management skills to do work when you have the time to do it (which can sometimes be 9 in the morning, 1 in the afternoon, or 10 at night, depending on your schedule). Otherwise you’ll end up sleep deprived and kicking yourself for not starting earlier.

Going back to Must Do #7, many clubs (including Codebase!) start their recruiting process early, and I mean 1st or 2nd week of the semester early. Be on the lookout for tables at Sproul Plaza and Memorial Glade to get to know the club and learn about their different infosessions/events to see if you’d be interested in joining them. Additionally, you will need to balance doing club apps with your academics (midterm season never really ends once it starts), job(s) and/or job search, research, etc. if you have those.

9. You’ll never feel 100% ready and that’s okay. Go for it anyway

I think most people have some form of imposter syndrome or self-doubt and that’s totally normal. I didn’t think I was good enough to get into Berkeley, yet here I am. I’m only here because I tried. I wasn’t sure if I was ready, but I went for it anyway. Doing nothing gets you nowhere. I’d recommend adopting a similar mindset for anything that scares you, be it applying to clubs or that new internship position you saw online. Chances are, you’re more qualified than you think. :)

10. Midterms

Study for midterms. This seems to go without saying, but it’s very easy to fall behind and get caught up in extracurriculars or work for other classes. But in college (more so than in high school), exams matter a lot toward your grade!

That said, college is hard. You probably will not get the grades you are used to from high school and it might hurt your self-esteem. This is completely normal. Just remember that grades do not define you nor do they really matter in the long run. When I say they “don’t really matter,” I of course do not mean that you should proceed to party every semester and not do any work. What I mean is that when you are applying to your first job, a 3.3 GPA probably will not mean much different from a 3.5 or 3.7. As long as you are doing a baseline level of “good” (usually 3.0+), you should be okay. (Unless you are trying to go to grad school, med school, or law school, in which case it probably matters more in the admissions process.)

In summary, it helps to have thick skin for midterms at Berkeley. It also helps to have a supportive group of friends who get you boba after each one. (Thanks roomies!) For some inspiration, here’s Professor DeNero’s Halloween video (he has taught CS 61A in the past):

💃 Social Life

11. Say yes to social life

If you grew up in a school environment like mine, you might know the pressure to perform well academically, do every extracurricular, or go to every recruiting event to get ahead. While it is important to grind, it is equally important to have fun. Especially in the first few weeks where everyone’s finding friends, it’s important to say yes to social outings to get to know your peers, loosen up, and rest your mind.

12. During orientation week, go on your own walks to orient yourself so you can navigate campus and the surrounding area

Another tip: Once you know where your classes are, walk to them so you know how far away they are and where they’re actually located! Nothing sucks more than being lost and late on your first day of class. You can also use social outings as an opportunity to explore the area and discover good food!

13. Find your people

A big reason why I was scared of going to college was because it was essentially an uprooting. It was the first time I lived on my own away from home, and the first time I’d be away from the support network of family and friends I’d built in the last 18 years of my life. I came to Berkeley determined to find friends. But looking back on my semester now, I realize it’s more important to find my people, whoever they may be. You shouldn’t have to change yourself to make friends. Instead, find the people you feel comfortable with and who feel comfortable with you.

14. Stay connected to family and high school friends (if you are comfortable)

It’s very easy to feel homesick at college when the people you’ve interacted with for basically your entire life are suddenly not there anymore. Thus, if you are comfortable, don’t forget that you can always message/call/video call your friends and family.

15. Go outside and touch some grass

Something I wish I did more in my first semester is be more physically active. Luckily, it’s not that difficult given the variety of resources and locations available to workout or just have fun outdoors. (Having workout buddies also helps.)

Here are some things I’ve tried and would recommend:

  • Big C (hiking trail, pretty steep but relatively short ~1 mile)
  • Fire Trails (hiking trail, pretty flat but long)
  • Stonewall Panoramic Trail (hiking trail, very steep at times but also flattens out in some places, moderately long)
  • Recreational Sports Facility (RSF) (basically the university gym; students have free membership)

16. Restaurant Recs

If you join a club Slack, you might get introduced to an application called Donut which randomly pairs you with people to get to know other members of the club, since large gatherings are a bit difficult for that (and there’s COVID-19). I usually used these to do that but also as an excuse to eat out (because why not). Here are some restaurants I went to that I thought were particularly worth going to:

  • Berkeley Social Club (Korean food; really delicious and huge portions; $$$)
  • Imm Thai (Thai food; $$)
  • Berkeley Thai House (Thai food; $$)
  • Kimchi Garden (Korean food; $$)
  • T-Toust (Korean food; $$)
  • Taiwan Professional Tea (aka TPT; boba/milk tea; $)
  • Plentea (boba/milk tea; $)
  • Abe’s Pizza ($)
  • Momo House (Himalayan/Nepalese food; $$)

🏠 Dorm Life

17. Buy a long charging cable (10 meters at least) for your phone

Outlets are hard to come by in your dorm and you’ll probably want to be able to grab your phone from your bed (which might be the top bunk, far away from the outlets near the floor)!

18. Communal bathrooms don’t suck (mostly)

Another thing I was nervous about when I moved in to my dorm at Berkeley was communal bathrooms. As I mentioned earlier, this was the first time I’d have to live with people other than my family for an extended period of time, and I took my privacy very seriously. It was a bit difficult to figure out how to use the communal bathrooms to preserve that sense of dignity, but I eventually found my groove.

I’m not sure if my communal bathroom experience was similar to others at Berkeley, much less at other colleges, but it basically went like this: The bathroom was a short walk from my dorm room. There were lockers, a row of sinks, a row of shower stalls, and finally a row of toilets. I kept some of my toiletries in my locker (I brought a combination lock to secure my belongings, although I doubt anyone would really steal anything) while I kept my towel and clothes in my dorm room. When I needed to shower, I brought my change of clothes in a drawstring bag they gave us during orientation so I could conveniently hang the bag on one of the hooks on the shower stall door and use the other hook for my towel. Aside from the sporadic cold/hot water from the shower head, dressing and undressing in the shower stall was the most annoying thing to do, but I eventually got used to it. (Some people change in their dorm room if they’re handy with a towel or if they/their roommates don’t mind, but I’m not that kind of person.)

TLDR; it helps to have small bags to put stuff in when using communal bathrooms. Also, always wear flip flops.

19. Dining halls are alright and convenient

While I enjoy harping on Berkeley’s dining hall food for the laughs, I don’t really think it’s too terrible. I think they give very appropriate portions, help reduce food waste, and cook reasonably ok-tasting food. (Except the grilled fish in Cafe 3. Stay away from that…) I’m also grateful for the convenience of cooked meals over anything else (also since I live in Unit 3, I just have to walk 3 minutes to the nearest dining hall, Cafe 3). I don’t look forward to sophomore year when I will probably have to cook my own meals!

📋 Productivity Tools & Tips

20. Google Calendar and Gmail Filters

Google Calendar is an absolute must for scheduling. Add all of your classes, their times, locations, and type (e.g. lecture, discussion, lab) to your bCal (@berkeley.edu calendar) and it will save you a LOT of headache. I also recommend creating different calendars for each category of event so you can have a nice, color-coded calendar.

You will also get tons of emails from your classes, major, department, college (e.g. College of Engineering), career center, various campus organizations, clubs, recruiters, and more. I highly recommend creating labels/folders and even filters to automatically label/move emails based on the sender or keywords in the subject or body of the email. Basically, get organized and get organized early!

21. Notion

Since there are other dates you need to remember besides when your classes or meetings or events are, I use Notion to separate my due dates for tasks from those dates. Notion also allows for more flexibility when it comes to adding information about events. For example, this is what my Notion page “Academic Calendar” looked like:

Notion Academic Calendar page in Calendar view, showing cards on each day of the month when I had assignments due. The cards represented each assignment

Notion page showing an enlarged, detailed view of one of the assignment cards. Each card contained the assignment name, the class it was for, its due date, and more details on what the assignment entailed.

Another tip: Notion provides the Personal Pro plan for free if you sign up with your university email!

22. Got important dates? Due dates? Write them down BEFORE the semester begins

An important life skill (and college skill) is time management. The key to time management is to not delude yourself about how much time you have to do your work and have fun. A good way to delude yourself is by making yourself blind to your own due dates – wishing that something won’t come unfortunately does not not make it come.

Thus, it’s best to rip the bandaid off from the beginning and get organized by writing down ALL of your important dates (e.g. when your midterms are, when your finals are, when your assignments are due) BEFORE the semester begins (or at the very least, at the beginning of the semester). That way you can plan your life accordingly and get your priorities in order.

23. A tablet is a good investment, but not a requirement

As I was thinking about what electronics I should buy for college, a tablet did cross my mind. But at the end of the day, I thought I wouldn’t really need one since I mainly did my work on a laptop. If I really needed to write, I could buy a notebook from the student store. (By the way, another tip: Don’t buy school supplies until you actually start your classes. You’d be surprised about how little you really need to buy, especially now with remote learning.)

While I don’t necessarily regret my decision (tablets can be expensive), watching my peers do their work on sleek iPads and being able to work directly on the PDF homework assignments has made me think that maybe getting a tablet would have been nice after all. They’re portable, somewhat better for forests, convenient, and they make it easier to share notes, access course files, or submit homework assignments. So if it’s within your budget and learning style, you might want to consider getting a tablet. But I still don’t really think it’s essential to your college survival.