I can genuinely say it is neither curriculum nor prestige that excites me most about Berkeley.

In the end, academics are just academics.

A series of

Lectures

Textbooks

and Assignments

After you have reached a certain level, the material taught will no longer differ. You will receive the same education, no matter where you decide to go.

What separates schools then is not their syllabus, but everything else.

The classmates.

The communities.

The culture.

Let’s start with the classmates.

Unlike small private schools that specifically seek after traits to build the perfect incoming class, Berkeley accepts thousands upon thousands of students every year.

Berkeley can’t possibly be as picky and choosy as their counterparts, so how do they build their own flawless class?

What is the characteristic that they searched for among countless applications?

Individuality.

It’s ironic but the trait that ties all of these students together is how different they are from one another.

The people I have already met are some of the most interesting students I have ever come across. Everyone you meet is special in their own regard.

You will either like them or dislike them.

There is no middle-ground because the student body of Berkeley is unbelievably diverse and colorful.

Exactly how Berkeley wanted it to be.

A school with some of the most down-to-earth, genuine human beings I have ever met.

Growing up in the Bay Area, I was surrounded by numerous computer science and engineering students. Most of the high-achieving kids at my school were going into STEM.

As a result, it was quite hard for an artistic, poetry-writing, humanities major like me to fit in.

It wasn’t that they didn’t like my sonnets or random musings, it was just that they weren’t interested in the subject matter.

I remember I posted a paragraph detailing my reasons for attending the school in Berkeley’s Facebook group. It was a few lines that touched upon what made the institution so special to me — something that had been on my mind lately.

I honestly did not expect much of a response.

After all, most of the people I grew up around would have probably read it and then went on with their days as if nothing had happened.

What occured next changed my viewpoint forever.

Instead of a few likes or comments here and there, I received hundreds of reactions and countless messages telling me how helpful my short message was.

How it allowed them to quantify why Berkeley was special for them.

How it was the tipping point that made them choose Cal over LA.

How it helped them solidify their trust in the next four years.

I realized the students here were very much different than the ones from my high school. I am able to relate to the student body here so much more as my worries, my ambitions, and my mindset overlaps in many ways with theirs.

Sproul Plaza is always crowded

Where you have students, you will also have communities.

We’ve all had our own share of clubs in high school, what’s the big difference now?

As the founder of a music club on my high school campus, I have realized how hard it is to run an organization.

You could do all the paperwork, make the sign-up sheets, even gather a hundred members.

But you can’t control the dedication and passion of those students.

Without members with a drive to participate, the largest clubs on campus would fall off the face of the planet.

In high school, kids were usually too concerned with their extra-curricular activities, their sports, or their academics to reserve any time for hobbies. They usually signed up for a few clubs in the beginning of the year out of sheer curiosity. But would later drop out due to more “important” activities.

My club that garnered around a hundred sign-ups the first year had withered down to fifteen musicians by my senior year.

It was a tumultuous but humbling experience.