The University of California - Berkeley

I was excited to start my Fall semester since I had already been here for a semester and I was determined to turn things around for myself--it's always been incredibly difficult for me to make friends because although I want to be sociable and feel like I'm extrovert, I can't handle social situations properly. Last semester I spent all day every day by myself, barely talking to anyone and being overwhelmed by how unfriendly people were in this city and school. My hometown is in southern California so it's not like I'm from a different country, but I had pretty bad culture shock when I got here.

I don't know why this school is so racially segregated and why everyone seems to only make friends with you if it would benefit them in some way. People would jostle you while walking around campus and not even say sorry, they would not even hold the door open for you even if you're walking 2mm behind them into the same building, and people are all in their own self absorbed world doing their own thing. It's like they have no common decency and seriously don't give a f*** if they think you're not worth their time.

I tried joining an organization and the people were still hostile and aloof, nobody ever wants to hang out or study together, and I'm literally going insane.

Aside from the campus, this city is run by horrible greedy people who only care about giving citations to starving students. What do they do with all that money? Renovate the homeless-ridden, run down, never-been-renovated-since-its-creation buildings and streets maybe? Nope. They hire 500 parking citation officers from morning till night to drive up and down the streets surrounding the campus.

Do the policemen ever control the amount of marijuana smoke wafting through the air 24/7 or try to control the crime rates? Nope. People could be blowing smoke at their faces and they just smile and walk past them, and forget controlling the muggings that go on. They have to make time to smoke the pot that they confiscated from the homeless. If you're reading this, take my advice and steer clear from this school. It's only ranked #3 because of the great research that they do here but the education/atmosphere/environment SUCKS. I feel like my soul is being ripped to shreds with every waking moment at UC berkeley. If I weren't a transfer student and I had more time, I would transfer out of here in a heartbeat.