First thing first, CONGRATULATIONS to the incoming bears of the Master of Engineering program at UC Berkeley!!! As an M.Eng alumni living in Berkeley for two years, I hope my experiences can help the young bears enjoy more in this lovely city.
This blog is structured in three parts: Sleep, Study and Social. And I invite you to walk through all three parts with me and see if we can find a balance, instead of choosing only two at a time.
Thank you in advance for your patience!
SLEEP (Where shall I live?)
I want to start with a big picture, like the SF bay area. There are many towns providing various housing options, such as Oakland, Emeryville, El Cerrito, etc. These places are connected to Berkeley with buses and/or BARTs so it is often convenient to commute to the campus.
Usually a great many students live near the campus so they can sleep for an extra 10 minutes in the morning. As a sleep lover myself, I was extremely lucky to move into the single graduate student apartments (only 6 blocks away from Sather Gate!) and meet my cute roommates from different countries and majors. Yes, it is like a lottery to secure a private bedroom in single graduate student housing but I would strongly recommend you to apply through Cal Housing, the official housing website of UC Berkeley. I do appreciate my time living with my roommates from Thailand, India and North America.
Nevertheless, it is totally fine if you decide to live off campus. Many of my classmates lived on the north/south/west side of the campus. North side is a residential area that has beautiful houses seated closely next to each other. This is a quiet and peaceful area on hills.
I have lived on the south side since my first day in Berkeley. We have two or three main streets here like College Ave (please avoid People’s Park), Telegraph Ave, Shattuck Ave, etc. There will be more restaurants or bakeries or shops open in the evening and there will be more people on these streets with a handful of bus lines.
The west side of the campus is Downtown Berkeley, which owns a “skyscraper” (after all, Berkeley is not like San Francisco). Downtown Berkeley is even more convenient for life when you see the BART stations, restaurants, Target, CVS, Walgreens and UPS/FedEx, etc. Meanwhile, not far away from downtown, Trader Joe’s is located on University Ave. If you have a craving for Asian foods then it is a must to visit for groceries.
STUDY (Is EECS best for me?)
How would you like to experience your life at UC Berkeley, in only one year? For me, I want to have fun with my friends in IEOR courses, projects, hackathons and even parties. And ideally, find a beloved and IEOR-related job after graduation.
It is trending for students to “transcode” — students transferring to EECS and working as software developers regardless of their majors in college. I once tried to “transcode”, forcing myself to take LeetCode exercises for nearly two months. And then I quitted because I am really not that into coding. I am just not that kind of person who can sit in front of a computer, spend the whole afternoon coding and still feel satisfied. Instead, I love talking to people. I do feel like discussing a project with my team and getting hundreds of inspirations through chatting. Then I began to realize, ”Oh, I have talents in communication and languages”. At that moment, my day broke.
Year 2020 was tough for the world, but I was lucky enough to land a full-time position (non-EECS engineering) one month before graduation. And right now three months since joining the company, I can confidently say that I love this job and I have the motivation to do things well in a relaxing way.
Now it is your turn to answer this question:
“How would you like to experience your life at UC Berkeley, in only one year?”
SOCIAL (How can I get those opportunities!?!?)
I read some articles about the social networking culture in North America even before I came to Berkeley. I forgot most of them except one point: social networking is really important in the US.
But why do I need social networking, specifically during the MEng program?
My answer is “To find a job after graduation”. In my opinion, social networking is more like an exchange of information and when this applies to job-seeking, the clear goal is to get as much valuable information as possible. Job-seeking is actually longer and starts earlier than expected. And building an attractive resume is indispensable during this journey, which usually means you need more projects/internships/hackathons, etc, to show your own values.
So…How do I know about these opportunities?
The first and closest resource is friends from other departments. I was able to join my first ever hackathon in Stanford University because Dennis, my neighbor and friend from bioengineering, forwarded me the message and I signed up. Great thanks to him!
Second is program-wise and college-wise platforms and activities. As far as I know, Fung Institute would usually have alumni brunch, FI Connect, coffee chats, and MEng Jobs & Events Digest, etc. MEng students can also go to career coaches for help (e.g. making an appointment through MEng student portal). Even your capstone project can be a good opportunity to socialize with professors, industrial advisors and students from other departments.
Last but not least is career resources provided by the university, such as Career Center, Spring/Fall Career Fairs, HandShake, SkyDeck (UC Berkeley startup incubator), SCET, study-abroad program, school organizations and clubs, etc.
In summary, this blog is a very brief introduction of the resources I know during the MEng program. And I wish everyone reading this blog can find their interests, increase experiences and work with amazing people.
P.S. Here is a list of websites I mentioned in the blog/ have used:
SLEEP
Cal Housing: https://housing.berkeley.edu/
Apartments.com: https://www.apartments.com/
Trulia: https://www.trulia.com/
Google Maps: https://maps.google.com
STUDY
LeetCode: https://leetcode.com/
UC Berkeley IEOR — Industrial Engineering & Operations Research Department: https://ieor.berkeley.edu/
UC Berkeley Master of Engineering Program: https://funginstitute.berkeley.edu/programs-centers/full-time-program/
Berkeley Engineering: https://engineering.berkeley.edu/
SOCIAL
Fung Institute Connect: https://connections.funginstitute.berkeley.edu/
UC Berkeley Career Center: https://career.berkeley.edu/
Handshake: https://career.berkeley.edu/handshake
Berkeley SkyDeck: https://skyportal.berkeley.edu/
SCET (Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology): https://scet.berkeley.edu/
