Reflections on My First Year at Berkeley

As my first two semesters in college comes to a close, 

I thought it'd be appropriate to briefly describe my first year in words. To my friends, professors, Berkeley, and the Bay Area in general, thanks for making my 2018-2019 year incredible.

Golden Bear Orientation: 

Orientation was by far the week that exceeded my expectations the most this year. A week filled with magic shows, comedy acts, musical performances, as well as the week when I met my 10 closest friends in college without dread of looming assignments. Silent disco was the bomb, as was the lemonade at Foothill ;) Cal's 150th birthday was special.

Classes: 

For the most part, I am very happy with the classes I chose in both fall and spring semesters. Astronomy C10 introduced me to one of the greatest lecturers I've ever seen (Alex Filippenko), while other breadth classes such as Nutritional Science and Scandinavian shed light into topics I've never previously thought about. Of course, the most monumental courses I took this year were from the notorious Computer Science 61 series, which demanded endless hours of exam studying and project debugging. However, just about every assignment interested me, and the experience was no doubt rewarding, giving me the confidence that I have the ability to succeed in CS. Explore a vast terrain of subjects, then exploit and delve deep into the topics you enjoy the most. 

Woohoo: I did well in my first-year classes, never feeling overly unprepared for an exam.

Boohoo: I prioritized studying over almost everything else, not committing as much time as I would've liked for extracurricular clubs and side projects.

Clubs: 

I joined two clubs on campus this year - the Intermission Orchestra at Berkeley (starting Fall 2018) and Computer Science Mentors at Berkeley (starting Spring 2019). Both were very rewarding in their own respect - I had only been in classical music orchestras my whole life, so Intermission's emphasis on video game, anime, and film music was a nice change of pace, plus, every piece was arranged and conducted by students in the club! And while I've taught younger students in music and mathematics in high school, teaching CS 61A (a class I had just taken the previous semester) for CSM was a drastic change, especially considering my section was filled with students both older and more accomplished than myself. I've met amazing people in both organizations, and expect the relationship with my orchestra group and CSM family to last for years to come. I also expect myself to aim for higher positions in these clubs in coming semesters, as well as branching out to a few of the other hundreds of organizations on campus.

Woohoo: I did well in pursuing areas I enjoyed, as well as positions I've never tried before

Boohoo: I can push myself more in trying out for more selective clubs or become more active than just a participating member in my current ones, as well as actually attending socials lol

Missing: Daniel and Carlos those damn pre-meds

Friends: 

My proudest accomplishment this semester - finding a solid group of friends early on in the semester and treading through college, building each other up throughout the year. While I was friends with the people in my clubs and other people in my residence hall, our group of 11 was on another level - we ate together, watched movies and whole TV shows together, shared Gig referral codes to go on half a dozen free In-N-Out runs together, and hung out for hours almost every weekend. My two roommates were originally from my hometown, but our favorite people from each of our respective orientation groups conglomerated to form this - who knew.

Woohoo: We've gotten to know each other very well, a little too much so; I can always count on them for a good time and good conversation.

Boohoo: Occasionally we waste time away sitting in someone's room on our phones not knowing what to do, and regularly staying up until 3am really messed up my sleep schedule oops

Denero, the legend himself | Source: YouTube

Professors and GSIs: 

Berkeley is known for its world-class professors, but status itself is not enough - they need to be able to TEACH and manage large classes (my CS 61A class had almost 2000 students enrolled!). To give an idea of what my first-year professors were like, Professor Josh Hug invested more time and energy for CS 61B (Data Structures) than anyone I've ever known, completely revamping projects and autograders and writing up a study guide for each of his 40 lectures. Super funny and warm guy, plus his webcast videos were so interactive I barely went to live lecture. John Denero (for CS 61A) is perhaps the most famous professor in our EECS department, famous for being able to structure large classes and similarly to Hug, makes lecture videos so good students are ENCOURAGED not to go to lecture. Alex Filippenko, who was on two research teams exploring the acceleration of the universe (the project leaders of both teams won the Nobel prize for physics), holds office hours after every lecture and encourages students to call him by the colloquial "Alex". He still sends emails and announcements to every student he has taught in the last couple of decades.

Of course, professors from these large classes have immense support from Graduate and Undergraduate Student Instructors (GSIs/TAs and uGSIs). I have been in the discussion section of a Putnam Top 500 competitor, an undergraduate researcher at Berkeley's AI research lab who has 3 million Quora answer views, as well as a winner of the largest collegiate hackathon in the world. Each of them was too humble to mention their achievements in discussion, but I looked them up.

Woohoo: The most important quality of a teacher/professor is not just measured by how well they communicate material, but how much they can excite a student to explore the material outside of required classwork - each of the professors/GSIs I've described above has this attribute.

Boohoo: I didn't go to many office hours, my fears of intimidation and too many other people were probably unfounded

Special Events and Outside of School: 

The year was full of new experiences, concerts, and trips to SF. Seeing Drake live at Oracle was the greatest visual concert I've ever been a part of. I went to two Warrior games with Abhinav and Dhaval, both immensely fun matchups despite being blowouts. Our group went to a Zedd concert near the north side of campus, peering inside from atop the Berkeley hills because we didn't pay general admission. I reminisce our frequent San Francisco trips, as well as my time first semester jamming to random pop and alternative tunes on the violin with Isaac on the guitar. We planned on performing on Memorial glade someday, maybe that'll still happen. Last but not least, I look forward to coming back and savoring the food of many restaurants near campus and in San Francisco, from the upscale Fogo de Chão to old reliable Chipotle.

Woohoo: These were experiences for a lifetime, self-expression

Boohoo: Events and food cost $$$, not ideal when I have no active income. Exercise was nonexistent except on holiday breaks.

Conclusion: 

This was a great year indeed, I didn't expect my transition from high school in the Great Plains to college in sunny California to be so smooth. I look forward to being back for Sophomore year! I've met many great people and taken profoundly interesting classes, but I can always put myself out there more: join new clubs, talk to professors, make new friends, try more food. As I wrap up this post, I just want to remind myself and others to keep meeting people and explore outside your comfort zone - your tuition for college doesn't just pay for education and classes, it pays for the people you encounter and the location that harvests your growth.