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Quality of Life Survey |
| Full-Time Law Program |
"Boalt Hall" is no misnomer, but instead true in the literal sense; all
the law classes are taught in aging, eclectically built, largely
concrete Boalt Hall. The building is located in the southeast corner
of the U.C. Berkeley campus, proximal to the Berkeley Hills and many of
the university's sororities and fraternities. It is the product of
various expansions over the years and, even for many 3Ls, generally
unnavigable without a map. Despite all the expansions, however, space
for professors, journals, and even classes is lacking; moreover, only a
few of the moderate-sized classrooms contain outlets for laptops or
other devices. Unencrypted wireless Internet access is available in a
few small classrooms and in the school's cafeteria, "Cafe Zeb." The
computer labs are generally packed, but typically adequately sized, and
the library has many Internet connections for students with laptops.
Cafe Zeb, the school's only source of food, is small (able to
accommodate about twenty students), generally dirty, and serves a
collection of sandwiches and soups for exorbitant prices.
Most Boalt students live in apartments in Berkeley proper, which range
from overpriced to obscenely priced. Most students live alone in one-
bedroom apartments ranging in cost from $1000 to $1300/month, and a
fair number live in Manville, a school complex of studio apartments in
which 270 square feet of living space will run you $900/month ... that
is, if you can get off of the waiting list. A fair number of second
and third year students live in San Francisco which, despite the
traffic of the Bay Area, is fairly accessible via car and highly
accessible via Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART). Rents in San Francisco
are typically about 20% higher than in Berkeley, although the
accommodations and social scene in "the City" are much better. Many
second and third-year students also live in surrounding communities in
the East Bay and in the Berkeley Hills. The aforementioned BART makes
many of these locations easily accessible, and the local bus service
offers many routes with frequent trips. All UCB students are forced to
buy a bus pass as part of their registration costs. Parking, even for
those who buy a parking permit, is generally full after 9AM and will
entail subjecting your car to "stack parking" or a half-hourlong
travail while seeking an available spot.
Berkeley is often described as "semi-urban," which a cynic might
describe as having all the ills of an urban environment with none of
the big-city benefits. Petty and violent crime rates are both
relatively high, parking is rarely available and extremely expensive,
and the city's reputation for harboring the homeless is well-deserved
(in the streets within a mile of campus, one can expect to encounter
approximately two panhandlers per block). To be quite frank, the area
is simply unsafe, particularly at night. This applies equally to men
as to women, as the Berkeley area has been plagued by several random
muggings in recent years.
The campus itself is a hybrid of a college "campus" setting and
an "urban campus" setting. Many of the streets surrounding the campus
are full of typical "university district" proprietorships such as
record shops, "pipe" shops, small eateries, and so forth. Many of the
campus's buildings have outdated architecture and, like Boalt itself,
resemble concrete bunkers. On the north side of campus, however, one
can find large, beautiful college buildings with pillars, marble, and
the like, and various forested areas and parklike settings are also in
the western side of the campus.
Luckily, much of the bureucracy of the 35,000-student U.C. Berkeley is
a non-issue for Boalt students, as the school has its own financial aid
office and registrar. These offices are generally run competently and
are responsive to student concerns. Boalties still must deal with
general U.C. Berkeley services such as parking and health services,
however.
As a final note, the degree to which some of the university's
shortcomings were compensated for by the public school tuition is
decreasing. California's budget woes have caused the tuition for all
students to increase by several thousand dollars in the past few
years. Since nearly all students are able to obtain California
residency after their first year, however, the price is still much
lower than most private institutions. Applicants must remain cognizant
that this gap is decreasing.
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