hey senpai, i got into all the UCs i applied to: LA, SB, Davis,

>>17091574
What are you planning on studying?

>>17091574
Berkeley is historically leftwing, Davis right. SB is full of brainless surfers. UCLA has a bit of everything, including the nonpolitical.

>>17091686
geography, physical+GIS emphasis. at Davis it'd be environmental science.

>>17092050
UCLA is what i'm leaning towards. UCB is attractive in the sense of its ranking, but with how political it already is, things are gonna get especially heated come November I imagine.

I went to Berkeley and I can tell you that at least in the history department, they aren't particularly leftwing. Maybe it's different in sociology etc but I have seen a fair few Republicans in my classes/around campus, even far right people who say we shouldn't give a shit about having murdered Indians etc.

This is pretty true of any university:
Student politics are irrelevant. They have no power or impact, they just shout loudly.
Academic staff are generally smart people that think critically and leave their politics and opinions outside of the classroom apart from some bullshit departments like gender theory or other places you'd expect to find retards like that.

A far better place is to find out as much about the faculty/department for what you want to study as you can. Contact the professors, e-mail them, they always love to hear from passionate students. Look up what their research areas are online, they're up there. Look at what they've published, from which you can deduce how they think. Look up rankings for that specific department at an undergraduate level, not the university or other rankings which include factors irrelevant to quality of undergrad courses.

Think about the possibility of further study whether or not you want to do it now and who would make a good supervisor.

The way you're looking at it is stupid and retarded.

Also geography is stupid. Do physics or biology or maths if you want to do science. Study the subjects at the top of the hierarchy, not sub disciplines that investigate only small fragments.

>>17092394
did you live in the dorms or near the campus? i'm not really worried much about department politics itself. i can deal with lib professors and whatnot. it's the activist culture that annoys me, "free speech" areas and the like. i just dont think it's conductive to higher learning tbqh.

>>17092406
i've looked at rankings for the major, UCB is a top tier school for geography, UCLA just a few rankings behind.

>if you want to do science

well, my primary interest is in GIS ... ideally working as a GIS analyst in the future, or if continuing in education "GIscience."

that would be one perk of Davis though, as their environmental science major (which has a GIS depth) does require a couple quarters of calculus and physics.

>>17092416

Near the campus. The liberal stuff isn't that prevalent in terms of activists, but there is a hobo and Oaklander problem at times. You can pull rightwing stunts and not be lynched, there are pro-Israel rallies that trigger the Muslims there + the Republicans had an affirmative action bakesale to demonstrate how stupid it was where whites were charged $1, Asians were charged $1.50, hispanics were charged $.50, and blacks got free cookies. That triggered a lot of democrats.