University of California Berkeley - Blue and Gold Yearbook (Berkeley, CA)

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The truest test cj niE¥l NETTLE, irVUmiUCK CD I o ,- hoosing a college must be the turning point in the life of every high school sen- ior. I look back at the golden year I made my decision and wonder how on earth I chose, of all places, Berkeley. Why not Harvard? (I would had I been accepted.) Or how about Stanford? (Why pay $16,000 when I could get it for less?) What became of UCLA? (The campus was an unimpres- sionable blur the size of Texas.) Ahhh, Berkeley. Hazy memories of my first visit long ago come flooding back. The green, eroding Sather Gate. The zippy ride up the towering Cam- panile. The elegant curves of the marble steps leading to Doe Library. Perhaps best of all. . .piping hot Blondie ' s Pizza. The choice was a simple one of sheer economics — Berkeley is a bargain. In fact, little did I know as a naive freshman back in 1990 that I would be get- ting far more than I bargained for at Berkeley — in education I can ' t say, but in nearly everything else. As my parents (and now the Regents) constantly remind me that Berkeley is the cheapest school on the West Coast in exchange for quality education at a prestigious university, I ' d like to say, Wr-r-o- ong Dad! Can I have more allowance? Instead, in exchange for more than double the tuition since my first year, there have been tremen- dous cuts in basic services like the use of our undergraduate library and the reduction in must-have courses like Spanish 1 and 2 from 12 sections to a rock-bottom low of just 4 sections. I do grudgingly admit that one does get the benefit of the broad education as promised in the university bulletin and virtually every other piece of university propaganda. In reality, we ' re practically forced to take classes outside our intended studies since we aren ' t able 1 get into classes in our ma- jor until maybe the • ' y .y