University of California-Berkeley Visitation
On March 19, the University of California-Berkeley’s transportation engineering faculty and students hosted myself and four other potential graduate students. This was not the main visitation for prospective transportation students, which on April 10 clashed with my family trip to Cleveland, but instead was an Open House for the entire Civil and Environment Engineering (CEE) Department. At least 200 students were there, but again, only five for transportation. About 40 more will show up on April 10.
With this day not being as big of a day as the later visitation, we spent most of the day with professors, and were able to meet the students later at night for dinner. I was contacted late to set up a stay with a current graduate student, and had already arranged to couchsurf at someone’s place in Berkeley (first time actually couchsurfing!) It worked out well, and my couchsurfing host showed me parts of Berkeley I would not have seen otherwise.
The visitation day consisted of an opening breakfast hosted by the CEE department, meetings with faculty, a lunch from CEE, and dinner with graduate students. As a group, we had the chance to meet all the faculty currently on campus (two are on sabbatical, but we caught one real quick in the building.) I did not get to see much of where my workspace would be, and I missed out on seeing their transportation library which is one of the best in the country. Instead I saw lot of campus, taking several chances to walk around it. It is perhaps the most beautiful I have ever seen. The professors fielded all our questions and were excited to remind us about the breadth the program offers. After meeting them, I felt I would most likely end up working Dr. Adib Kanafani, Dr. Joan Walker, or Dr. Mike Cassidy. But at Berkeley, unlike the others, I will have a stronger tie to the City and Regional Planning department, and I am told I need to talk to Dr. Robert Cervero there.
Berkeley seemed to be a very exciting place, and along with the entire Bay Area, I see why people enjoy living there. This was my first time in Northern California, and I could tell how different its vibe was from other parts of the country. This feeling was strengthened by my stopover to see friends in Palo Alto.
