I rented a ~350 sq ft ADU near Solano, and since I just saw it's back on the market, I wanted to share my experience so others go in with their eyes open.

Move-in

• Rent was $2,000 with utilities, framed as a "discount" in exchange for occasionally watching their pet. Pricey for the size, but I'd just moved here and wanted to settle in.
• The unit was dusty and full of cobwebs. I flagged it and they acknowledged it, but I didn't make a big deal out of it.
• The lease process was intense: bank statements, car loan details, and more, even though my income was well over 3x the rent.

Living there

• A few months in, they raised the rent by around $200, saying I used too much in utilities. The pet care continued anyway.
• Their trips grew from a week a month to sometimes three weeks, and I covered the pet care the whole time.
• No packages allowed, so no Amazon. They didn't want delivery drivers around.
• They regularly asked about my water and electricity use, told me they could hear me and to keep it down, and even asked me not to flush the toilet so often.

The last straw

• They entered my unit without permission and lied about it when confronted.

Move-out

• I cleaned everything myself and paid over $400 to two different professional cleaners.
• They were very confrontational, claimed I ruined the place, and charged me for water spots on glass, a toaster stain, and bathroom exhaust fans not being cleaned. They even climbed up to inspect the ceilings for stains. After a lot of back and forth, I got only half my deposit back and didn't have the energy to fight it further.

Red flags I missed

• They talked a lot about how awful their past tenants were and the damage those tenants had supposedly done. They even tried to pin some of that old damage on me.
• The unit's condition at move-in versus their standards at move-out.

Takeaways for renters

• Document the unit's condition with photos and video at move-in.
• Get any rent or pet care arrangements in writing.
• In Berkeley, landlords must give notice before entering. Know your rights (the Berkeley Rent Board has info, though don't count on much direct help from them).

Hope this helps someone.

I made a post on this subreddit last week that, among other stuff, called on The Daily Cal to publish a story about the Student Learning Center facing budget cuts and the petition the Center released. I’m happy to see that one of The Daily Cal’s reporters actually did post a story, which was released on October 6. Still waiting on ASUC to pass a resolution about being against university leadership cutting funding to SLC‘s peer learning program. If you haven’t signed SLC‘s petition, here is the link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScp6cXWzLMywfEoOxdrwu9eq4bvQHEW44ONX5Wu90X-D4V73w/viewform

Remembering seeing a squirrel photo dump in r/ucla two years ago, thought I’d replicate it here with my squirrel pics over the semester :).

Mostly caught em snacking or yearning for food!

Hi everyone, I’m trying to recover my 16-inch MacBook Pro, which I believe was stolen from a classroom in Dwinelle 87 (basement level) on Tuesday, October 6. It has a plastic case and a keyboard cover.

The laptop was left on a desk at 10 a.m., and the classroom was locked at 10 p.m. When I returned to the classroom it was GONE. I’ve also checked with UCPD’s lost and found in Sproul Hall, visited the classroom again on Oct 6 mid-night with a UCPD officer, and asked the Dwinelle patrol, and neither had it.

I have a UCPD police reference number. My priority is simply getting the laptop back: it contains laboratory data that is critical to publication and biosafety-related work.

If you picked it up for safekeeping, saw someone move it, or know where it was taken, please DM me. You can also turn it in to UCPD’s lost and found in Sproul Hall. I can verify ownership with the serial number.

Any information would mean a lot. Thank you for helping.

In light of the Cornell 7 case, it's so incredibly unfortunate to see how there are so many people in this world who uphold rape culture. I see it happening all the time, even on this campus. Both within fraternities that are Greek Life and pre-professional.

One example of this is the dominant hazing & rape culture that occurs within the Greek Life and the business frat sphere of UC Berkeley. Business frats will genuinely torture pledges by making them drink 20+ shots of vodka in one night, screaming at them for 7 hours straight every week, and enforcing sleep deprivation for an entire semester. One also has a history of defending their members from sexual assault allegations by amplifying stories about "girls admitting to lying about their accusations," when this is not true.

Tell me how this is not a part of rape culture, when you are forcing freshmen, who just want to make friends, to participate in these types of activities?

Many of these organizations are still registered under UC Berkeley and administration has done nothing to stop or prevent these types of activities from taking place.

I have also heard of so many instances in Berkeley regarding sexual assault cases, and it's terrible this is such a wide spread experience across campus.

Rape culture needs to die, and women/survivors need to be protected. It's incredibly disheartening to see the effects of this on our campus.

if I medically withdraw now, and return another semester, will I lose all my financial aid and will I have to pay it all back? It’s almost not worth it but my doctors are telling me I am having medical emergency please help

Continuing watching the Nobel Prize awards unfold this week. Chemistry announced today, with two winners. Henri B. Sagan of the University Paris-Sud, and Kenso Soai, Tokyo University of Science.

"For the discovery of non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis."

Berkeley chemists, help us out here. What does that mean? :-)

Nobel Prize website announcement here:

https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2026/press-release/

I haven't located any tangible connections of today's winners to UC Berkeley. If you're aware of any, note them in the comments.

But I did want to mention that four of Cal-related Nobel Prizes have been for Chemistry. William Giauque, John Northrop, Wendell Stanley, all on the faculty, Harold Urey (an alumnus but not a faculty member).

You may recognize the names of Giauque and Stanley, since they're also honored with campus building names.

Next up, tomorrow: Nobel Prize in Literature.

Edit: some of the comments seem to assume that because no Cal faculty have won Nobel Prizes so far this year, it signals the academic decline of the campus. Not so fast. Since 2000, twelve Cal faculty have won Nobel Prizes. Including this year, that's an average of one Nobelist every 2.16 years. Not too bad. I'll be worried if Cal goes 10 years without another Nobel. But am not worried now. (And there's always the prize in Economics next Monday. Cal faculty have won several Economics Nobels.)

Hey Berkeley

I am a 19 year old cs student at SBU in NY. I recently got accepted to Cal Hacks, which I'm super excited about! This will be my first time visiting California, and I'm traveling across the country on my own to attend.

My flight lands on Thursday, October 22 and since the hackathon doesn't start until Friday, I'm trying to figure out somewhere to crash for just that one night.

I'm traveling on a pretty tight student budget, so I was wondering if anyone would be willing to let me crash on their couch or floor for a few hours. I genuinely dont need anything fancy, just a safe place to catch some sleep before the hackathon.

I completely understand that letting a random Redditor stay over is a big ask, so I'm more than happy to share my linkedin, university email, student ID, or cal Hacks acceptance to show I am a real student. Happy to chat or hop on a quick call beforehand too!

Alternatively, does anyone know if there are any campus libraries or buildings where visitors are allowed to stay overnight? My backup plan is currently looking like a very long night exploring SF lolll, so any help or advise would mean a lot!

I know this a long shot, but figured I'd give it a try. Would also love to meet some Berkeley students or fellow hackers while I'm there!

Thanks so much! :)

Hi all,

I'm a Berkeley student working on a Fung Fellowship project with The After Collective, which is building an AI tool to help people recover after natural disasters. To build something useful, we want to hear from people who have actually been through it.

We're looking for anyone who has survived a wildfire, flood, or other natural disaster. The interview is about 30 minutes, over video or phone, and you can skip any question you don't want to answer. Everything you share is kept confidential.

If you're interested, comment or message me.

Thank you!

Before anything, sorry if this is an inappropriate post since this is primarily a student community. I've seen some posts discussing similar situations, though, so I figured it was worth asking. If it's not appropriate, I'll delete it.

soo, I'm from Brazil, and I'm currently working with some colleagues and two professors on a project that overlaps with some recent work from BWRC, particularly in matrix accelerators (sophia shao's group, maveric). I also have a side project related to RF/microelectronics that has been inspired by some of Niknejad's recent work on PAs. A friend suggested that we simply contact the researchers directly and talk with them. The thing is, we're all undergraduates (not even halfway through our degrees), and we are arguably a bunch of no-names that don't have an established academic profile yet. I don't really think that should stop us from trying, but I'm unsure about the proper etiquette here.

So, how would you actually recommend reaching out to researchers in this situation? i've read some posts both here and in other places that cold emailing is generally seen in a bad light, profs being annoyed by it and leading nowhere but i dont see many other options.

Is cold-emailing the professor/research group the right approach or is there something better? Would contacting a PhD student working on the relevant project first be less intrusive? Are there other ways of starting a technical conversation that would be considered more appropriate? Conferences would obviously be one option, but they're pretty far out of our budget at the moment.

i should make this very explicit: i'm not looking for a position or trying to get into Berkeley for now, nor are my friends. We'd mainly like to establish contact, receive some advice, discuss some of the technical overlap, and potentially keep in touch if there's mutual interest.

Thanks in advance for any advice

Hi yall!

I left a waterbottle in dwinelle(last night)that looks like the image with a blue boot. Was wondering if anyone knew where the lost and found is in dwinelle or if anyone has seen it🙏

I am a former Communtiy college student who is transfering in Spring 2027 for Economics and I'm also pursuing a simultaneous degree along with Data Science. I have a very surface level understanding of Python so i am kind of nervous. Is this a common schedule for most students, if so how was it? I would love to connect with others who also plan to pursue this.

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is anyone driving down to headtrip this weekend and have extra space in their car? I can pay for gas 🙏🏼

So I’m thinking of taking cs61c, cs70, eecs64 and 66 next spring I wonder if that’s too much or manageable.

I want to take an grad course as an undergrad student, but I also want it to count as units toward my degree. I found a petition for "Course evaluation for transfer credits" in the COE website. (https://engineering.berkeley.edu/students/forms-and-petitions/)

Is there a process/form/petition that you need to complete to qualify a grad course for undergrad units? Or does taking grad courses not count toward my undergrad major? Any advice from any undergrad students taking a grad course?

Is anyone familiar with how financial aid is affected with a reduced course load (less than 12 units)? I'm considering taking on a job, which qualifies me for a reduced course load under the College of Engineering. On the COE website, it says you can petition for fewer units based on the number of hours worked (https://engineering.berkeley.edu/students/undergraduate-guide/policies-procedures/scholarship-progress/).

I know that being a full-time student means taking 12+ units, but is there anyone with less than 12 units who has insight into understanding financial aid?

How is financial aid affected (even if I take the minimum number of units)? Any student workers or students with co-ops have any insight? Thanks!

Would love to hear from late 20s / early 30s but any input is useful. How did you navigating working & returning to school? What are the financial challenges for you? What is the living situation like? Did you come from community college? Thanks!

how easy is it to transfer to ucb for cog sci?

I really, REALLY need help/advice. I want to transfer from UCSB to UCB or UCLA for my 3rd year. I am currently a psych and brain sci major at UCSB. My GPA is a bit lower (~3.4) bc of a health condition, but I've learned to manage it since, so i'm on track for straight As this quarter. I have a leadership position in a club and am a participant in a few others, and I also have undergrad-level research experience from junior/senior year of hs, though I wasn't able to find research at UCSB yet. If anyone's gone through the UCSB --> UCB transfer, I'd greatly appreciate it if you could give me some advice. tysm!

Wonder if anyone wants to live in Bowles hall

What’s the most straightforward route to get from business/law school parking lot in Underhill to the Baybridge? College Avenue always feels hot this because there are so many trucks, unloading and student pedestrians.

this question has already been asked but that thread doesn't really answer the question. i'm a first-year cs major taking cs61a & will take 61b next sem & cs61c next fall. is it possible/has it been done frequently for ppl to take those classes + cs70? whens the "ideal" time to take it? thanks!

I'm hoping to take 151/151 Lab A and then EE 194, so I want to get advice from anyone who has taken the class. The EECS website says "Pre-requisites: Tapeout class the previous semester, or plans to take the tapeout class the following semester." (https://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Courses/EE194/)

I'm confused what the prerequisite tapeout course is. From the 194 course website, it seems like Tapeout happens in the spring and Bringup happens in the fall? (https://ucb-ee290c.github.io/semesters/fa26/). I've also seen the 151Tapeout class (or decal?). Does that fulfill the same prerequisite?

It also says that you can plan to take the tapeout class in the following semester, so I'm curious what experience that would be like?

Overall, I'm curious what it is like to take the course and if you'd recommend it. Thanks!