College can shock many eighteen year olds as they undergo a major life change. It’s the first taste of going off on your own with no parents to set the rules for you. This experience can be quite scary if people aren’t adequately prepared. Luckily, according to some Berkley alumni, Berkeley students are as prepared as anyone.

Tyler Terenzi ‘13, University of Virginia Class of 2017, said “Berkeley did a really good job preparing us for college academically wise. […] I’m not surprised by the amount of work that there is in college.” Terenzi also remarked that “Berkeley prepared us pretty well for the time management part. […] I’m not surprised about what I have to do and when I have to do it.” Another problem incoming college students must worry about is the increased difficulty of college courses. Adam Slakter ’13, a freshman at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, talked about the methods he uses to get through the tough curriculum at college.  “[At] MIT, they want you to work together, they make the problems impossible to do by yourself, so you work in groups. People aren’t competitive, and there are a lot of upperclassmen that you can ask for help which is really nice.”

The promise of a community waiting in college is very comforting for high school students. Slakter said that he was able to immerse himself in this rich community before classes even started through a pre-college program, where he went camping before school started with some future classmates: “I know a lot of people and the fact that I know a lot of people from the dorms means I’m  really comfortable going anywhere.”

One thing that both Slakter and Terenzi agreed on is that adjusting to college is something that everyone must learn on his or her own. Terenzi said that the independent factor “you have to learn yourself.” Terenzi also added that “the whole independent nature of it is way harder than I thought. For example, now that I’m on my own and I have to do laundry, I realized that I go through way more clothes than I thought I did.” This adjustment to life without parents is the case for most of the Class of 2013. 73% of the graduates went out of state for their studies, providing a separation of hundreds, even thousands, of miles between most of the students and their parents. However, the Class of 2013 seems to be adjusting well to collegiate life!