Resources & Fun Websites for Berkeley
Originally by Victoria L
Last updated: 08/01/13
Last updated: 08/01/13
Do you know how many different resources online there are for Berkeley students?! Here's a list of all of the ones I know.
If you have any questions at all, head over to CalAsk, which is continually growing to try to answer ANY and ALL questions you might have!
Useful FB Groups:
- STUDY TIPS and OTHER USEFUL THINGS
A place to put/ask about study tips and general tips for Berkeley classes
- Textbook-selling/buying-related:
Textbook Exchange
UC Berkeley Textbooks
Textbook Trading
Direct selling/buying/trading between students, which means you get paid more for your books and you also pay less for your textbooks. I highly recommend this!
- Free and For Sale
Buy and sell anything you want here.
- Work-related FB groups:
Jobs and Internships
Berkeley Startups and Entrepreneurs
CS Jobs and Internships
- Campus Tips
- Events and Parties
- UC Berkeley Stalkerspace
Not used much, really.
- Study Abroad
- Housing:
One and Two
Use this to find apartment housing for next year.
- The FB group for your major!
- The FB group for your class year - sometimes there are several.
- The FB group for your club/dorm/whatever
- Most of all, just spend a little time to LOOK THROUGH ALL OF THE GROUPS LISTED HERE
Super helpful.
Fun FB Pages:
- Berkeley Compliments
Compliment people anonymously!
- Berkeley Love
Spread the love...
- Berkeley Hookups
- Berkeley Consent
- Berkeley Confessions
(not really used much - see CampusAB and AnonCon below)
- Berkeley Squirrels
Yeah, our squirrels are famous for being obnoxiously fearless.
- Free Stuff at Cal
What the title says - large giveaways at Cal. However, I've found that this isn't very updated. Many of the free giveaways can be found on Sproul or Kroeber Plaza (near the art building) and are not listed here.
Fun:
- Campus AB
This is where most of Berkeley's confessions are - on the "Confessions & Rants" page, at least. A lot of people on here also give advice too, which is nice, and while confessions are of course anonymous, comments can also be anonymous too. There's also a "Fun Finds" page for random internet finds, "PollCal" for asking things, "Buddy Up" for finding someone to do things with (from study buddies to dates to sexual things), and "Golden Experiences" to write about things/classes/places/etc. you recommend. There's also a live chat and a one-on-one chat.
- Anoncon
This is like the grandfather of all confessions pages. Started before 2008, this tradition brings in all kinds of students from Berkeley in the last two weeks of every semester (RRR week and finals week) to write anything and everything that's on their minds - from heart-wrenching stories/rants to a shoutout to hot GSIs to asking for hookups. There's also a year-round chatroom. :P
- Berkeley subreddit
Just a place to discuss anything and everything about Berkeley.
- Berkeley Jerk subreddit
And a place to make fun of anything in Berkeley... hahaha.
- Telebears Tumblr
May the odds ever be in your favor. - Goddammit Berkeley
Weird stuff in Berkeley.
Academic:
- CalCentral
Currently in the works by the university staff, CalCentral is a portal to connect BearFacts, bSpace, Telebears, etc. all into ONE easy-to-use site.
- Tau Beta Pi Test Bank
Old exams from pretty much all STEM classes, both upper- and lower-div. SUPER helpful.
- HKN's Test Bank
Old exams from all EE & CS classes, both upper- and lower-div. HKN's site also has course guides (descriptions, reviews, etc.) for most EE & CS classes.
- Quad
Quad inputs all of your assignments/projects using your class's syllabus to create a calendar with due dates. Currently only for Berkeley students.
Class Planning/Scheduling:
- NinjaCourses
Helps you plan out your schedule, see reviews of classes & professors
- ScheduleBuilder
Like NinjaCourses, but includes grade distributions, but no reviews.
- Telebears Oracle
It lets you see how classes fill up over time in the current and last semesters. Fantastic for seeing what classes to Phase I or Phase II.
- BerkeleyTime
Lets you filter what kind of classes you want - by requirement, number of units, grade average, etc.
- CourseRank
Like BerkeleyTime, but also has a 4-year planner, official and unofficial grade distributions, class reviews, and other cool things.
- BearCheck
Get notified when a seat opens up in a class you want! - Has your section been updated recently?
A listing of sections that have been updated recently.
Textbooks:
- BigWords
Personally my favorite site - it's a textbook comparison site. You can use this to find both the cheapest textbooks to buy (including shipping and ALL of your textbooks together) and the site that pays the most for your books (also including shipping).
- Slugbooks
Another textbook comparison site. This one lets you fill in the classes and auto-populates the textbooks.
- Amazon Student aka Amazon Prime
Use your .edu email and get 6 months of Amazon Prime free - aka free 2-day shipping and reduced-price overnight shipping. Only valid for 6 months, though.
Free:
- Software for UC Berkeley students
Software of note:
Adobe CS6
Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office
- 50 GB of free storage from box.com for UC Berkeley students
FIFTY GIGS!
In Fall 2012, Dropbox also ran its Space Race, which gave all Berkeley students that signed up with their .edu emails 25 gigs for free for getting so many signups. Not sure if this is still true, but you could always try.
Buying/Selling/Trading:
- Buynear.me
Buynear.me lets on Berkeley students input what they want to sell. You can filter by items and see prices. It also helps you auto-post to several Facebook groups.
- Berkeley Meal Points Exchange
Lets you do exchanges for meal points (keep this hush-hush!). I wish I had found this earlier. Excess meal points is an extremely common issue.
Food:
- Instacart
Get food from Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, or Safeway shipped right to your door! - SpoonRocket
Pick from a few different choices and get it delivered to your door for $6. Menu changes every day.
Miscellaneous Sites:
- CalAsk
Have any questions about Berkeley? Find the answer here! - Berkeley FAQ
The Google Docs predecessor version of CalAsk. - Bearwalk
If you want to go from one place to another at night, Bearwalk can walk you. You can request one and check the status of your request from this site.
- Bearably Golden
My friend Sean's advice Tumblr - ask him anything about Berkeley! - Dtella at Cal
P2P within the Berkeley network with textbooks, TV shows, etc. There's a better explanation of it here. - Classmint
Some sort of note-taking website... It's new and I haven't really tried it out yet.
- Rumblii
A site that lists events at Berkeley.
- Prezi
Make animated, detailed infographics to give presentations from - basically like a really fancy slideshow. Sign up with your .edu email to get free edu membership, which removes the logo, more storage space, and has some other features.
- Jebbit
Make money by looking at webpages and answering questions. Sometimes the site is a little buggy - just send in a support ticket and they'll give you money/reset your hot streak in apology.
Handy Tools:
- Berkeley Authentication Autofiller
Chrome extension to auto-fill in (or even auto-login!) your CalNet info for you so you don't have to login to AirBears or Telebears or bSpace or any of Berkeley's dozens of sites manually. :) THIS IS SUPER USEFUL. Only works on Chrome, though.
- Airbears Supplicant (currently inactive until further notice)
Like the Berkeley Authentication Autofiller above, this logs you in automatically to Airbears... these also come in more versions.
Windows (and looks like a Mac one is in progress too)
Gnome (Linux - Fedora/Ubuntu)
Android auto-logon
No longer in use/development due to AirBears 2, but left here in case the original Airbears returns.
- UC Berkeley Schedule Enhancer
Decorates the Berkeley Schedule of Classes and provides helpful links.
- LastPass
Super-handy add-on to save your passwords on Firefox/Chrome/etc. Apparently having an .edu email gives you 6 free months of LastPass Premium as opposed to the free version.
Apps:
- Bearwalk on Android and iTunes
The handy app version of Bearwalk - request a bearwalker, see the shuttle map, etc.
- Mounza on Android and iTunes
See career events (talks, job openings, etc.) at UC Berkeley. Career talks usually give out free food and stuff.
- I heard there's also an app for NextBus (which tells you how long until the next bus at your stop) but I haven't personally used it and it looks like there's a variety of unofficial apps.
Other Offline Resources:
- Student Learning Center
The place to get free study groups and/or tutoring for pretty much all large lower-div classes
- HKN
Free tutoring and review sessions for lower-div CS classes!