endangered

the cheapest part of davis is near Mace blvd, or southeast Davis. The next cheapest is West Davis. North Davis and South Davis are the most expensive because these areas are near convenient shopping malls (location is overrated, imo). Rent for your own room in a 3br runs 450-550. If you want cheap rent and your own private space, then you can live in Pacifico co-op, where you can rent a very small room and a meal plan for just over 500/month. Alternatively, locals often rent out rooms in their houses. Locals often rent rooms to grad students but not to undergrads. This is due to the the general belief that grad students are more reliable and responsible than are undergrads. Scour craigslist for the next few months for cheap living options.

Here's my advice: 1. Poke around some secondary literature. Get a grasp of what kind of research paper you'd like to write 2. Go to a professor who you trust. Ideally, this professor has specializes in this time period/place so he/she can help you with an independent research project. If not, then he/she can "recommend" you to one of his/her colleagues. If so, then that colleague may be able to work with you. I don't know about your university, but most professors left campus during the summertime. You may be SOL until next year. As another poster has mentioned, you can volunteer with a local archive, however, I don't believe this will help you very much. You can spend this summer studying for the GREs if your score is not high. If you can write an excellent and original paper which incorporates primary source documents and foreign language sources, then I'd say you will be in good position for the next application cycle.

I also attended Berkeley's Visit Day and can affirm what feisty has just written. I should also add that the faculty emphasized very strongly the camaraderie within the department and the lack of in-fighting amongst graduate students -- which is, apparently, a big problem at other schools. The faculty people also noted that funding for school-related activities is very easy to obtain during the summer and will often "magically" appear should you need it. I also get the impression that under no circumstance will funding be revoked. Here is a decent article about UC Berkeley's budget shortfall http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2009/03/09/daily29.html

Feisty, From what I've heard, you're expected to find extramural sources of funding for years 5-7, 8, 9 etc. Other Berkeley students have told me that these types of funding are surprisingly easy to obtain. I could be wrong, but dissertation stage tuition is significantly reduced. Teaching opportunities seem to be copious, as well.

Daytime temperatures fluctuate between 45 degrees and 85 degrees for the most part. Rain occurs between November and March, though California has been mired in a serious drought for at least 3 years now. It's never humid during the summer, but the winters are often chilly and rainy. Looking outside the window right now -- it's beautiful!

I think you'd best seek advice from the professors at "The Chronicle" forums. But...they will tell you that you would be insane to enter a humanities field without funding. I'd even imagine that their responses would be similar for a social science or science field.

I'll also be going to Berkeley! As for the California economy -- it's a mess, but the Bay Area is beautiful and probably one of the best places in the world to live. I'd gladly trade being poor in exchange for having the opportunity to live there. Also, from what I've heard, the faculty treat grad students very well. I doubt that we'll have our funding revoked.