Berkeley, CA

[feisty]

No problem,

I'll try to edit out some of the more precious personal touches.

[in my first email, I called Oakland "The Brooklyn of the West!" so that's what he's referring to early on. We're both from Chicago, so when he says "Metra" and "CTA" he's referring to the Chicago commuter rail and El trains, respectively]

-lets start with the basics, i guess: oakland is a mid-size city, a bit less dense and populous than brooklyn (though i think the analogy is useful in other ways). it's bordered on the west by the san francisco bay (and the bay bridge, which goes to SF), the north by berkeley, the south by some bullshit suburbs whose only virtue is that the in n' out burger drive thru is there, and the east by the hills (going over them takes you out of the mediterranean paradise of the bay area and into the central valley, ...

-getting to SF from oakland: from downtown, it's about a 15 minute BART ride to downtown SF. if you drive, depending on traffic, crossing the bridge takes anywhere from 10 to 40 minutes. i guess you can take a ferry from jack london square but why.

-getting to Berkeley from oakland: it obviously depends on where you are going, but for downtown/UC berkeley area, it's about a 12 minute BART ride from downtown oakland. ...

-a word about BART. not sure if you have taken it around while in the bay area before. it's a light rail system that is slightly smaller in scale than the Metra but more regional than, like, the cta. its coverage is very good in the east bay - there are multiple stops in oakland and berkeley - but is not quite so good in san francisco, where it will only get you downtown or to the mission. now as it happens those are probably the two most important parts of the city to have access to, but if you want to go anywhere west of van ness you'll have to either transfer to the muni subway/bus, walk (SF is on a very walkable scale, despite the hills), or bring yr bike (which is allowed on BART). tickets are cheap when traveling within the east bay or within san francisco - $1.50 - but when you go underneath the bay from SF-oakland it costs $3 and up depending on where you get off. still cheaper than paying the bridge toll, unless you're carpooling. UC berkeley students get a special pass that gives them a discount but I don't really know the details about that,...

-nightlife: there are some fantastic bars here - my favorites being cafe van cleef and the ruby room. while it's not a college town there are certain venues, like the aforementioned ruby room, that young people and hipsters tend to cluster. very very un-fratty, unlike the berkeley scene where it's more or less irish pub irish pub bland college bar (i NEVER go out in berkeley, or anywhere near campus, at least). i don't really go clubbing ever so i'm not so sure on that front except that another favorite place of mine, luka's, does soul and dancehall and reggaeton nights and the kids are really into it. a few very high profile gay/lesbian bars including the famous white horse. there are few venues for shows but they tend to be either on the extremely local or the extremely national scale... my one critique about oakland at night is that, while there are many places to go, they tend to be sort of atomized in little groups of 2 or 3 in various neighborhoods. there's not like a single strip where a lot of exciting shit is concentrated. this is good in that you explore different areas but frustrating when you don't have a car and are not keen on drunk biking across major arterial roads.

-neighborhoods/geography: oakland isn't super dense and its points of interest are spread out over a handful of neighborhoods. the center of the city around which streets and neighborhoods are oriented is Lake Merritt. Lake Merritt is a saltwater lake that feeds in from an estuary into the SF bay. it's very pretty ...

Chinatown - between lake merrritt and downtown - i.e., the southwestern border of the lake - is Chinatown. sort of a misnomer because it's about equal parts chinese, vietnamese, and korean (in terms of population and, lets be honest about which metrics are really of concern to us, restaraunts). it's surprisingly big for a small-ish city, because as you might imagine nor cal has a lot of asian immigrants and many of them don't have the $$$ for san francisco. it's less of a touristy chinatown (like SF) and more a practical place to serve the needs of actual asian people. i go here for groceries sometimes, and for cheap bahn mi.

Lakeshore apartment district/"gold coast" (lol) - ... it's bordered by chinatown/downtown/lake merritt. it's mostly residential but has a few little fancy organic grocery stores and the fantastic ruby room, which is my dive of choice and holds the distinction of being the only place in the entire east bay that you can still smoke indoors.

Grand Lake/Adam's Point - on the opposite (eastern) side of the lake .... it's among the most bumpin neighborhoods in oakland, at least for people in my age group/general socioeconomic stratum. there are two main streets - grand and lakeshore - which have long stretches of bars and stores and restaraunts. places like the black panther furniture store, ... the dueling piano bar, the arizmendi lesbian pizza collective, trader joe's, etc etc are in this area. it also has a bangin farmer's market on saturdays. two interesting and historic theatres are in this area - the grand lake (which is standard indie stuff in a nice old theatre but with free popcorn and an organ that is played by a real human being before the show) and the parkway (which has plush ass couches and tables instead of seats and a full service bar in the theater).

The Fruitvale/International Boulevard - this is the district that begins on the south-east side of lake merritt and continues down for a long long way along International Blvd. this is sort of the gray area that separates between the middle-class parts of oakland and the ghetto. If this were the Korean Peninsula, this part of town would be the De-Militarized Zone. Upper international (by the lake) is a heavily vietnamese area. As you head south on international toward Fruitvale blvd., it becomes a largely mexican neighborhood. i hope it doesn't sound racist for me to say that the main attraction here is the taco trucks. i haven't spent too much time out here though... i've never really hung out south of Fruitvale because it gets pretty rough.

Downtown - it's on the east side of lake merritt, between chinatown and west oakland/the sf bay. not a huge downtown, or one that is terribly relevant in the world of international commerce, but there are plenty of tall buildings for companies like clorox, ask.com, kaiser, wachovia, wells fargo, blah blah blah. city hall is nice, and I really like the oakland tribune building. most of the stuff downtown (with the exception of the bars) is set up to cater to the 9-5 business crowd and so is closed at night or on weekends. there are two massive, gorgeous, and historic theaters downtown - the Paramount and the recently renovated Fox. there are higher profile shows here (shit like Cake and Michael Franti, bleh) and occasionally they do classic movies which are a treat in the art-deco'd out theaters.

Old Oakland/Jack London Square - south of downtown, in between chinatown and the estuary. this is the really touristy part of town, with overpriced bars and restaruants and all kinds of charming shit on the waterfront. jack london is also home of the fruitpacking district, where fruit is taken off of boats at the port and put into big ass warehouses. the old warehouse buildings here are one of the frontiers of gentrification in oakland...

Alameda - not exactly part of oakland but it's a magical little island town off the coast. there's a military base, the entire city gets free cable for some reason, and i hear that there is a pinball museum where you can actually play on all the machines....

Temescal - north of downtown, this is the stretch of oakland along the berkeley border, on telegraph avenue. it has a personality sort of like the grand lake area - young, up and coming, a little gritty. very diverse, even for oakland. the white horse, oakland's main lezzie destination, is here.

Rockridge/Piedmont - east of temescal, bordered by berkeley and the hills, centered on college ave and piedmont ave. this is probably most upscale part of oakland that isn't country clubs or private homes up in the hills. the really nice restaraunts (Citron, Dona Maria, Pizziaolo, etc) are clustered up here, and a lot boutique-y shops. other attractions include the mountain view cemetary, which has a gorgeous view of the bay ...

-other stuff to do besides drink and eat and go to shows: good question! the A's are here so you can go watch them get pummeled by the white sox on a sunny afternoon. ...lots of pretty parks and trails around lake merritt and in the hills to walk or bike on. great thrift stores that are way less picked over than the ones in SF and berkeley. there's also a growing number of galleries downtown, but nothing as good as what you'd find in, like, SoMa in SF. which brings me to - you can always go to SF.

-a word about safety: oakland has a rep for being really hard and dangerous. you will probably never find yourself in the extremely rough parts of town where most of the gang violence goes down, so there's really not much more to be afraid of than in any other city. which isn't to say that people don't get mugged and whatever, but if you're not a dumbshit you can eliminate a lot of the risk. i understand that it's a categorically different experience as a female, but i have never felt threatened while walking alone at night in any of the neighborhoods listed above. ...

ok so i think i'll stop and let you digest the novel i just wrote. if i were moving out here anew, i would certainly choose to live in oakland again, probably in grand lake, temescal, or where i'm at now. living here lets you save a few hundred dollars of rent compared to berkeley but be in a much more mature, interesting, and textured environment without sacrificing easy access to the university and SF. if you live in the right place a car is totally unnecessary though a bike makes life much easier. ...

[Phonologist]

Feisty, are you planning on having a car if you were to live in Oakland? Your friend's email was very thorough, though it left out a couple of my favorite neighborhoods here in the Town. The problem is, they're pretty much off-limits unless you have a car. If you're interested I can tell you more.

[feisty]

No, I won't have a car, at least not for the first few years.

It's a good email, but definitely catered to a 22 year old transplant with no wheels (me).

[verninox]

If anyone wants a recent update, I live in Berkeley right now, about two blocks from the southside of campus near the I-house area.

I live in a one bedroom in an apartment complex (with parking) for about 1250 a month, parking extra (70). My building is pretty nice for the area, and really close to campus, so its a bit expensive, but I share it so its down to under $700 a month for me, so very doable. Most Berkeley undergrads can find housing below $900 at the most (unless you want your own studio or one-bedroom, then its at least $1000), easily within $600-800 for your own room in a shared apartment/house. Most grad students here seem to live a little farther out because they're not used to paying so much from their undergrad locations, so I'm assuming they pay even less.

As a side note, I'm sort of pleased to have lived in an expensive area, because now almost all my possible grad locations seems so cheap!

[mia11]

Hey guys,

All really useful info here Thanks for updating the discussion verninox ..! I wondered if you (or anyone else!?!) had any other wisdom to share about the following:

If opting for the room in a shared house option ($600-800), what would be the best way to go about looking for such a situation if an overseas student? (i.e.: WHEN is the best time to look..now/june/july/august?.. And any reputable/popular websites for searching out house-share?)

Also, any names/ideas of good locations or areas in particular?

Online there is info about the University Village for grad students (I think that's what it's called..) Anyone live there or know anything about what this is like? And are there house-share options possible through this?

Thanks for any help!!

[apropos]

$20,000 stipend for the school year, $4,000 for the summer. is that really enough to live off of in Berkeley?

-----------------------------------

Here is a little rule of thumb. If your yearly income around $26,000, then your after tax income will be about $1700 per month in California. At least, that was my experience a couple of years ago. As others pointed out, you probably will spend at least $700-800 on your living space and utilities. You money will be tight, but I think you can make it just fine.

There are many options regarding housing. North, South, and West side of campus are all popular options, and all have pros and cons. I personally liked living some 20 blocks from school/work and biking to campus.

[historianofart]

If opting for the room in a shared house option ($600-800), what would be the best way to go about looking for such a situation if an overseas student? (i.e.: WHEN is the best time to look..now/june/july/august?.. And any reputable/popular websites for searching out house-share?)

Also, any names/ideas of good locations or areas in particular?

Hi everyone. As another student very likely to be coming to Berkeley next year, I've appreciated the posts so far. I wanted to second mia's question in the quote above about when to look for housing, and where. Have people had success with finding roommates through Craigslist? Seems risky... Is it unrealistic to plan to peruse listings in the summer and show up a few weeks before term starts in August to visit options and sign a lease because there'll be so much competition then? Thanks in advance.

[ConceptualMetaphor]

I'm going to go ahead and bump this thread again with the same question...when's the best time to start looking for housing? I'm moving to Berkeley the first week in July and subletting a place for 7 weeks, and planning to move somewhere more permanent right before school starts. Are there school-year based leases to be found for grad students? The listings I've seen so far on Craigslist for late August move-ins seem geared toward undergrads, but I'm guessing more listings will be popping up later in the spring/summer...I hope.

[dramanda]

I'm going to go ahead and bump this thread again with the same question...when's the best time to start looking for housing? I'm moving to Berkeley the first week in July and subletting a place for 7 weeks, and planning to move somewhere more permanent right before school starts. Are there school-year based leases to be found for grad students? The listings I've seen so far on Craigslist for late August move-ins seem geared toward undergrads, but I'm guessing more listings will be popping up later in the spring/summer...I hope.

UCB has a pretty good online resources for off-campus housing: https://calrentals.housing.berkeley.edu/

They also have a document called "When to Look for Housing": https://calrentals.housing.berkeley.edu ... o_Look.pdf

They really stress not looking too early, 4-6 weeks before the desired move-in date is recommended. I'm not sure how I feel about that, as I'd really like to have my life in order long before that....ah well!

Best of luck to you!

[historianofart]

That's helpful, hadn't seen the document on when to look. Thanks!

[advice]

UCB's on campus housing for graduate students, specifically Jackson House - is quite nice. The downside is that it is rather expensive.

[GoBears80]

I can't advise about University-sponsored grad student housing, as I went to Cal for undergrad. However, I also grew up in the area so I can suggest some neighborhoods. In my opinion, North Berkeley is where it's at - a fantastic mix of quiet neighborhoods with big houses (convenient for those of you interested in finding a share/renting out a room), convenient to several bus lines and outdoorsy things like Tilden Park, not to mention the "gourmet ghetto" of Shattuck Ave. and the also-decent restaurants/shops along Solano. I'd advise grad students against living too close to the university, especially near the Greek houses on the south and east borders of campus, for obvious reasons. The north side of campus is generally quieter than the south. If you're on a very tight budget, there are some good deals to be found near the North Oakland/Berkeley border, particularly off of Telegraph/MLK/Shattuck Aves near Ashby. College Avenue in North Oakland (Rockridge/Claremont) is also nice, but might be a bit pricier. All of those would be a short bike or bus commute to campus. I have some friends who have also lived successfully in Emeryville, but that's a bit of a hike. If you're into communal living, definitely check out the university's co-op system. The vegetarian house, Lothlorien, is awesome.

Good luck to all, and GO BEARS!

[drpsych]

I'm thinking I might go to Berkeley this Fall and move-in about August (maybe end of July).. anyone interested in roommates?! I'm looking for a cheap place and nice roommates would be good Send me a message if you're interested..

[mosquito0016]

Hello, I was recently admitted for Fall 2010. I was idly browsing websites trying to get a sense for the cost of housing when I noticed that most contained warnings similar to the following: "Register soon to guarantee availability for fall 2010. All apartments will fill up soon." This warning was even on UC sponsored apartments for grad students.

What should I do in this case? It's certainly too early to commit to anything, but should I mput my name in the mix if I'm relatively sure I will attend? I don't want to end up next year with no good housing options. Or will they reserve spots for incoming students?

Also, does anyone have tips on cheap housing in the area (and I mean very cheap)? I'm not going to have much money. Willing to commute.

[hydrangea]

I attended UCB as an undergraduate, and I live there still. I currently work in Oakland. As far as filling up for fall goes, I wouldn't worry about it. I'm sure the department you applied to will have a prospective weekend where you get to stay out here with a current grad student and get a feel for the place. It's not going to be cheap. I have a good studio apartment reasonably close to campus, BART (trains), and Bus (AC Transit) that I nabbed in November 2006 for $800/mo. There is rent control in Berkeley, so I now pay $840/mo. When I got the place, the manager said he had another studio vacant below mine, and he would list it for more. I also lucked out in having to pay only first month's rent and deposit. A lot of places wanted first, last, and deposit.

When I first moved here I didn't go the apartment route. Berkeley has a large Co-op association. I believe that's by far the cheapest option, but it's like staying in a youth hostel in Europe. I believe the organization is (oh they changed the name), here's a link:

http://berkeleystudentcooperative.org/

They have a graduate only house, which is nicer than a lot of the others. I lived in Cloyne for one semester. I was very thankful to have a community to belong to while in a new place (I had transferred from southern California), but frustrated over the lack of control over the bathroom.

Another thing Berkeley grad students often do is rent houses together. You can end up living in a very beautiful space this way (typically on north side). A lot of students live on south side, and the further south you go the more you are in Oakland, with cheaper rent, but not so safe. Also, bear in mind that Berkely PD does not round up homeless people. They as much define Berkeley as the university does, and you have to be aware of walking by certain parks at night.

Personally, I love Berkeley and I am going to miss it! I didn't apply anywhere in California. The weather just oscillates around 65 all year. I don't own a car, and I don't miss it. The place is so rich in quality. I love that you can get Indian or Thai food at 20 different places in a two mile radius, and go to a farmar's market 3 days out of the week. Also, everyone in Berkeley will agree, THERE IS NOTHING IN THE WORLD LIKE BERKELEY BOWL. Whole Foods, eat your heart out. And you have this great access to theater, San Francisco, and camping. It's just a beautiful place.

If you have any other specific questions I would be happy to answer them as best I can.

[mosquito0016]

I attended UCB as an undergraduate, and I live there still. I currently work in Oakland. As far as filling up for fall goes, I wouldn't worry about it. I'm sure the department you applied to will have a prospective weekend where you get to stay out here with a current grad student and get a feel for the place. It's not going to be cheap. I have a good studio apartment reasonably close to campus, BART (trains), and Bus (AC Transit) that I nabbed in November 2006 for $800/mo. There is rent control in Berkeley, so I now pay $840/mo. When I got the place, the manager said he had another studio vacant below mine, and he would list it for more. I also lucked out in having to pay only first month's rent and deposit. A lot of places wanted first, last, and deposit.

When I first moved here I didn't go the apartment route. Berkeley has a large Co-op association. I believe that's by far the cheapest option, but it's like staying in a youth hostel in Europe. I believe the organization is (oh they changed the name), here's a link:

http://berkeleystudentcooperative.org/

They have a graduate only house, which is nicer than a lot of the others. I lived in Cloyne for one semester. I was very thankful to have a community to belong to while in a new place (I had transferred from southern California), but frustrated over the lack of control over the bathroom.

Another thing Berkeley grad students often do is rent houses together. You can end up living in a very beautiful space this way (typically on north side). A lot of students live on south side, and the further south you go the more you are in Oakland, with cheaper rent, but not so safe. Also, bear in mind that Berkely PD does not round up homeless people. They as much define Berkeley as the university does, and you have to be aware of walking by certain parks at night.

Personally, I love Berkeley and I am going to miss it! I didn't apply anywhere in California. The weather just oscillates around 65 all year. I don't own a car, and I don't miss it. The place is so rich in quality. I love that you can get Indian or Thai food at 20 different places in a two mile radius, and go to a farmar's market 3 days out of the week. Also, everyone in Berkeley will agree, THERE IS NOTHING IN THE WORLD LIKE BERKELEY BOWL. Whole Foods, eat your heart out. And you have this great access to theater, San Francisco, and camping. It's just a beautiful place.

If you have any other specific questions I would be happy to answer them as best I can.

Wow thanks for the really great reply! Good tip about the Co-ops.

[hydrangea]

I may have been quick to say "don't worry about housing filling up". If there is something you like you should investigate the situation and contact people about availability. I will bet that the undergrads haven't found out about their admission status yet, so you don't have to worry for the time being. There will be housing whenever you decided to show up, but it might not be exactly what you're looking for. There will be chances to move, as I did. You can also check craigslist.org, which is very active in the bay area.

[ursprache]

Hi there,

My partner and I are considering the Bay Area next year for grad school. She's been admitted to Berkeley and I have an offer from Stanford, but I'm from the east coast and neither of us has lived there before, so we're unsure of what to expect regarding housing. We've heard conflicting accounts of what it would mean to live together such that one of us has to commute, since the two campuses are on either end of the bay.

From what I've learned doing some preliminary research, CalTrain is a fairly easy way to reach Stanford from San Francisco proper, and if we lived relatively near a BART & Caltrain stop we'd both be able to commute via public transportation. As graduate students on stipends, though, I doubt we could afford much more than $1,600/month, which is already pushing the upper limit, and I'm not sure if that's a realistic budget for San Francisco. What about Oakland? Is it possible to commute to Palo Alto nearly every day without extreme hair loss? Berkeley proper? We do have a dependable car that gets good gas mileage, but I hear that can also be a nightmare in SF.

Would love to hear any thoughts.

Thanks.

[zxcv]

ursprache -- Living in Oakland is a great option for Berkeley (it's what I do), but accordingly to Google Maps it's going to be roughly a 50 minute drive to Stanford each way (without traffic). I can't see the commute situation being much better from SF, although at least then you have public transit. Honestly, I would consider getting separate living situations near school and seeing each other on weekends.

[hydrangea]

You would likely get the most sleep by living in two places, but you might loose out on rent what you gained in transit fair. Still, I think Berkeley and Stanford are defiantly a do-able distance apart for a couple. It just might take a few tries to land on a situation that will be comfortable.

BART and CalTrain are both very easy systems to use, and are for the most part reliable. Amtrak is not nearly as reliable. Millbrae is the actual official transfer point from the BART system to the CalTrain. That might be more affordable than living in the 7x7 grid of SF. You might also look into Daily City, but I have only ever seen that town from the BART trains, so I can't tell you much about it.

I used to commute from Berkeley to Mountain View, which was on the order of 2 hours (2/3 on BART), and lots of good reading time. CalTrain gets REALLY slow on the weekends! During the week they have different trains making different sets of stops, but on the weekend it's every stop for every train. BART doesn't do much of a rider discount, but you can get month passes for CalTrain that will start to save you money. I would suggest your getting some earplugs of some sort if you are going to ride the BART for extended distances. They make the trains light, so they don't hold out the sound as well, and it will tire you out quicker than you think. Oh, and both systems are bike friendly.

I don't think living in Oakland would be that much different, in terms of commute, than living in Berkeley, but it's a location that should stay on your radar. East Oakland is generally nicer than west Oakland.

Useful web pages:

http://www.511.org/ Great info on all transit agencies in the Bay Area.

http://bart.gov/

http://www.sfmta.com.../home/sfmta.php SF public transit

http://www.caltrain.com/

And of course, check out craigslist.

P.S. You might also look into Translink. It's a method of payment that prevents you from having to carry around cash. AC Transit (Berkeley and Oakland) use it, as well as MUNI (SF). I know they have equipment installed at the CalTrain stations, but I don't know if it's operational yet. BART still uses their own type of payment card.

Edited February 16, 2010 by hydrangea

[njf]

Hello, I was recently admitted for Fall 2010. I was idly browsing websites trying to get a sense for the cost of housing when I noticed that most contained warnings similar to the following: "Register soon to guarantee availability for fall 2010. All apartments will fill up soon." This warning was even on UC sponsored apartments for grad students.

What should I do in this case? It's certainly too early to commit to anything, but should I mput my name in the mix if I'm relatively sure I will attend? I don't want to end up next year with no good housing options. Or will they reserve spots for incoming students?

Also, does anyone have tips on cheap housing in the area (and I mean very cheap)? I'm not going to have much money. Willing to commute.

I did my masters at Berkeley, and have since moved to the peninsula for work.

It can be pretty hard to find a nice apartment in Berkeley, but there are usually tons of people looking for roommates. I showed up two weeks before classes without anywhere to live, but after an hour on craigslist and a few phone calls, I'd found a room on the south side and moved in that day.

On the subject of public transit, one perk at Cal is you can get a free AC Transit bus pass sticker for your student ID; it even works on the transbay buses. Some students never use it, some live by it. Also, nextbus.com has a live tracker that works on cell phones.

ursprache: If one of you is driving, parking is a bit easier at Stanford, for whatever that's worth. OTOH, the bridges can be traffic bottlenecks.

[ambiguous]

i'm considering Berkeley too. Co-op housing looks promising, but it appears that dogs are not allowed. Any co-opers have advice on this? Are Berkeley landlords generally dog friendly?

[hydrangea]

i'm considering Berkeley too. Co-op housing looks promising, but it appears that dogs are not allowed. Any co-opers have advice on this? Are Berkeley landlords generally dog friendly?

I don't recall any sanctioned pets within the co-op system, likely for health and safety reasons. Each house gets to set most of their own rules on how to organize and run things. I would imagine that most co-opers would be willing to consider a house pet, but I don't know how much control each house has over that particular item, and if someone is allergic you might have to kiss that one goodbye. I had a friend who had a cat, and I don't know if that was officially allowed or not, but the cat didn't bother anyone so it never became a problem.

When searching for an apartment, I found many listings that said no pets. I didn't have one, so I wasn't keeping an eye out for how many actually did say pets allowed.

FYI this dog park is a cool place with lots of friendly company. There is also a coffee shop that sells dog treats and keeps you warm on cold days.

http://www.ebparks.org/parks/pt_isabel

[zurich_econ]

I just received my admission to Berkeley. I'd love to go there, but we, in particular my girlfriend, are a bit worried about earthquakes. How do you Californians deal with the possibility of earthquakes? Would anyone consider attending an equally good east-coast school instead of Berkeley to avoid the danger of earthquakes?

[Jae B.]

I just received my admission to Berkeley. I'd love to go there, but we, in particular my girlfriend, are a bit worried about earthquakes. How do you Californians deal with the possibility of earthquakes? Would anyone consider attending an equally good east-coast school instead of Berkeley to avoid the danger of earthquakes?

I've lived near Berkeley my entire life, and through many earthquakes -- and all but one were no big deal. Here are some points on our earthquakes:

1. Most quakes are so soft, many people don't realize they've happened. Don't even notice, or aren't sure if it was a quake or a big truck driving by outside.
2. Quakes you can feel usually only make the furniture sway a little. A good reason not to put breakables near the edges of tables and such. But little more cause for worry than that. A few seconds + any aftershocks.
3. Major quakes are rare, and you can be prepared for if they happen. Here's our local disaster preparedness page for earthquakes: http://72hours.org/earthquake.html

The last major earthquake in the Berkeley / San Francisco Bay Area was the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989, when I was a tot. It was a magnitude 7.1. There were tragedies (such as the collapse of part of Interstate 880 in Oakland) and damage to some buildings. I lived 20 miles from the UC Berkeley campus at the time, and it knocked over some furniture in our apartment. So you might want to think about how you arrange your things.

The good news is our buildings are retrofitted to endure earthquakes. After every major earthquake, we're a bit better prepared for the next.

If you are really worried, my best advice is to find a newer building to live in. A little difficult in Berkeley close to campus, but if you can't, hey, it's been standing this long....

Also, none of those tall, skinny bookcases (or similar furniture pieces, pains to move anyway). Those can cause some damage if they fall; opt for shorter, wider bookcases instead.

I hope you choose to come to Berkeley! It's an absolutely wonderful place to be, and I'd never think of earthquakes as a reason to choose someplace else!