<p>hey guys, I probably won't end up doing this...but would it be impossible to take 20-23 units? If anyone has any experience taking around that much, I'd love to hear how it went for you.</p>
<p>this is what I'm looking at currently: language intro class (5 units), espm c10 (4 units), r1b (4 units), econ 1 (4 units)</p>
<p>And then I'm thinking about these things...
-theater 10 3 units
-URAP 1-3 units (I'm aware that this is a lot of work)</p>
<p>thanks so much =)</p>
<p>Anything around 18 units is a heavy workload.
A 20+ workload is really tough, not because of the difficulty of classes, but solely because of the work associated with each class. Although if any of those classes are actually tough, then godspeed.</p>
<p>I knowww. Ugh. Haha. There are just so many classes I want to take. 
Doesn’t help that I don’t know my major and I’m trying to explore as much as possible before sophomore year.</p>
<p>@mcshelvy - Well, I would say focus on four classes max that you have to take (~16 units). And since you’re still early in your career, just go guest-sit in some of the lectures for different classes to get a feel for the material (assuming the class size is big enough where that wouldn’t be awkward.) Also, you don’t have to sit in a live classroom to explore, the internet is a wide wonderful place. Check out some online lectures on a few of the courses you’re interested in. Once you’ve really settled on those subjects, you’ve still got a few years to load up on the courses that you’re convinced are worthy of your time.</p>
<p>It’s not impossible. I’m planning on doing it myself (approved by an adviser pre-finals). All you need to do is go to (assuming you’re L&S) Evans second floor during adjustment period, show them your 4.0/4.3 (if only A+s were 4.3s…) and they’ll be like okay (they’ll ask a few random questions).</p>
<p>Also, I don’t recommend doing the URAP for units. You can get paid instead (which is the path I chose). </p>
<p>And how you do obviously depends on your personal ability…some people looked at my schedule and called me insane (it includes honors physics+math lower division, upper division math courses, and upper division earth science courses along with a couple others…) but I think it’ll work out. </p>
<p>You’re the best judge of your ability. The thing about Cal is that there’s such a wide spectrum of ability present. Some people get a 4.0 while taking 30+ units in nontrivial classes. Others struggle with the bare minimum. </p>
<p>Well, I just started talking to one Indian person in my math class and apparently he’s taking math 104, math 110, math H113, math H185, math 160, and physics 137a (which happens to be 24 units of nontrivial classes) as well as a couple of other breadth/decal courses (adds up to around 30). I call him crazy, but he’s probably good enough to handle it, seeing as he got straight A+s this semester. On the other hand, one of my roommates is struggling with 13 units. He’s taking “joke” classes and his GPA is still around 3.0.</p>
<p>Point is, we don’t know how “smart” you are or how good your work ethic is. But comparing your classes to ^ Indian guy’s and those of my own, I’d say you’d have a manageable semester definitely.</p>
<p>Theatre 10 looks like a lot of work. 6 hrs of class and you have to memorize a lot of lines. What did you do for the audition btw? </p>
<p>I’m probably doing like 11 units of tech and like 12 units of humanities… The thing is those 11 units are all labs but the 12 units are all veryvery easy humanities classes. I’ll let you know how that goes…</p>
<p>You’ll be fine, if: you have excellent time management skills; and/or if you perform well under pressure. I fall into the second category so I’m able to hang out with friends with the firm knowledge that my paper or lab report will get done and it will be done well. You should also be able to consolidate knowledge quickly for midterms and finals (take good notes!).</p>
<p>@GeneralWisdom: I didn’t actually audition yet-- so I may not get in. In which case, the issue of this thread won’t pose so much of a problem! Haha.</p>
<p>inb4 ucbalumnus says “courses that aren’t engineering classes don’t have labs and therefore aren’t time consuming, so yeah 9,001 units should be fine as long as you dont have labs.”</p>
<p>^ Hahahahhahaha ucbalumnus ALWAYS says that.</p>
<p>^xD I think I’ve noticed that in a few of ucbalumnus’ posts as well. I completely disagree with that stance, but ah well. Contrary to popular opinion, not every non-engineering/physics/computer science/anything-remotely-in-this-category course is an easy A.</p>
<p>Honestly though, why would you take more than 20 units unless you absolutely had to (ex: to graduate on time and complete all the major requisites). There’s just no need to put yourself through that kind of stress unless if you have to. Sure, there might be a ton of courses you’d like to take, but that doesn’t mean you should take them. Go over them, weigh the pros and cons of taking each, and then pick 3-5 courses in the end, like most undergraduates do. In the end, maybe you could handle the courseload, but unless if you have excellent time management skills, it will eat up all your free time. </p>
<p>I haven’t taken Econ 1, but considering the curve for that class and the competition (because of all the pre-Haas people taking it), you’d probably need to put in a decent amount of time to get an A. ESPM 10 shouldn’t be too much work. The R1b shouldn’t be that difficult either, depending on what kind of R1b it is and how good your writing skills are. The language course will be a lot of work spent on daily homework, weekly tests, and stuff done on your own time to really understand the language. Altogether, this already adds up to a pretty full courseload. No need to add anymore classes onto this.</p>
<p>I would suggest that you just stick with the first schedule you mentioned, and not take Theater 10. If URAP is the only other signficant, not-strictly-academic activity you’ve got going on, then you should be able to handle taking it for credit.</p>
<p>@nillawafer: “Sure, there might be a ton of courses you’d like to take, but that doesn’t mean you should take them.” Haha, that’s a good point…thank you! 
I’ll most likely follow some variation of your advice.</p>
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<p>Never said that. Indeed, if you had remembered correctly, you would have remembered that I mentioned that humanities and social studies courses with term projects can also be time consuming. Also, art practice and music performance courses are likely to be time consuming (although the practice and performance times may be listed as “lab”).</p>
<p>Nor did I say that humanities and social studies courses were necessarily easy A courses (though I’m sure that students looking for such courses can find them). And some engineering, math, and science courses are relatively low workload courses.</p>
<p>@Foraminifera</p>
<p>Haha, I know the Indian guy you’re talking about.
Just for the record, he didn’t get A+'s. Not even A’s for that matter. He is smart but oh well, when you take 30 units assuming you’d power through, then it is only fair that Berkeley jerks you out of your overconfidence. ;)</p>
<p>I’ve never taken <20 units since I came here as a freshman, and honestly it’s not the scary hellhole everyone imagines it to be (especially since I’ve only taken 1 class P/NP so far, and no electives - all major/minor requirements). </p>
<p>You don’t even need an amazing GPA. You also don’t need advisor approval, as long as you use basic Telebears strategy. As long as you’re below 20 units, you’re allowed to add one extra class, going over 20 if necessary; it’s a “soft” limit, just like with Phase 2’s 16 units.</p>
<p>23 = 19+4
22 = 19+3/18+4 … </p>
<p>You get the idea. Don’t party every weekend, and it’ll be fine. I watch every single new episode of 10 different shows every week, hang out with friends sometimes, am in 5 different clubs (including being on Board for one), am doing research, getting honors, etc. … You can still have a life. Sure, I’m definitely more stressed out than others, but I’m just saying, it’s not impossible, especially if (like me) you have financial reasons and/or other real motivations for doing it.</p>