<p>So I’m attending davis this fall. I’m the first person in my family to go to college in the US and I did high school abroad so Im a little confused about college here. Also I may not attend orientation so I’m not sure how to plan out my schedule.</p>
<p>Advice from a current engineering student at davis would be great. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>I’m majoring in Computer engineering. In the lower division, I have to complete 78 units+32 for GE req. Can anyone give me some advice on how to plan out my fall quarter? Especially when it come to GEs. And also are there any classes that are part of my syllabus but could also give me credit for GE? </p></li>
<li><p>I understand that we can also chose our professors? How does this work? And i’ve heard the grading differs with each professor. And something about different curves? (Please elaborate, I’m so confused!!)
So how am I supposed to find out which grading system each prof uses?</p></li>
<li><p>TEXTBOOKS. Does the prof tell us which textbook we’ll need? How far in advance will we know? Or is it ok to show up to class without a textbook in the first week or so? Can we rent them, or borrow from sophomores or something? I understand they’re very expensive. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Is there anything else I should be aware of as a computer engineering student?</p>
<p>Will you be attending Freshman Orientation? If so, all this information will covered and then some. You will meet with an advisor and they will help you plan out your schedule, show you how to look up professors for your classes and how to register. Once you select classes, the classes will have a link to the bookstore for the books required for the class. Most students do not buy the books immediately, since professors may change their mind. You usually wait till the first week of classes to buy books, but if you are taking CHEM 2A or CALC 21A, first quarter, the books are standard for the all professors. Just pay attention in Orientation (which lasts 2 days) and ask a lot of questions. You are always welcome to PM me if you have more questions. My son will be a 2nd year at UCD (not in ChemE) but I could help. Also, if you are taking CHEM 2A, try to get Enderle as the professor. </p>
<p>I probably won’t be attending orientation 
If I was, I wouldn’t be this worried!
So I don’t need to care about text books right now.
So in my first quarter if I take 4 units of Math 21A, and 4 units of ENG30, I will have about 5-6 more units to fill. Is it a good idea to take 4 units of Chem2A and a GE or just GEs?
And what happens if I don’t get the class I want? Can I try changing the professor? Or the day or timing?</p>
<p>ENG 30 isn’t even offered at UC Davis according to [url=<a href=“http://catalog.ucdavis.edu/programs/ENG/ENGcourses.html]this[/url”>http://catalog.ucdavis.edu/programs/ENG/ENGcourses.html]this[/url</a>]. Did you mean ECS 30? </p>
<p>And regarding your last question, let me first explain how classes work. A large class like CHE 2A and MAT 21A are divided into sections (section A, section B, etc). Each section is taught by a different professor (so for example, CHE 2A is broken into 5 sections: section A, section B, section C, section D, and section E. Dr. Enderle teaches section E while no professors have been determined yet for sections A-D). Each section is also divided into subsections - some classes can have only 1-2 subsections (A01 and A02) while others, like the chem classes, have between 15-17 subsections (A1-A17, B1-B17, C1-C17, etc.). The subsections are for choosing your discussion time and/or lab time, if applicable. If you don’t get the class you want because it’s full, you have to try to get into a different section with a different professor that’s taught at a different time (lectures from the same course are never taught at the same time, even if they’re in different sections). If the class you want ends up clashing with another class because of lab and/or discussion time, look for a different lab and/or discussion time that will better fit your schedule. If only one professor is teaching the course (this is common with upper division courses, so you won’t have to worry about this for a while), then you’re out of luck because there’s only one section and you can’t take the class with a different professor, so you would have to take the class another quarter. </p>
<p><a href=“Office of the University Registrar (OUR)”>https://registrar.ucdavis.edu/courses/search/index.cfm</a> is what I’ve always used to see who the professors will be and also what time the courses are offered so I could plan accordingly. </p>
<p>@sopranokitty Yeah, sorry I meant ECS30.
After I read your comment, I tried out schedule builder and now it makes a lot of sense. 
Thanks for the advice and the link
Also I have a question regarding pass times. On myucdavis, it says my pass 2 time is Sept 2nd. Does this mean I can attempt to register for classes only on that day at that particular time? What happened to my pass 1 timings?</p>
<p>Go to sisweb.ucdavis.edu >> login to sisweb >> student services and financial aid >> registration >> check appointment times, and see if your Pass 1 time is listed there. If not, it probably means that since you’re not attending orientation (because for incoming freshmen and transfers, their Pass 1 is during orientation), you would have to wait until Pass 2 to register for classes. </p>
<p>@sopranokitty Okay cool, thanks for all your help!</p>
<p>I would say to take ECS 30 and MAT 21A your first quarter, along with a GE. You can save CHE 2A for the winter, once you’re adjusted to college. Also note that the CHE 2 series is 5 units for each class, not 4. I took ECS 30 and MAT 21A together and did perfectly fine. I personally think that adding chem on top of that is overkill for your first quarter though, especially because you don’t need it for any upper div requirements for CE. So, what I would do if I were you is take a GE (one that fulfills either arts/humanities or social science) then look into a freshman seminar if you want to go over 12 units. You can always take heavier workloads in later quarters, but for now keep it simple.</p>
<p>And yes, when you take chem take Enderle if you can! I had a mediocre professor for 2A this past winter, then took 2B with Enderle this past quarter. He seriously is one of the best professors I’ve ever had (just finished my second year). Just a warning though, his classes are tough to get into. You can always sit in on his lectures though, or watch his youtube videos.</p>
<p>@PhantomVirgo Yeah I was thinking the same. I hope I get a spot in MAT 21A though. Will chem 2A be more available in the winter quarter as compared to the fall?
What exactly are these seminars? Im not sure I saw an option to chose them on schedule builder. And how many units do they cover?
Also if you don’t mind me asking, what is your major?</p>
<p>You’ll probably get into MAT 21A. Even if you have to waitlist, there are enough people that drop to make it fairly likely you’ll get in. You may not get your ideal class time or professor, but that’s a different story.</p>
<p>There tend to be fewer people registering for CHE 2A in the winter, making it a bit easier to get in, but as with MAT 21A you may not get your ideal class time or professor. I personally didn’t run into any issues because I postponed it until my second year (thus registering before most people taking it did), but looking back I would try to get it done rather than putting it off.</p>
<p>Daviswiki has a good description of freshman seminars, from the perspective of fellow students: <a href=“http://daviswiki.org/Freshman_Seminars”>http://daviswiki.org/Freshman_Seminars</a>
I couldn’t find a list for fall seminar topics as of right now, but they’ll most likely be posted closer to when freshman orientation starts in July. Or if you feel like taking a dice roll you can register for one that happens to fit in your schedule and hope it’s something you find at least a little interesting.</p>
<p>I’m double majoring in computer science and linguistics.</p>