<p>Bell163,</p>
<p>I too was pretty intimidated about going to Cal. But I think you shouldn't really worry. I've heard transfers do a lot better actually then the freshman. I think pretty much any top/mid tier UC you go to will be challanging. You are going to put in a lot of effort no matter what. Don't let yourself or other people scare you.</p>
<p>Are there a lot of ghetto kids there? I came from the ghetto and I hope that my kind are there. (I seriously want to know this. I don't know how to describe it other than that.) I currently go to a mid level UC and there are a lot of suburbanites here.</p>
<p>Okay you know what sucks? I posted the same question here last year and I asked "Is CalSO necessary?" I should've listened to my friend that was already at Berkeley when she said NO. But all the CollegeConfidential "regulars" were like "Yeah! it's so necessary, it's a good experience" - IT WASNT EVEN AT ALL. After CalSO, the same "Regulars" were just like "Yeah that was pointless." The CalSO counselor I had told us the same stuff that you guys have been reading on the message boards/RateMyProfessor.com.</p>
<p>What happened to me was that during the last 3 hours of CalSO, my roommates called me and said "Sign the lease you need to be here," so of course I left, and I still got to register that night. Probably because my name was on the main list when I registered. Poli sci classes are pretty easy to get into because theyre large lectures, especially PS 3. The one thing that may be difficult to get into are discussions. For the fall 07 semester they implemented this new thing where only declared PS majors can register for Upper Division courses during Phase I.</p>
<p>Terms of difficulty:
It is the GSIs (Graduate Student Instructors) who expect a lot. Honestly, I dont think the teachers could care less.</p>
<p>There's a difficult course you have to take called PS 3. It's like a mix of statistics and poli sci theory. Anyway, last year's professor in the Fall was this graduate student who bored everyone to death. The poli sci advisers told me "Yeah we've been getting a lot of complaints" But to have a difficult/boring class like that being taught by a newbie sucked! It wasnt a quality Cal education, IMO. This Fall 07, a great teacher named Stoker is teaching it. Everyone says take it with her. This seems to be the consensus amongst the poli sci advisers, the Letters and Science counselor I talked to, and RateMyProfessor.com.</p>
<p>The courses are much more difficult than at the Comm College level. I wont lie, there is way more reading and the reading is quite difficult. We read a lot of journal publications and are rotating about 4-5 books per class. You have easier teachers of course like Zook and Gregor (he's a stickler for attendance, will yell at you if you walk in late or cancel class if you refuse to leave because you walked in late). Theyre easy because they dont have in class essays. Professor Zook is an amazing teacher. You will learn a lot. He doesnt give exams and theyre all take home essays of 5 pages in length and one 12-15 page research paper. Professor Fish's class is more difficult because he has difficult GSIs. There is one named Wendy who is so lenient that I heard it's hard not to get a B or A. But his classes are easy because you get the Midterm and Final questions ahead of time so you can prepare for it. I mean the questions are difficult but he gives it to you a week ahead of time so you can prepare for it.</p>
<p>As for courses outside of your major, consider Psych courses. Social Psych w/ Keltner is pretty easy, the lectures are podcasted, and you can buy them written out for you for 40 bucks for a semester. There's also development psych. Another is a 2 unit Pub Health class on drugs, hardly no reading. Public Policy with Jane Mauldon is quite easy too. Just because theyre simple, it doesnt mean you wont learn a lot. THe professors here are very knowledgable. Just because theyre easy doesnt mean there's a lot of reading. I think theyre easy because they give you study guides so you know what to expect.</p>
<p>As for other Poli Sci teachers, I heard great things about Ansel and Weber.</p>
<p>I dont want to scare you guys, but dont come to Cal thinking your hot $hit because you did excellent at your comm college. The kids here are pretty bright. You'll be able to tell during your discussions. But you also have a handful of kids who try to sound smart. You'll realize it's all rhetoric and the poli sci theories keep repeating themselves in all the courses. What theories are those? Consolidation of democracy, transitions to it, civil society, economic liberalization, etc.</p>
<p>You have more difficult courses like Const Law. American Legal studies from what I heard is medium to difficult. There is a long research paper but you get to work on it with a partner. Gurowitz teaches Intl Relations and Immigration. These poli sci courses are mixed. I think she has a lot of reading, but I dont know if she gives study guides or not. I do know she has at least one in-class midterm.</p>
<p>Making friends:
It feels like the best way to do this is move into a transfer dorm/apartment. People here seem pretty settled with their cliques and already have their comfort zones. When I've talked to transfers, they seem to relate with other transfers. You'll be able to tell who's a transfer and who's not. I guarantee it. I highly recommend on-campus housing, even though it's expensive. I think you'll meet more people this way and joining extracurriculars EARLY on in the semester. It's hard to integrate yourself if you do it midway. But go light in your first semester and shop around for classes. You can add classes to your schedule even though they conflict in times. So you can register for 2 classes that are both on M/W at 12:30. just drop the ones you dont like.</p>
<p>5 classes is a lot your first semester. Don't forget many classes have discussions. 5 x 4 units is 20 units. I think average is 20 units. They recommend for your first semester to take the minimum which is 13.</p>
<p>Berkeley is not ghetto at all. Berkeley (the city) is split. Northside you have pretty wealthy people, and nice big homes. On the otherside, it's pretty ghetto. The SCHOOL IS NOT GHETTO though. Far from it. Oakland is nearby so you have ghetto people on campus sometimes to hang out, or they shop at the nearby stores. You also have a lot of homeless people near campus.</p>
<p>20 units????
I thought it was 15!
I plan to take two of my major courses and one Chinese literature. Maybe another easy class as well.
13 sounds good. I will probably start with 17 units and drop the hardest one.</p>
<p>housing:
i got into Haas and class starts July 2nd.... i want to find an apt close the the business school.....i already have a roomate i plan on living with and hes a engineering student.. ive been looking at craigslist and its really tough to find anythign...do you guys know of any better places to find housing????thanks</p>
<p>First, i wanna say, congrats cuz haas is amazing! secondly, why dont both of you dorm together? lol</p>
<p>thank you very much.....i cant share a room with someone...its just a personal preference...i need my privacy and dont mind paying...he is the same way....</p>
<p>Question for you guys... I applied as a transfer, poli sci major, with a 3.93 gpa. I got into UCLA but not Cal and I have to say that I'm quite surprised. However, I've talked to a few people at my college and they said that its not unusual for people to get accepted to just one or the other but not both UCLA and CAL for the impacted majors. Have you guys heard anything like this or did I just get screwed?? I'm pretty content with UCLA but it just bothers me that I didnt get accepted to Cal. I'm thinking about appealing. Any thoughts????</p>
<p>this is very true but my gf got accepted to both ucla for communications and cal for mass comm...its pretty rare</p>
<p>Oops typo. I was rushing to reply before I drove down to Los Angeles.</p>
<p>** The average number of units people take and what is recommended is 15, not 20. sorry. **</p>
<p>13 is recommended for your first semester. if you want to sign up for 17 and then drop, i think that's okay too.</p>
<p>15 is 4 classes right? i dont know how many units are per class :confused:</p>
<p>
[quote]
housing:
i got into Haas and class starts July 2nd.... i want to find an apt close the the business school.....i already have a roomate i plan on living with and hes a engineering student.. ive been looking at craigslist and its really tough to find anythign...do you guys know of any better places to find housing????thanks
[/quote]
</p>
<p>It's usually the further places on campus that are advertised on Craigslist. Usually you'll find places on streets like Hillegass, Parker, Benevue, Piedmont, Haste, Blake advertised online. But all the close places to campus you usually find by doing a foot search. Usually buildings have phone numbers on the outside where you can reach the landlords and ask if they have available places. some actually have big banners hanging from the side of the building that have a phone number.</p>
<p>But if you guys have time, you can go up to Berkeley, walk around the streets near campus or near the area you want to live and look outside the apartments on the call boxes or mail boxes. Usually there's a phone number there for the landlord or apartment manager. Sometimes you can even buzz down the person who's in charge of the building if theyre on site and ask them for vacancies. We did this last year and got a pretty good response. Most people were willing to show us the actual room. </p>
<p>If you're going to Haas, maybe try to stay around College Ave. or that side of Berkeley. My friend lives on Durant and Ellsworth or something like that and she goes to Haas. She says it's quite a walk, but again she appreciates the exercise and is closer to the gym (RSF). I guess to each her own.</p>
<p>Here are some websites to consider if you want to rent an apt.</p>
<p><a href="http://savvyproperties.com/%5B/url%5D">http://savvyproperties.com/</a>
<a href="http://www.northberkeleyproperties.com%5B/url%5D">www.northberkeleyproperties.com</a>
<a href="http://everestprop.com/%5B/url%5D">http://everestprop.com/</a>
I know two more, but the URLs are on my computer at my apt. I'll get those to you when I can.</p>
<p>umm I've heard not so many good things about Panoramic Management from apartment review sites which included costs, size/cost for the size. But the buildings are really beautiful though. So if you have the cashflow it wouldnt be so bad.</p>
<p>Congrats on Haas. It's really an accomplishment to get in.</p>
<p>Classes are about 3 to 4 units. There are very few that are 5 in L&S, excluding the sciences.</p>
<p>So yes, 15 is about 4 classes.</p>
<p>thank you sooo much CJA...that was the response i was looking for...</p>
<p>I transferred last Fall as well.</p>
<p>"how is it like making friends? whats a good way to make friends? Dorming? Living on campus? Clubs? I really want my college experience to be enjoyable and I dont want to end up staying in my room on friday nights while everyone else is having a good time."</p>
<p>Like cja said, living in UC-housing is pretty much the only way to go (or sharing a house with all new housemates). Unless you already have friends here that you can meet up with, as a transfer it's very difficult to break into settled cliques through other means. Through UC-housing you automatically get people to talk to and hang out with from the start, and this ends up being your means to branch out to meet more people and join more clubs.</p>
<p>Join clubs early, right in your first semester, that way you can take advantage of getting to network with other people that are new to the school. Many clubs will have their little social events, especially in the Fall, that you'll be able to use if you want. I didn't join anything until the mid-Spring semester, so it was pretty awkward for me initially because things were already settled.</p>
<p>My perspective: I commuted my first 1.5 semesters and it was not fun at all. I missed out on a lot of events and didn't develop many friendships because I was so far away and disconnected. I live on Shattuck now but the damage has already been done (I look at the CCers I originally facebooked and they look to be having great times). Make sure you live in UC-housing and do not make the same mistake!</p>
<p>
[quote]
My perspective: I commuted my first 1.5 semesters and it was not fun at all. I missed out on a lot of events and didn't develop many friendships because I was so far away and disconnected. I live on Shattuck now but the damage has already been done (I look at the CCers I originally facebooked and they look to be having great times). Make sure you live in UC-housing and do not make the same mistake!
[/quote]
</p>
<p>i actually couldnt agree more. if you're there JUST to get your degree, then establishing a network and creating new friendships might not be so important, so you probably can rule out uc housing. but if you're there for the experience and don't want to be a loner during dinner-time, then UC/transfer housing might be the way to go (especially if you dont already know anyone there).</p>
<p>
[quote]
UC-housing you automatically get people to talk to and hang out with from the start, and this ends up being your means to branch out to meet more people and join more clubs.
[/quote]
very very true! it just happens to be that way. you end up being friends with your friends' friends.</p>
<p>i lived far from campus last semester. i had a really good friend at berkeley alerady, but the only NEW friends i've made have been through classes (and both were transfers). i did know people who were in UC housing when i first moved up and they seem to do everything together, go to dinner, football games, etc. eventually it seems that they have started to hang out w/ people who they share similarities with but initially it's your floormates or suitemates that you hang out with. to echo what ucbhi said: get involved EARLY because it is awkward to join mid-semester.</p>
<p>yea thats true...
it will be totally different then in cc....
but how do i know which class is easier to start ...??</p>
<p>I took three 4-unit classes and the transfer success class my first semester, and that was fairly easy. I was working and commuting also. I recommend something like that if you don't want a heavy workload.</p>
<p>Oh and if you're thinking about business careers, study up on how the internship recruiting works either now or right when you get to Berkeley. This is very, very important, because summer internship recruiting starts at the end of your first finals. Wait til Spring starts and you've missed 40% of the internships available, including most of the desirable ones.</p>
<p>ucbhi,
was the transfer success class helpful? also, i orginally thought that you could only transfer 60 units from a cc, but someone told me you can transfer up to 70. which one is it?</p>