<p>We have all heard about UCB’s first year Chemistry/Biology Class size being extremely large, I believe one article in last year’s Bay area newspaper mentioned it being over a thousand students. I wonder how large the sizes of the similar classes are at UCD? Is it difficult to register for the basic classes (science or liberal) as an incoming freshment?</p>
<p>The general classes, like General Chemistry are very large. I believe those classes are about 550 students per lecture. This is then divided into smaller groups for discussion (maybe 15-25 students per section), and lastly lab will be similar to the discussion's size.</p>
<p>General classes usually fill up, but if you're on the wait list, usually you'll get in if you're persistent. You can also ask your TA if it's okay to get a PTA (Permission-To-Add) so you can add the class even though it's full. Depending on the TA and the room size, they may let you in.</p>
<p>What marzbarz said was correct. The discussion sections for gen chem are no more than 24 students because that's how much can fit in lab. Only the head TA is permitted to issue PTA numbers.</p>
<p>Also, there are usually about 3-4 different lecture times for gen chem. So, even though there are 550 students per lecture, there are about 1500-2000 students total taking that same class (from all the different professors). I seriously doubt berkeley has a lecture hall that can seat 1000+ people, so the news article you were reading was probably talking about the total number of students taking the course.</p>
<p>As long as you're not very picky about which time you want (particularly for discussions & labs), you shouldn't have a huge problem getting into the course. If you're waitlisted for a lab/discussion, they usually recommend during that first week of courses going to every lab that fits your schedule until you find an opening then getting a PTA number for that section. Enrolled people that don't show up the first week could get dropped.</p>
<p>I imagine other introductory courses are similar.</p>
<p>huh...<em>hopes to not get waitlisted!!</em> thanks for the info guyz!</p>