I got accepted into Berkeley as a CEE. I’ll be transferring from a LA community college and starting as a junior fall 2019. I was wondering if there are any Berkeley engineering graduates or current students willing to dispense some wisdom here. 
“Top 5 things I wish I had known while at Berkeley”
Thank you in advance.
I’m not at UC Berkeley anymore (it wasn’t the right school for me) but here are five things I wish I’d known (as an engineering student there):
- Participate in something outside of class. Join a club, organization, etc. It can be related to engineering or not but it’s good to be involved in at least one thing where you can make friends/be with others on a regular basis.
- If your classes are anything like mine were, everyone will be at office hours. Go anyway and go often. Even if you don’t have questions about the homework/class, you can ask your professor about their research, etc.
- Expect to spend much more time on homework/studying than you did in cc. Everyone at Berkeley was at the top of their class in hs or cc and that’s now who your classmates are. That said…
- Focus on having a balanced life. A lot of students (especially in engineering) get burnt out easily. Do something you enjoy weekly (or daily if you can fit it in your schedule).
- Form study groups and work with other students. Most likely, anything you do in engineering in the future will be collaborative. It’s good to learn those skills now.
Oh btw, any previous material I should go over since I have some time before August? Should I brush up on differential equations, or any chapters in physics or chem? Thx
Great advise, no matter the school. See the following link for some examples:
Take a look at the sample curriculum for the major:
https://www.ce.berkeley.edu/undergrad/curriculum
In particular, if your community college did not offer courses covering many of the lower division courses (CE 11, C30, 60, 93; E 7, CS C8), then you may want to look up the suggested transfer student curriculum for that case at https://www.ce.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/assets/aao/TransferStuSamplePrg_2018.doc .
You can look up course prerequisites at http://guide.berkeley.edu/courses/ if you want to know what to review before taking a particular course.