berkeley schedule questions

<p>hey guys I've just come back from CalSo today (AWESOME except the rain -_-) and I signed up for Econ1, Math1A and Education 98(strategies for success), total of 10 units. I will sign up 1 elective during phase II.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>I checked the "class schedule" section within the Registration part in Bearfacts after I enrolled in those three classes via telebear in CalSo, but it still says that "Student has no enrolled or waiting list classes scheduled. " Why is this so?????? they have my enrolled classes in telebear but not in bearfacts. is it weird?</p></li>
<li><p>My phase II time is from July 22 3pm to July 25 3pm ( i thought we could continue entering telebear for phase II from JUly 22 all the way to the end of phase II which is in about early august?) . Is this a really late time? just wondering.</p></li>
<li><p>Is it really competitive to sign up for decal classes during phase II? I kinda signed for strategies for success as a back up, which worths 2 units without finals. Is it good to replace it with decal classes one i can sign up for one decal?? anyone took strategies for success before? was it helpful? thx</p></li>
<li><p>How long does it take to walk from Hertz to Chavez student center? How about from Chavez student center to Valley LSB? </p></li>
<li><p>again my phse II time starts on July 22, what is my chance of getting in a class which has a limit of 390 seats with 226 seats available? my back up alternative has like 180 limit with 170 seats available. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>sry for a bunch of questions! If you guys can help me out with these questions, I would really appreciate you guys!!! thx in advance Go Bears</p>

<p>i’ll do the best i can to answer based on my personal experiences</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Don’t trust bearfacts, go with telebears, it is more up to date.</p></li>
<li><p>Yes, once you get your appointment, you can make all the changes till the end of phase II. then the next time to make changes is during the adjustment period. </p></li>
<li><p>Decal classes are not that competitive except for the super popular ones. The courses aren’t announced till around a few weeks prior to the start of the semester, so look at past years decals to get an idea of what will be available as well as if they get full or not. </p></li>
<li><p>Supposedly you can make it from one end of the campus to the other in 10 minutes. A lot of people bike, skateboard, etc. There are a ton of hills though. Look at a berkeley campus map, it takes me about 13 minutes from tolman to wurster with a ton of hills. chavez to valley lsb is about 8 minutes leisurely stroll. Courses also don’t mention berkeley time which is 10 minutes after the class time.</p></li>
<li><p>Honestly, the high demand classes would be filled up by now or at least half way filled. I think you have a good chance to get either of those. Your appointment time is based on your class standing</p></li>
</ol>

<p>goodluck and welcome. don’t let us down</p>

<p>really thx for your help!!! won’t let you down…<br>
can more people help me with these? this way i can get a better grasp…</p>

<p>Use [Gmaps</a> Pedometer](<a href=“http://gmap-pedometer.com%5DGmaps”>http://gmap-pedometer.com) to find distances between different buildings on campus (use ZIP code 94720 to get to the Berkeley campus on the map). Be aware that the east side of campus is uphill from the west side of campus.</p>

<ol>
<li>Bearfacts is updated once a day at roughly 8AM. Telebears is live to the microsecond - has to be otherwise could overbook seats. Similar things occur with your quick statement (current CARS account balance) which is actually the value loaded at 8AM, thus payments may not be reflected until the next workday 8AM loading of data. Of course, the e-bill is even worse, being a snapshot taken once each month and kept frozen as if it were patterns of stains on pureed dried and bleached dead tree (paper statements). </li>
</ol>

<p>Also, and this is really important, the system at schedule.berkeley.edu lists the registration stats for a class but it too is only loaded once a day at about 8AM. Therefore, on the day of your telebears appointment, if you look an hour before logging in, the entry for your class may come up and tell you there are plenty of open seats, but in the hours since 8AM they could have filled. The way to get to the real-time value is to click on that small link at the bottom of each class entry in the schedule system, the one that says “Click here for current enrollment information and course restrictions” because that shows you the instantaneous status without having to log into telebears. Using the click link from schedule.berkeley.edu does not count towards the lockout that can happen if you use telebears too many times in a phase, so it is the preferable way to look at status up until you are ready to actually add, change or drop a class. </p>

<ol>
<li><p>The telebears slot is recorded as 24 hours commencing from your start time. It would have been more obvious if you did not have an intervening weekend, which doesn’t count. Regardless of the what is listed, from the first second of the slot onwards to the complete end of the phase, you can make additional changes. There are some time of day rules and these also vary between when in telebears phases and when in the “adjustment” period which is the time after phase II ends. Look at registrar.berkeley.edu for all those rules.</p></li>
<li><p>As lonesoul has explained, Decals are loaded late, they are not really part of the class schedule, instead they are independently managed but then grafted on to telebears to funnel the units and grade credit to your transcript. In other words, each Decal has a ‘sponsoring’ department which assigns that Decal a 98 or 198 course number in their department, for purposes of recording a grade for you.When you take Decals, at the end of the semester you see classes like English 98 and History 98, although they may have been Harry Potter and Batman, respectively, in the decal. In return for the sponsorship, the decal tends to have a bit of spin that aligns with the department - perhaps researching the history of batman or critiquing some essay written about the Harry Potter novels. It is very, very lighthanded, so much so that it is usually not noticed unless you look for it. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>Because DeCals are not really part of the course catalog or scheduling system, signing up for them is done in a variety of ways. Some allow anyone that shows up for the first session (which may be in the second or third week of the semester, but that is just an additional wrinkle on an already messy system). Some have you email and you are listed by the instructors (students who run the class) right away. Some are high demand and don’t have enough space to accomodate all who want to apply. Those can adjudicate the ties by time of request, or by requesting a compelling application that the instructors use to make the choices, or by some fair and random process while in the first session. Once it settles out, a week or two later, you can add the class via telebears through its oddball xxxx 98 or xxxx 198 pseudo-class. The difference, of course, is that juniors and seniors get the 198 version of the code while underclassmen receive the 98 code - thus for upperclassmen it counts towards your minimum required upper division class units to graduate. Registration may require a course entry code (CEC) which is a unique number for each seat that is avialable in a class, handed out to you by the DeCal instructor.</p>

<p>If you look through the schedule.berkeley.edu system, you will find plenty of 98 and 198 listings - these may not be open for registration, but they may indeed be open, only you don’t know which Decal is assigned to which, if a sponsoring department has five or six different ‘sections’ of xxxx 98 corresponding to five or six DeCals they support. Equally, however, it could be added later and not yet visible, because there are only two reasons that there needs to be any linkage from DeCal into the xxxx 98/198 stuff:</p>

<p>1 - since Decals count toward minimum unit loads, you want to be registered in the xxx 98/198 class for your Decal by the time that the colleges do their scan to enforce minimum loads - also important for those on FA which require a full load for full payment.</p>

<p>2 - you won’t get credit for the units nor see the P (or NP) on your transcript unless you have linked to the xxxx 98/198 pseudo-class. </p>

<p>Because of all of the above, many times you won’t know which decal you will be in until a couple of weeks into the semester and you might be below the 12 or 13 unit minimum for your college until that point. It is normal, even if a bit nervewracking the first time you go through it. It is easy enough to get into SOME decal, thus there is always a safety net, leaving you free to focus on getting into the one you really want.</p>

<p>For point 5, it is not simply whether you can get one of the 390 seats, but whether you can get in after people switch out or don’t show during the first week. As a rule of thumb, about 10% of the actual class capacity is the number of students from the waitlist who end up registered in the class. Some clear the waitlist before the start of the semester, some after the first week, but for some classes it can be as late as the fifth week before the dropout stops. </p>

<p>If a class has room for 400 students, then a place on the waitlist up to about position 40 has a fair chance of converting to a seat. If you are number 80 on that waitlist, not looking so good. </p>

<p>All bets are off for very heavily oversubscribed classes. Very few switch out of R&C, for example, or the hot demand classes. A clue to whether a class is hot is whether it is an early drop decision course (EDD - [Early</a> Drop Deadline Courses - Office Of The Registrar](<a href=“http://registrar.berkeley.edu/Default.aspx?PageID=edd.html]Early”>http://registrar.berkeley.edu/Default.aspx?PageID=edd.html) ) which are made EDD to flush out those who are waivering in order to let in as many from the waitlist as possible, saving them from potentially investing five full weeks of classes and assignments for a class hoping to clear the waitlist. With EDD, you invest only two weeks.</p>

<p>Woah, great information rider.</p>

<p>yeah, I even learned from reading rider’s post. also I want to note on the decal, Cal only allows independent units per semester at a maximum of 4 units. And that no more than 16 p/np units (or I believe a certain % for non L&S schools) can be taken for an undergraduate degree.</p>

<p>hey rider, thank you SO much for your SUPER informative reply…
I’ve noticed that the Education 98 classes that I signed up is a decal class then ( the Strategies for success class in the Chavez Student Center). I know this class because i went to the Student Learning Center session in CalSo. Have any you guys taken this class? How is it? Or should i look for other decals later to replace it?</p>

<p>Also, for elective, i am pondering in between music 26AC and Asian american study 20A, which one do you recommend? if i choose asian american study one i would have it back to back with Econ 1. I am asian and I play the piano…</p>

<p>Intended or possible major(s)?</p>

<p>AP credit?</p>

<p>The above might help those who can give suggestions for additional courses.</p>

<p>intended major is Econ…</p>

<p>No AP credit?</p>

<p>Consider [Reading</a> and Composition A](<a href=“http://ls-advise.berkeley.edu/requirement/rccourses.html]Reading”>http://ls-advise.berkeley.edu/requirement/rccourses.html) courses. (If you have a 4 on AP English, you can skip A and take B. If you have a 5 on AP English Literature, you have fulfilled the requirement for L&S.)</p>

<p>Consider courses that fulfill [L&S</a> 7-course breadth](<a href=“http://ls-advise.berkeley.edu/requirement/7breadth.html]L&S”>http://ls-advise.berkeley.edu/requirement/7breadth.html) and [American</a> Cultures](<a href=“http://americancultures.berkeley.edu/]American”>http://americancultures.berkeley.edu/). For example, ESPM 50AC fulfills American Cultures and any one of three L&S 7-course breadth categories. English C77 / ESPM C12 fulfills any one of four L&S 7-course breadth courses. (Note that Economics courses will fulfill the Social and Behavioral Sciences category, so you only need the other 6.)</p>

<p>Make a list of alternate courses to take if the ones you want are full when you try to schedule them. You can also watch <a href=“http://schedule.berkeley.edu%5B/url%5D”>http://schedule.berkeley.edu</a> in the days leading up to when you select courses to see if any of your choices are getting full.</p>