We cannot make it to Cal Day but DS and I will be on campus this Thursday and Friday. We are going to do the admitted students 90-minute tour on Friday but would love some suggestions as to what else we should see and do! We are coming from OOS and have reached out to the Berkeley Hillel and they will show us around a little also, but I feel like we will be missing so much by missing Cal Day. Should we try to visit classes or buildings that pertain to his intended major? Can we request a housing tour? Any suggestions would be appreciated!
if you can get an actual housing tour that would go inside your actual dorm building, that would be great. (Don’t go to Stern for now).
The admitted student tour is not that much different than a regular tour, except that you can and should ask a lot of questions, plus it’s 30 minutes longer. You don’t get to go inside many buildings, maybe VLSC and that’s about it.
Things you should see in addition to what’s on the tour:
- go inside the libraries. the East Asian library is awesome, so is Doe. The big one in the middle is Bancroft.
- go up the Campanile Tower. You'll see a great view of the campus and all the way to SF if you're lucky and it's not foggy.
- the bookstore, obviously. But you can possibly find apparel a bit cheaper if you go off campus. There's a little shop on Center Ave by Oxford close to the Starbucks that sells apparel probably at a 10-20% discount. There's also a bunch of stores on Bancroft on either side of Telegraph, as well as a big store on the southwest corner of Telegraph and Durant.
- Wheeler Hall, Room 150 - for you CS/EECS majors, this is where you'll spend a good part of your first 2 years.
- Drive up to Lawrence Hall of Science and Vista Parking Lot - even better views of the Bay Area
What is his intended major?
He originally thought he wanted to major in Physics, but now he’s not sure he wants to narrow it down so quickly as he also loves Math, Chemistry and Spanish (but he doesn’t want to do engineering). He also really wants to be involved in choral ensembles and vocal music opportunities, but not necessarily major in music.
A potential first semester schedule to keep all of these options open could include:
Math (depending on placement based on previous math completed; see https://math.berkeley.edu/courses/choosing/high-school-exam-credits but trying old final exams of courses that can be skipped is suggested to verify knowledge; see also http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/1305840-freshman-math-faq.html )
Physics 5A (if Math more advanced than 1A) or breadth elective or R&C if needed
Chemistry 4A
Spanish (depending on placement based on previous Spanish completed; see http://spanish-portuguese.berkeley.edu/placement-guidelines/ )
Thank you! We are still trying to figure out how his AP credits will transfer, but he’s taken AP Calculus AB and BC (got 5’s), AP Chem and AP Physics (4’s) and is currently in AP Spanish and AP Physics 2, among the others like AP Lang/Lit, Stats, US History, etc. He finished AP Calculus in 10th grade so he feels like he might have to take a step back and refresh his first semester in college because it’s been so long.
@lisalisae Math 1B has had a reputation in the past as being pretty brutal, so do review the old exams to see how well he does. He should skip unless he really has forgotten everything. My kid was in a similar boat, he had a 5 on Calc BC but as a 11th grader and really was on the fence with retaking Math 1B until literally the week before registration, when he decided after talking to enough people (being scared out of, I suppose) to skip. But then again, Math 53 (MV Calculus) can be brutal as well, but my kid has avoided it (for now).
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/2081956-uc-berkeley-letters-and-sciences-ap-credit-policy.html may be helpful in evaluating AP credit for L&S majors or placement into higher level courses (see reply #2 for specific department policy links).
AP chemistry will not give advanced placement for chemistry majors who need to take Chemistry 4A. AP physics 1 and 2 are not calculus-based, so they will not give advanced placement for physics or other majors that require calculus-based physics. However, with a stronger background in physics from high school, the student should be better prepared for the Physics 5 series (honors) that can be taken instead of the Physics 7 series.
Agree that he should try the old final exams for Math 1A and 1B to check his knowledge; if he knows the material well, it is better to take the advanced placement and move ahead.
AP English with score of 4 will fulfill reading and composition (R&C) A, while AP English literature with score of 5 will fulfill R&C A and B.
AP Spanish scores will recommend placement based on the Spanish department’s placement guidelines linked in reply #4.
https://ucchoral.berkeley.edu/events/events-spring-2019/
For guys, Noteworthy and Uc Men’s OCTET are super cool (just guys). Noteworthy is funny. UC Men’s Octet is prestigious (their Crazy Equals Genius is awesome).
Decadence and Drawn to Scale are also cool. Drawn to Scale is sort of Bluesy, lot of Amy Winehouse, supposedly focus more on choreography than other groups, but I think they’ve let up a bit. Decadence gets capes. They have a shiver inducing God is a Woman song ad Derek won in quarterfinals for his singing of Space Oddity. Artists in Resonance have cool mash ups. This year I wanted to watch more of Decadence and Artists in Resonance although I didn’t get around to it very much.
Baretroupe is lower commitment with 1 show a semester, all songs from musicals.
Dil Se is South Asian, Hindi Bollywood mashups with English songs, which is cool, but you need to be able to at least pronounce Hindi to join.
There’s a Christian one, a really really old Latin songs one, a Chinese one, a Japanese one, Women’s chorale and Men’s chorale, Golden Overtones, I think that’s most of them. A lot of them sing at Sather gate in the afternoons.
Dil Se, UC Mens Octet, and Artists and Resonance made it the farthest in ICCAs this year (top 3 quarterfinals), but they’re choreography was lacking and they didn’t go farther. Uc Men’s Octet were the only top 3 quarterfinals last year.
On the day you came, Overtones (girls) and Drawn to Scale had concerts. I went to Drawn to Scale.
And that’s a summary of the acapella scene at Berkeley.
The physics students present at the Cal Day Physics panel in 2017 unanimously recommend skipping Math 1B if you have Calc BC credit (score of 5). You are better off moving directly into Math 53. If need be, self-study to refresh BUT MAKE SURE TO STUDY THE DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS covered in Math 1B not covered in AP Calculus BC.
Also, in my personal opinion, it would be difficult to jump into the Physics 5 series having not had AP Physics C Mechanics in high school and done well in it (score of 5).
Here is a syllabus from Physics 5A: https://tbp.berkeley.edu/syllabi/936/download/ . Note that the listed prerequisites are just math ones (a minimum of Math 1B taken concurrently).
Physics 5A is a replacement for Physics H7A (honors version of Physics 7A), and uses the same textbooks (other than newer editions) that Physics H7A used for decades (e.g. Kleppner and Kolenkow An Introduction to Mechanics). Since AP physics C in high school is not that common now, and was even less common in the past, it should be presumed that it is not necessary for a student to have had AP physics C in high school before Physics 5A or the previous Physics H7A.
@ucbalumnus I am aware of that syllabus. My son took Physics 5A that semester with Speliotopoulos. Regardless of what it states on the syllabus, I stand by opinion that it would be difficult to start with the Physics 5 series without having AP Physics C level experience prior. Having tutored AP Physics 1/2, I can tell you that those classes are not at that level.
I’m looking at the problems assigned in Physics 5A Fall 2017 and my son’s solution set (19 pages typed up in LaTeX). There is a lot of vector calculus which would be difficult to comprehend unless you were taking Math 53 concurrently or had significant prior exposure to vector calculus.
OP, I can forward to you the problems and solutions to you if you want to look and see at what level Physics 5A assumes.
Sounds like the kind of problems that other students I knew who were taking Physics H7A decades ago were doing.
Back then, it was rare for math beyond AP calculus BC to be offered in high schools, and probably just as rare for AP physics C (if it existed back then) to be offered in high schools.
Obviously Physics 5A or H7A is expected to be much harder than the regular Physics 7A, or any high school physics course, including the AP ones.