Can I take these classes without going to CalSO?

<p>I'm an incoming freshman, and I can't attend CalSO.</p>

<p>I hardly care about those campus tours or what else they do at CalSO, but the class registration does make me shudder with fear of being unable to take classes I want. </p>

<p>Courses I'm especially worried about are</p>

<p>Chinese 001A -- only 20 at a class, you know... and even popular.. (I'm L&S, by the way)
Physics C010 -- a popular discovery course..</p>

<p>Can I take these classes without going to CalSO?
(If not.. well, should figure out a way to attend.. though hardly possible.)</p>

<p>Thanks in advance for your replies.</p>

<p>Look at the Schedule of classes for how enrolled they are right now.</p>

<p>There seem to be 7 Chinese 1A classes and all of them have like 5 of 22 spaces filled. You should be fine.</p>

<p>Physics for Presidents has 180 or so available seats. Again, you should be fine.</p>

<p>I too looked at the schedule of classes, but I was just wondering if those empty seats'd be all filled up during Phase I.
(hundreds of new frosh are waiting to sign up for classes, you know)</p>

<p>Still, if that should be fine, that would be great! Thanks, bartleby</p>

<p>Physics 10 won't be a problem, I think. Sometimes with a class like Chinese 1A, the most desirable sections fill up very quickly, and you are left with a time that you might not prefer. This is especially problematic because it is 5 days a week.</p>

<p>Now that's quite problematic.. hope many will drop out of their class.. (jk :))
guess I should start making myself an early bird for future 8am class</p>

<p>^^That's what happened to me my first semester at Berkeley, I had to take Japanese at 8am. If you don't get the section you want, if time allows, you can always sit in on another section too and see if you can get in. Pays to be aggressive. But the timing of your other classes is going to constrain when you can take a 5-day-a-week class, that is the other problem. Anyway good luck!</p>

<p>^^I was half kidding about 8am class though.. can a college student really make it to 8am class?? (did you?)
Anyway thanks so much for your replies, kenf</p>

<p>I actually almost switched to study Korean instead because I didn't want to wake up so early. But yes, I did make it to class on time every day... In retrospect, if I had tried harder, I probably could have gotten into another section, but I was new and fresh and just accepted my fate.</p>

<p>What a surprise you made it to it every day.. (most of my friends in college had deep trouble making to their 9am classes)</p>

<p>Btw,</p>

<p>"If you don't get the section you want, if time allows, you can always sit in on another section too and see if you can get in. Pays to be aggressive."</p>

<p>-> I don't think by this you mean 'look for another section that still has empty seat,' cause that's what everyone does, right?</p>

<p>Then by 'being aggressive' you're telling me to sit in on an already full section and insist that I be on that class?</p>

<p>Well, you sit in on an already full section to see if it is actually full. People drop the class, etc. You never know unless you try. Chinese is hard, I'm sure there must be a lot of turnover. I actually took intensive chinese one summer, 1/3 of the class had dropped by the second week.</p>

<p>Oh, now I see. Yeah, I heard how hard Chinese is; memorizing kind of pictures as alphabets, or so they say.</p>

<p>One last question: what is a waitlist for?
Being on a waitlist of other full sections, wouldn't I be notified of any possible turnover?</p>

<p>Generally, if you are on the waitlist, you should be attending the class too. You don't just put yourself on the waitlist and not show up for the class, if you do that, you'll be dropped from the wailist. I don't know if you can be enrolled in one Chinese 1A section and on the waitlist for a second section.</p>

<p>Now I'm much relieved:) Thank you for your time, kenf!</p>