Choosing courses for UC Berkeley First year

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
21

thank you for the information and help.

22

Thank you for the information and help.

23

Thank you for the information and help

24

Thank you so much for the information and help.

25

Thank you so much for understanding and the help. I appreciate it.

26

ESPM 50AC is legendary for its easiness. Whenever anyone asks for “an easy class to fulfill the AC requirement,” 9 times out of 10 they’ll get ESPM 50AC as an answer. That being said, it’s pretty hard to get in during the school year since most seats are reserved for environmental majors. You should pick another backup AC course since you’ll most likely not get a spot. Most people in the other colleges taking ESPM 50AC do it over the summer online when there are no seat restrictions.

1 Like
27

Most courses at UCB these days are 4 units (with some being other credit unit values), so a “normal” course load of 15 units per semester would be approximately four courses, unless you choose mostly less common <4 unit courses.

Of course, the OP’s question lacks context in terms of what other courses the OP is signing up for and what the OP’s intended or possible major is. But it is relevant that “easy” or “hard” can have different meanings, as noted above:

  1. Easy or hard material.
  2. Low or high workload.
  3. Lenient or strict grading.

For example, a student already taking two high workload courses (e.g. with labs, arts studio, music performance, computer programming assignments, or large term projects) may be advised not to choose additional high workload courses.

But whether the material is easy or hard can depend on the student. For example, some math majors may find a lower division English literature course like English 45A to be more difficult than honors real analysis Math H104 or some such, even though the general student population would say the opposite.

28

It is also a flexible course for L&S breadth requirements, in that it can fulfill any one of social and behavioral sciences, philosophy and values, and historical studies. That is in addition to fulfilling the universitywide American cultures requirement.

Yes, 472 of the 570 seats are reserved for CNR students: 2023 Fall ESPM 50AC 001 LEC 001 | Course Catalog