<p>Hello guys, I am an international student from China. The Calso program is coming and I am still deciding if I should go.</p>
<p>I wanna enroll in some courses that are highly capped, such as Math 1b, the intro stat and intro econ. Would my enrollment be jeopardized if I do not attend Calso? I think enrolling into classes is the most important thing for me. Does the Calso worth it、</p>
<p>I need your advice from your experience of Calso. Really big thanks to all of your answers!</p>
<p>Your appointed time to register for classes is at CalSO, but if you don’t attend, then it is after the CalSOs are all done, which is very late. Classes that are at risk of filling in phase I are likely to fill before the appointments if you don’t go to CalSO. </p>
<p>Lets see what others think about Math 1B, intro econ and intro stats classes as far as filling during phase I. If I were coming from far away, I would only come to CalSO if the classes were pretty likely to be full by the non-CalSO times. </p>
<p>Your alternative is to have some other classes to take instead and plan to get into those classes for Spring semester. You may not be able to delay them without delaying other classes in Spring and sophomore year, if those classes are pre-requisites, but if you have some flexibility then the impact of a full class is not as bad for you. If you absolutely need to get into those classes and it really needs to be Fall for most of them, then CalSO is probably worth attending even coming from China.</p>
<p>I really don’t think you need to spend the thousands to get here just for CalSO (unless you have an overwhelming desire to attend). I personally signed up for Econ 1 (intro Econ) in Phase 2 and got in no problem, and I also know people who got into Stats 20 just fine in Phase 2 (these are all in the past year or so). There was some waiting on the waitlist for a week or two and attending backup classes, but we all got in fine.</p>
<p>Now, not coming for CalSO will probably mean a ‘bad’ schedule with 8ams, 5pms and large gaps in-between, but if you are flexible about section times I really don’t think you will have trouble eventually getting into the classes you want. With that said, make sure you have backups, especially for the first few weeks where you might be on the waitlist and don’t know if you will get into the class.</p>
<p>Note that there is a Math H1B (honors) offered in the fall. If you like math and are good at it, consider that, since the honors math courses are less likely to be full than the non-honors math courses, according to the current semester schedule.</p>
<p>If it is a necessary prereq that has to be taken first semester because it is not offered second semester, and it MUST be taken freshman year, then they will make room for you. The huge lecture classes won’t fill up at CalSO, the only thing that might be harder for you is picking a discussion time that you want.</p>