CSULB - Class of 2015

<p>@tutudragon16- It’s interesting how our numbers are practically identical. Are all your costs including dorming covered with that aid?</p>

<p>considering they cut out transportation / misc expenses and reduce the amount spent on books it’s very possible to cover most, if not all of the expenses. </p>

<p>(since housing is a “budgeted” figure its possible for you to use 450$ a month for rent instead of the estimated 11k/yr they set)</p>

<p>@one</p>

<p>virtually all my costs are covered actually, yes.</p>

<p>i got out a loan of about 3k just to make sure i would have extra money to use to my personal disposal, (shhh don’t tell them >> </p>

<p>since housing is about 11k, that with tuition and extra fees are totally covered yes.</p>

<p>i guess i AM going to school for free o.o</p>

<p>@bowl</p>

<p>yeah i’m an incoming brand new freshman</p>

<p>since i’m an incoming junior with independent status i can take out 12,500$ dollars in loans i believe…</p>

<p>thats an ridiculous amount of money although SUG / Grants will cover the majority of my living costs / tuition … I’m not sure if I qualify for Cal Grants still though… Other than that, I’m trying to graduate debt-free as possible. </p>

<p>How was SOAR guys?
Mine is on Tuesday the 26th.</p>

<p>(i’m totally hijacking this thread, but oh well lol)</p>

<p>Hi again forum. How do you drop a class if you’re a freshmen at CSULB? I have 15 units right now and I need to drop out a class, but there’s a hold on me.</p>

<p>you have to wait until school starts to drop a class now i believe.</p>

<p>and SOAR was great. really made me feel psyched for school.</p>

<p>if you’re going into lib arts college and going into psych/comm studies/english look for ashley, and the other girl who i forget with brown hair, they were awesome.</p>

<p>also epic helpful</p>

<p>@rainsonata- You need to call the University Center for Undergraduate Advising. Their number is (562) 985-4837 and ask for permission to drop a class. They don’t want freshmen messing with their fall schedules, so you will have to explain why you are dropping the class.</p>

<p>@tutudragon16- I’m glad to hear you had a good SOAR. Also just wondering since I haven’t figured it out yet, but are you a boy or girl? x]</p>

<p>@one </p>

<p>XDDD</p>

<p>i am a girl. surprise? lolz</p>

<p>I wasn’t sure. xD I was thinking tutu= girl? Dragon=boy? HAHA! x]</p>

<p>sooooo … when you go sign up for classes is it a mad cow rush towards the computers? or is it pretty calm … I’ve sort of figured out all my courses that i need to take and what not so i’m ready to punch in my course numbers and sign up.</p>

<p>any one of you guys who went to SOAR can you give me a general itinerary?
much appreciated x)</p>

<p>The computer lab was crowded. I got all of the classes I wanted, but I think a lot of the classes are getting waitlisted now. If you’re planning to sign up for high level math/science classes, a lot of them will be closed because they probably got taken up by the science/math majors. </p>

<p>For me, SOAR was different because science majors like me get a 2 day workshop. Day 1 was placement testing and an intro to what classes to take as science majors and what careers to go for. Introduced each other in same majors. </p>

<p>Day 2 is probably what other majors go through. They separate you by majors to give you a campus tour. After the tour, they put you in rooms to counsel what classes to take. If your major is impacted, they tell you want you must take to become a full major and what classes to take if you plan to go to a professional school(only applies to science/law majors). After that, they’ll give you paper to go around and see the time of the classes. You have to create your own schedule before they let you go to the computer lab. Once you’re done, you go to them and have your schedule have the ok and go to computer lab. Once there, you log into myCSULB and enroll in the classes. Advisors will be there to help you. Once you enroll in all your classes, you raise your hand, get the ok, and you can leave. Your schedule is than printed and you will have to sign a paper at the front desk in the Horn Center.</p>

<p>Oh, and don’t bring lunch. They provide you lunch. The people will assign specific classes you MUST take. For ex: I’m a biology major. My major is impacted, so I have to take a Chem and Math class that was determined by placement test. I also have to take a critical thinking course and I am free to take any elective course that will fit into my GE. </p>

<p>Hope that helps! You’re a bit late in SOAR, but I’m sure you’ll get the classes you want. What major are you?</p>

<p>Thanks for the response.</p>

<p>I’m a Finance major incoming transfer (3rd year student) so CBA transfers will be doing SOAR tomorrow. I have my classes pretty much picked out and checked CSULB’s schedule of classes to verify they are still open.</p>

<p>i went to SOAR on the VERY first day they offered. back in june.</p>

<p>so i got into all classes with perfect ease. taking 5 this semester. it was very chill but the lab was crowded. i say by now with SOAR almost over all classes will be full or wait-listed, so time will be of the essence. the tours were very helpful and i found dividing everyone how they did uber-useful so it wouldn’t feel overwhelming. </p>

<p>you also get to talk with loads of people to get your schedule cranked out to perfection. choosing classes was overwhelming, but talking to people really helped.</p>

<p>all in all it got me even pumped more pumped for august</p>

<p>sounds good, thanks for all your responses haha.
i’m somewhat excited to start school also although my upper-div courses are scaring me with not so great pass rates and horror stories…</p>

<p>:></p>

<p>hopefully i’ll have a pleasant time at csulb during soar</p>

<p>Considering your classes will be upper-division courses, you should be able to enroll in the classes you want. It will help to know what classes you need and have a schedule already made. Since it will be a SOAR for CBA majors, you’ll be competing with others to get into those classes. The sooner you get the approval from your SOAR advisers, the sooner you can go register. Good luck and I hope you have a good SOAR!</p>

<p>went to SOAR dead tired in the morning (slept on like 2.5 hours of sleep)
got there around 7:55, check-in started @ 8. </p>

<p>went over the cheesy slideshows / intro video… got split into majors. (finance transfers had a pretty small one of like 20-25? students) had lunch, el polo loco = lame.</p>

<p>no one really talked until all the CBA students came around and just sat at the tables … talked for a bit, nothing major… went back to CBA building to start filling up your schedule. once done you go to horn center and get your schedule punched in (got the schedule i wanted; yay) and then you’re free to leave after signing up for the REC. </p>

<p>overall thoughts:</p>

<p>-wish more ppl interacted, but thank god ice breakers werent used … lame stuff imo
-great structure of how SOAR is done
-can’t wait to start csulb / campus is simply pleasant
-feel university campus-like albeit the commuter status
-diversity amongst age group / ethnic makeup
-classes seem rigorous (at least for the CBA layout)</p>

<p>@bowlhead: Yeah, for some, it can get pretty quiet since ppl don’t really know each other. For me, I didn’t really chat to other ppl until after lunch because lunch was after the placement tests. Most ppl were probably tired from the test :/. For sci majors, we had plenty of ice breaker games since CSULB was so enthusiastic to get the sci majors to be friends with each other. It was awkward, but I was fine since I was somewhat used to the ppl I just met. </p>

<p>Hey, do we have to bring all of our books to class on day 1? Chemistry has so many books @<a href="mailto:@">@</a>. I heard that for discussion classes, no, but for math/sci/foreign language, you must. Does this mean I have to carry my heavy math and chem books the first day? Oh boy… And what about the student solution manuals? Should I bring those too? I don’t want to lug around a 20+ lb backpack. That would be a nightmare. I’m thinking of carrying a couple of notebooks for each subject. Would a 1 subject notebook be ok for Calc I and Chem?</p>

<p>Does CSULB have lockers? I found a page on their website that you can have a locker for a year, or something like that for $1. It was in the Astrology section for some reason.</p>

<p>in my experience during college, it’s up to the discretion / personal choice of your own to bring a textbook or not. sometimes bringing the solution manual can be of use when you’re needing to do some quick problems during school and you don’t necessarily have access to a tutor / office hour / classmate with the right answers. </p>

<p>unless the prof emails you ahead of time giving you the required textbook information i wouldn’t worry about it. in most situations they give you the first week to get the textbook (albeit assigning readings already) and the second week you should have the book or you’ll have major catching up to do. </p>

<p>in high school you might be used to having a locker but you’ll probably figure out in college you can get by without bringing one or two textbooks so you’ll have a much smaller backpack to carry everyday.</p>

<p>also it really depends on how you scheduled your classes … if you put all your classes lumped into two days of the week then you might be more likely to have a fat backpack but like i said in my experiences … i’ve never really seen a college student with a FAT backpack you might see in high school. YMMV.</p>

<p>at SOAR they told us that the engineering students (transfers) were total zombies lol.</p>

<p>You don’t need to bring your books on the first day. And after that, most teachers don’t require students to do so. You can bring them along to follow with the professor during class, but I personally never found the need for it. I was always able to follow my professors without my books in hand. I only had to bring in my books for Spanish because we did class activities found in the book on a daily basis. </p>

<p>I would buy the solutions manual for calculus so you can check your answers.</p>

<p>One notebook for notes should be adequate for each class.</p>

<p>I’m not familiar with the lockers, but I don’t know anyone who actual uses one. I was always under the impression that they were no longer used.</p>