<p>Real advice on registering for your first semester of classes:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Do not take 13 units. They will tell you to. Just don't. Once extra class won't kill you.</p></li>
<li><p>AP out of every lower div requirement that you can. Even if you've taken their AP equivalents, Math 1A/1B/16A/16B, Chem 1A, R1A/R1B, and whatever else are going to take a lot of time and effort. Might as well expend that time and effort learning new material.</p></li>
<li><p>I have never heard anyone say that their AC class was hard. If you don't get into the one you want, it's not the end of the world.</p></li>
<li><p>If you're short on units, take an introductory language class. A's all around, little to no studying, and tons o' new friends.</p></li>
<li><p>I don't know if they talk about this or not, but there are a lot of resources that can give you an idea of what a class is like. I use a combination of ninjacourses.com, ratemyprofessor.com, and courserank.com to get a good idea.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Feel free to add, ask questions, tell me I'm full of it, etc</p>
<p>I don’t exactly agree with the above person about the “do not take 13 units thing”. Taking a little more than the min unit requirement shouldn’t be too bad if the extra classes are easy P/NP classes like DeCals or stuff like that.</p>
<p>However, I do agree about AP-ing out of everything you can. For my first year, I decided on taking Math 1B even though I could have gotten out of that through AP Calculus BC credit, and that was a big mistake for me…</p>
<p>By the way, I’m an EECS major, if you’re wondering. The other classes I took that listed Math 1B as a prereq (Math 54 and Physics 7A) barely used Math 1B stuff… I mean, sure, you’re going to be doing stuff like derivatives and integrals in that class, but when you do get to the material that uses that stuff, a bit a reviewing (which can be done in a day or less) should help you.</p>
<p>Regarding use of AP credit for sequential courses (e.g. math and science), you can try the old final exams for the courses you can skip to make a more informed decision for your placement. Do this before you go to CalSO.</p>
<h1>1 - well, almost. If it’s like Chem 4A, Math 53/54, Physics 7A/7B, and Chem C96, then you might wanna stop there.</h1>
<h1>2 - totally agree</h1>
<h1>3 - Agree that it’s not hard, but it’s supposed to be fun. I think an AC class should be ‘salvaged’ for another semester until you find a topic of your interest instead of joining a bandwagon AC class.</h1>
<h1>4 - Can’t say much since I haven’t taken a language class here. Although I know that most classes have mini vocab quizzes every day so it’s not completely free lunch.</h1>
<p>I’d say that this advice generally assumes that one’s goal is to graduate quickly, maximize the number of majors/minors possible, and/or prioritize one’s academic interests/curiosities over his/her GPA. I’m not saying that any of those are undesirable goals, but I think incoming students who read it should recognize that. Some students, such as those who are pre-law, pre-med or pre-Haas, may put more weight on their GPA and have interests that are perhaps more well-defined than others, in which case they may want to set different goals in terms of class selection.</p>
<p>^Agreed. And these definitely were not my goals when I was a freshman. My goals were always to a) keep a high GPA and b) take a light load. It worked out wonderfully for me!</p>
<p>I think the OP has mostly good advice, except I disagree on #1 and perhaps #2.</p>
<p>1) You should aim to take around 13 units. If it’s too easy, oh well. You had an easy first semester. Hooray 4.0. There’s literally no downside to taking 13 units unless (as the above poster mentioned) you are trying to graduate quickly.</p>
<p>2) In terms of GPA-boosting, if you did well on an AP exam and well in its corresponding class, sometimes taking those lower-div classes despite your being able to “test out” is advantageous GPA-wise. If those classes are too hard, the entire major might not be the best for you GPA-wise. Sure they take time and effort, but often (not always!) not too much. And for a nice A to start off your Cal career.</p>
<p>And as for #3, AC classes are all over the place. I wouldn’t categorize them all as “easy.” Some are difficult, some are not. They’re all pretty obnoxious, though (in my opinion).</p>
<p>Totally agree on #4! Language courses at Cal are fun and easy. And you learn a ton!</p>
<p>In terms of workload and number of units, the workload per unit does not seem to be all that consistent between courses.</p>
<p>Lab courses are generally a relatively high amount of time commitment. With a non-lab course, you may spend 3-5 hours in class, do some reading, do some assignments, and study for some tests. Add a lab, and you spend an additional 3-4 hours in lab, do pre-lab reading, and do lab reports (although you won’t have additional tests).</p>
<p>So you may find four or five non-lab courses to be the same or less workload than three courses that include two or three lab courses.</p>
<p>Courses with computer programming assignments, art studio, music performance, and large term projects can also take up a lot of time. PE 11 and 12 are also obviously high time commitment courses.</p>
<p>I dont agree with most things you said but I just want to point this out to other freshman who are signing up for courses. This is something I did not know before going to CalSO in regards to AP-ing out:
Medical school & other graduate programs do not accept APs!
For example: If you got a 5 on AP English exams and are able to get out of R1A & R1B (this is required), you still need to take a year of English for Medical School- and sure that means you can explore upper division courses designed for English majors, but it is important to consider specific grad school pre-reqs (some even require you take a traditional R1A style course vs. creative writing).
My advice: If you are thinking of a particular graduate program study the pre-reqs very carefully and make sure you are taking thess courses without the AP credit.</p>
<p>You probably mean other professional schools with specific course requirements that are typically frosh-level courses (e.g. dental). Law schools and MBA programs do not have specific undergraduate course requirements, so this concern with AP credit is not relevant. PhD programs are more concerned about your upper division courses and research in your major, as opposed to what frosh-level courses you may have used AP credit for.</p>
<p>Even with medical school and the like, you may not have to decide now as an entering frosh whether to retake the AP credit or take the specified number of more advanced courses; you can defer that decision until later, unless your major requires starting those courses now (but then your major may require more advanced courses in the subject anyway).</p>