<p>The advice, friends, and orientation you get at CalSO is definitely worth the $210 unless your travel expenses or time make it impractical (eg. over $250 roundtrip).</p>
<p>I’ve gained a couple great friends at CalSO and got to speak with a CalSO counselor (actually a very well trained student) who provided a lot of advice and information to get me going. It would have been daunting if I had just shown up at campus without the CalSO stuff.</p>
<p>They really do lack information here and you’re pretty much on your own. CalSO basically teaches you how to “be on your own.” Otherwise, you can easily slip through the cracks. Main thing to keep in mind: school starts two days after you move into the dorms!</p>
<p>I seem to remember that last year, your CalSO fee just got lumped into your regular fees for the semester. As in, we basically paid for CalSO, but that fee was subtracted from our regular fees. Does anyone else have a vague inkling of this?</p>
<p>This year they said we’ll be billed through a thing called ‘CARS’ (whatever that is) in September. I think budget cuts mean they’ll be charging where they can?</p>
<p>If I attended one of the overnight stay/host programs, do you think it’s worthy for me to go to CalSO? I already had an insight into the berkeley environment during regular school times and I met a couple of people, except they were not in the same major as I was…</p>
<p>Other than that, is there anything else that is valuable for me to go besides signing up for classes?</p>
<p>When do non-CalSO attenders receive their telebear code to sign up for class?</p>
<p>Can someone shed some light on the Coalition Scholar thing?</p>
<p>I’m not sure if their Coalition dates are worth going to since they’re at the end of June as opposed to the regular CalSO dates being in early/mid-June…</p>
<p>It’s pretty shady of them to “highly recommend” something practically worthless that costs $210 and then have it be mandatory for the first round of picking classes.</p>
<p>Is there any difference between the SoCal CalSO and the regular CalSO?
I registered for it, and thank god I don’t have to drive up all the way to Cal!</p>
<p>I didn’t register for Calso and I’m kinda worried about not being able to get my classes. I plan to take Bio 1B, Math 1A, and Physics 8A fall semester. Are these classes hugely popular, and would I probably be waitlisted as a consequence of not going to Calso?</p>
<p>Physics 8A is already almost full. Two lecture choices, each with just 11 slots left for entering students and juniors, with no wait list permitted. </p>
<p>Bio 1B has 701 seats filled of the 734 possible, also no waitlist permitted.</p>
<p>Math 1A is wide open. Two separate lectures, each with about 400 open slots, and plenty of discussion session choices. </p>
<p>You are likely to get into Math 1A but it would be good to get started on R&C, AC and other required courses, at least those that will still be open. The odds for the other two courses are very, very poor.</p>
<p>they will improve. You started from a challenging position, having a late phase I because you skipped CalSO.</p>
<p>However, you also attempted a couple of the high demand classes, but ones that most bio or premed students take later, in soph or junior year, when they have much earlier phase I appointments. Many take Calc 1A+Chem 1A the first semester, then Calc 1B + Chem 3A, etc in following semesters with Physics and Bio 1B relatively late. The typical freshman class, Math 1A, is wide open but the typical soph/junior classes are already heavily populated with those students who have earlier times.</p>
<p>Yes. If you are in L&S, read the “Earning Your Degree” booklet and use the websites such as ls-advise.berkeley.edu to work out the alternatives for registration. Build yourself some tentative plans. Look at your possible majors, in their departmental websites, and learn what are the pre-reqs and full requirements for a degree. Look over old posts here. Look around all the Cal websites, places like registrar.berkeley.edu, to get a better sense of how the whole registration process works. Ask questions here.</p>
<p>I didn’t think Calso was worth it… seemed like everyone there was tired, stressed and cranky.
I went and it was stupid and pointless. If you’ve already visited the campus, there’s no point. You can find all the info you need about requirements, majors, clubs, etc online. You dont need to drive/fly all the way there to walk around for hrs, doing stupid games in the summer heat, and attending pointless, boring presentations.</p>