<p>After browsing through the website more carefully tonight, I just realized the gpa requirement is from the overall gpa of the 5 prereq courses. I've always thought it was your overall gpa...</p>
<p>Well I screwed up with a C in Math 1A =... so now the only way to get anything above 3.0 is for me to get B+ in the remaining 4 courses: math 16b, econ1, stats21, econ100a. </p>
<p>Either way, I'm definitely going to push myself 100% much harder this semester, but what if I end up below the 3.0 requirement upon applying for the major? Knowing Berkeley, getting a B+ is not something easy so if I somehow getting something below that in one course, I'd be screwed?.. Please help... I'm so paranoid right now...</p>
<p>Sorry for sounding so scrambled, but I'm freaking out as it never hit me the gpa requirement was for the 5 prereq until tonight. Any CC veterans want to shed some light regarding my situation :(. </p>
<p>Thank you so much beforehand... I have to post something or this paranoia will make these last few days of winter break hell :(.</p>
<p>If you get below a 3.0 in the prereqs, then you can write an appeal letter and hope that they’ll let you in (no guarantees though). If you have more than 2.7 but less than 3.0, you can get into EEP with the same prereqs and you can still do a fair amount of economics in your degree that way.</p>
<p>Also, it’s possible to apply to the major after having taken both Econ 100A and 100B (assuming you’re still within 5 semesters) and have both count towards the 3.0, which might relieve the grade pressure a little as you have 5 (rather than 4) more classes to help raise your GPA.</p>
<p>You may want to figure out if the 3.0 GPA is based on the number of units you take for each class or just a simple letter grade to numerical value average of all pre-reqs. If it is the former, consider that you will be getting less units for Math 16B since you already took Math 1A.</p>
<p>@baskertballkidYes, I’ve figured that math 16b will be 2-units after math 1a. With that, I would still need a B+ on that course and everything else to maintain a 3.0 gpa :(… </p>
<p>@Agenise, so I can try they will count 100A and 100B if I end up taking both before I apply?</p>
<p>@insertname, so once denied, you have no hope of appealing your case anymore?</p>
<p>Thank you so much for all the response :(. I’m less stressed out now, but I’m still worried… Regarding the ‘repeating course’ policy on their website (which allow prospective students to retake one prereq course and still counts), do you think it would work if I retake Math 1A even though I have a C? Or should I email and ask?</p>
<p>I’m quite sure that (as of last spring) they will count both 100A and 100B if you have both. About the repeating Math 1A, I think it’s worth asking the advisors to be sure.</p>
<p>Also, if you decide to use Political Economy as a backup, do keep in mind that there’s the World History course (IAS 45) you have to take before you can declare (unless you have AP World History), and it appears to be heavily impacted, so start planning early.</p>
<p>My bad, I meant that it’s hard to get into the course/“popular”. For example for Spring 2012, there are 200 seats in the course and the waitlist currently has 95 people on it.</p>
<p>The major itself isn’t capped (from the website anyway), but if one of the prereqs are more difficult to get into then I thought it’d be worth alerting people about it.</p>
<p>I’ve researched several threads and some say there is an optional essay you help boost your chance if your gpa is below 3.0, but some say it doesn’t exist anymore in the current app, is that true :(?</p>
<p>i didn’t think 1a/1b were hard (except for taylor series…dear lord…). but yeah, rest don’t seem too bad. i would watch out for stats though…while it is basic math, you can easily mess up over trick questions.</p>
<p>edit: calicious, don’t worry about it. i’m a bit stressed too since i’m thinking about econ or eep (i want to declare this semester). but i would have some backups just in case. and yeah, i talked to the economic advisors. i asked if they would let anyone in with a GPA slightly below 3.0. they, unfortunately, said no…</p>
<p>I’ve seen a lot of Econ related posts recently, and biggest piece of advice for you guys I have is to be realistic about yourself. If you can’t keep a 3.0 in the prereqs do you really think the major is for you? Do you honestly feel like this is for sure what you want to do, and do you honestly believe that your GPA will improve once you start taking upper divs?</p>
<p>The math prereq isn’t significantly more difficult than the other prereqs, and its not like the material gets much easier after you get passed the weeders. </p>
<p>If you honestly just messed up one class and you really enjoy the material and know you can do better, then go for it. Its actually not as intimidating to keep a 3.0 even with a C when you think that if you get one A, now all your other classes need to be B’s.</p>
<p>Well I guess I will need to suck it up and focus harder for the 3.0 to recover from that C in math 1A… Taking Econ 1 this semester with Delong so anyone got any advice for this course? Professor-wise, study-wise, material-wise, or anything else would help. I’m definitely not going to slack off one bit this semester and focus much harder, but any advice would really be helpful since you guys are less generic than courserank/ninjacourse generic comments >_<.</p>
<p>Hated Delong. My ONLY A- at Berkeley, otherwise I’d have a 4.0</p>
<p>But if you’re gonna take his class, there’s a few things you can do.</p>
<ol>
<li>Make sure you understand all the problem sets. They are similar to the exams. Now, your only problem is that the lecture is completely unrelated to the problem sets. So work on the psets with your friends and get help from your GSI</li>
<li>Understand the summer reading ESPECIALLY for the final (not sure if you guys were assigned summer reading, but we were). There was a question on it that came out of nowhere, probably the reason that I didn’t get an A</li>
<li>Pick a dumb section. Your grade is based on your section. If I remember correctly, they only gave out like 4 or 5 As per section. You need to have the best or second best grade in your section to get a solid A.</li>
</ol>
<p>I never should have taken it that class… I had 5’s on both AP econ tests so I could have passed out of it. The consequences of wanting to learn more.</p>
<p>Huh? Wouldn’t someone who wanted to learn more and got 5 scores on the AP tests that allow skipping Economics 1 go directly to Economics 101A and 101B (at least after completing the math prerequisites)?</p>
<p>Sorry, let me restate that. I meant I wanted to reinforce my foundation of introductory econ before moving onto 100a/b… because I was afraid that I wouldn’t be prepared for upper division classes with only AP knowledge, and I thought there was still more basic econ left for me to learn.</p>
<p>I did learn a little bit more, but it screwed up my GPA in the end. So the cost outweighed the benefit</p>
<p>Handlebars, so the section curve is against you then? You’re making me nervous :(! Do you have any advise on how to know if a section is ‘good’ or ‘bad’?</p>
<p>May I also ask if Econ 1 is actually the ‘introduction’ to Econ? Or is it more into people with prior experience (AP Macro/Micro)? I’ve taken AP Macro (not micro) in HS, but I’m still a bit shaky with graphs so will they be going through the process with us again throughout the first few weeks? Or is it going straight to the material? </p>
so once denied, you have no hope of appealing your case anymore?</p>