I was wondering if it is a good or bad idea to take English 45 as a freshman. I can skip both parts of R&C due to my AP scores, but I have no idea what a college English course will be like which is why I am hesitant. I originally thought I was going to be an English major, but now I’m not so sure which is why I want to take this class and quickly figure out if it is for me. I am also interested in political science, political economy, and sociology if anyone has any recommendations of other classes I should take. Also any other scheduling advice would be really welcome. Thanks
For exploring your possible majors, how about some courses from Economics 1 or 2, Sociology 1, IAS 45, and either a calculus course or (if you have and use AP calculus credit) Statistics 20 or [C8 and 88]? Note: check you potential majors’ web sites if you have AP credit to see whether it is applicable in place of courses listed above.
Note also that the political economy major has a foreign language requirement that requires more advanced proficiency than the L&S requirement.
So I was thinking about taking econ 1 but i feel like the chance of getting in the class first semester was pretty low. Right now I am planning on taking Compsci C8 this semester, ESPM 60, English 45, and a freshman seminar, although that may change in the next few hours. I will check my ap credit, thanks!
Since you are considering a major in sociology, you may want to include Sociology 1, which appears to have plenty of space: https://classes.berkeley.edu/content/2018-fall-sociol-1-001-lec-001
Ok thanks for the input, now what I’m thinking is English 17 (Shakespeare), C8, Sociology 1, and freshman seminar. I would rather take either English 45a or b but one conflicted with sociology and the other with c8.
You may want to keep Economics 1 as a possible course if there is space when you register.
Also, if you do not have a 5 on AP calculus BC, you will need one or more calculus courses if you do the economics major. The economics major also requires a statistics course with a calculus prerequisite (e.g. 20 or 21, or 88 with C8).
Alright, I now am basically set on English 45b, sociology 1, pol sci 1, and classics 24. I got rid of C8 to take pol sci, since that’s one of the majors I am considering. That is 13 units, and then I will add Berkeley connect for English to make 14.
I am keeping Econ in my cart too, thanks, and it actually fits into my schedule so I am considering just taking all 5 classes if I can. That will be 18 units total though. I know that’s a lot, but how wary should I be of doing that? My thinking is that since they are all humanities/social sciences the main work will be reading which I have never had an issue with. Technically, excluding the seminar and Berkeley connect, it’s 16 units of typical classes.
If you can, start with the 17-18 units, but pay attention to the amount of work. You will be able to drop the least interesting one if the work is too high.
Note that you need 120 units to graduate, so that means an average of 15 per semester if you want to finish in 8 semesters.
Nominal workload is 3 hours per week per unit.