<p>Hi everyone.</p>
<p>As a possible incoming freshman, I was wondering whether or not you feel that Cal has just too many people. Is it difficult to sign up for courses you want? Do students even see professors on a routine basis? Is it even possible to get a letter of recommendation if you are above average, but not at the absolute top of your class?</p>
<p>Do you feel alienated and lost among the masses?</p>
<p>..wow i never thought of this stuff</p>
<p>Lol, yes. Especially for me because I appealed on the grounds of abuse and they didn’t let me in!</p>
<p>It feels like Cal doesn’t really care :/</p>
<p>I had a late calso date, so I didn’t get all the classes that I wanted – but I got fine classes anyway. I’m in the DSP, so except for that first semester, I get priority registration for classes. Picking out classes for next fall I got anything I wanted – I don’t think there was a single person in any of the classes I signed up for. I can’t give a reliable feel for how class selection is normally for people without priority, but given that I got most of what I wanted with a late july calso, I’d assume it isn’t horrible for people who have late reg dates normally. It’s also often possible to go in and talk to a prof and get in, even if you can’t get in via telebears. In most of my classes, a majority of wait-listed people have been admitted.</p>
<p>How much you see your professors depends in large part on you. I know some people who rarely talk to their professors, but that is because they choose not to seek out interaction, not because they can’t. In some really big classes (e.g., UGBA10) you will probably not have routine personal interactions with professors, and there are some (e.g., Johnson, the guy who teaches hist6a) who do seem to dislike teaching, talking with, or being in sight of, undergraduates. </p>
<p>However, in my experience, 90% of professors are more than happy to engage with students, and a lot of them are genuinely excited to talk with students interested in their class/research/whatever. </p>
<p>I did make a point of making sure I had some classes that don’t have 500 people in them, but that isn’t hard to do. I’m taking 7 classes this semester (20 units, don’t do this to yourself) and have gotten to know five of my professors at least decently well – the exceptions are my calc class and ugba96. After a year here I have two people I could definitely get to write rec letters no problem at all, and one other prof who I’m pretty confident would. I’ll be doing fieldwork with one of my profs next semester, at his invitation. I have more personal interaction with faculty here than I did at my high school, that had average class sizes of maybe 25. I am 100% definitely not anywhere near a top student.</p>
<p>Take a seminar, even if (especially if?) the topic isn’t something you think you will be interested in. If you don’t, you will be missing out on an awesome opportunity.</p>
<p>If you are a premed or haas-intended, no guarantees on anything I just said =p</p>