For my first semester, I want to take a lower amount of courses so I can gauge the workload and my ability. I’m in the L&S school, with the intent of majoring in CS. If I’m not able to meet the 3.3 requirement, I’ll major in Data science also in the L&S school. I also have to fulfill the L&S requirements, I’m hoping to get as many of these out through AP/IB credit, or early in college.
For my first semester, I’m thinking of these 3 courses:
CS 61A
Math 1B
A course fulfilling one of my 7 Breadth requirements (gonna try to take a relatively easier course)
For my second semester:
CS 61B
Data 8
A course fulfilling on of the 7 Breadth requirements
I want to make sure my course load is balanced in the sense that I meet requirements for declaring CS or Data Science, meet requirements for L&S, and I’m able to manage the workload.
I’m no expert on scheduling, well find out shortly when my kid meet with his advisor, but unless you take some summer classes I think you’ll need at least 13 units per semester. Which will probably be 4 classes and not 3. It’s a good relaxed schedule though if you can pull it off.
You really don’t get much out of AP in terms of fulfilling requirements. They do give you credits towards graduation though, which I think a 3 or above will do. However while at UCB you still need to take at least 51 units of CS classes, 25-32 units of breadth, prerequisite math and English classes and probably other electives you’ll take along the way, so there’s a good chance those credits won’t be that useful by the time you graduate.
As far as AP goes for the typical CS/DS major:
A 3 and above (or is it 4) in Calc AB gets you out of Math 1A.
A 5 in Calc BC gets you out of Math 1B (and 1A)
A 5 in English Lit gets you out of English R1B (and R1A)
A 4 or 5 in English Comp gets you out of English R1A
A 4 or 5 Bio, Chem, Physics, Macro/Micro, Psych, and any Language helps you get out of an intro course but that does you little good unless you plan to take more coursework in that area. Will help if you are pursuing a minor (or major) in that area.
Stats, Govt, Comp Sci A, Music Theory, USH, WH and ES are pretty useless from what I can tell, they don’t do much at all other than general credits.
Do note that you “only” have until the end of your sophomore year at the latest to declare for whatever major you decide, and there are quite a few lower division classes to take. You may want to incorporate these into your schedule sooner rather than later.
CS61A
CS61B
CS61C
CS70
EE16A (or Math 54)
EE16B
Math 1A and 1B
Data 8 (your backup major 1st class which is a good idea)
CS47B if you have little or no programming background
thank you @ProfessorPlum168
would anyone else like to share their thoughts?
I made a slight booboo, instead of
A 4 or 5 in AP English Comp gets you out of English R1A
It should say:
A 4 or 5 in either AP English Language or AP English Literature gets you out of English R1A
Just to be more accurate and thorough
A normal course load is typically 4 courses for 15 or 16 units, since most courses are around 4 units.
If you ace the AP tests you just took, how many credits total will you come in with?
If you manage to get into CS, when will you find out (end of this year ,end of sophomore year?) and also, at that point, how many total CS courses will you need to graduate with that major? Have you mapped out, if you have a light load next year, when will you actually fit all of the required courses for the major and breadth requirements in?
I haven’t yet, I’ll do so. @washugrad
Are second/spring semester course sign ups at the same time as first semester sign ups? Or will we sign up for second semester courses at/near the close of first semester?
@ucbalumnus
FWIW here’s what my kid was thinking:
Summer:
Taking a class in CC to meet his American Cultures req. Maybe something else too, not sure
Fall:
CS 61A
MATH 1B - he is eligible to skip this class, but most people he trusts is telling him not to skip and to take this class.
Some Reading R1B class - unless my kid miraculously gets a 5 in his AP Eng Lit class. Either Music, East Asian, or Env Design.
Some breadth class
Spring:
CS 61C
EE 16A or MATH 54
Data 8 (maybe, especially if he doesn’t do well in CS61A)
Some breadth class
Summer 2019:
EE 16B (hopefully the class is offered in the summer)
Fall 2019:
CS 70
He’s hoping he can declare and start taking upper level classes by Spring 2020.
He took CC classes to articulate out of CS 61B. However he does have the option to take the class, just in case he screws up and doesn’t get to 3.3 GPA.
Interesting. Maybe, for first semester, I’ll take the 3 courses I stated above, and add a one credit decal to maintain the 13 credit requirement.
That way I can take a lighter course load for first semester. Second semester, I’d likely take the 3 courses I stated above, but add EE16A.
@ProfessorPlum168
Has he tried old final exams to check how well he knows the material in MATH 1B? That may be a better way of determining whether to take advanced placement.
https://tbp.berkeley.edu/courses/math/1B/
Well, now that his AP tests are over with, I think he’ll try some of them. His reasoning was based on talking to his pre-Calc and BC teachers, both Cal math grads, who suggested this. In fact his pre-Calc teacher went so far as to suggest that it wouldn’t hurt to start back with Math 1A. I personally am in favor of just moving ahead except that I’ve heard that there’s a lot of stuff in Math 54 that needs Math 1B and I just don’t know how much of it he remembers. Especially the latter part of BC such as proving infinite summations.
I would consider taking Decals if you need to make the minimum unit requirement. These are student run classes in topics ranging from Pokemon to website development to Harry Potter. They are usually 1-2 units and are graded on a P/NP basis.
This is something I learned in middle of junior year and I wish I knew about it sooner, but sign up and attend as many classes in your first week or two. There is no guarantee what is an easy breadth class, as it depends on multiple factors such as your interest in the subject, the instructor’s teaching style and leniency, the format/pace of the class, etc.
Almost all Berkeley classes qualify for one of the breadth requirements, so the most informative decision is attend the ones that sound interesting to you, and further filter out after attending a few classes and/or first assignment. I remember spending lots of time on course catalog and checking out the grade distribution by instructor, and it was well worth the investment.
You can repeat this approach for the math and sciences classes. If things go really well, then you could be doing perfectly fine on CS61A and Math 1B and capable of handling another course such as Data 8 or whatever other course for CS major declaration. Conversely, the CS61A and/or Math 1B may be seriously disappointing whether it’s the instructor’s teaching style or the obscene course load and it would be good to have a back-up class that is more enjoyable. Any class that meets the requirement would be a candidate, so think broadly and assume anything could happen.
After you decide on your courses, make some good study buddies. Some of the problem sets may get overwhelming and often times office hours aren’t enough to answer all your questions.
One disaster scenario you want to avoid at all cost is indefinitely falling behind a class after you didn’t understand a lecture or two and by the time you attempt to cram everything the week/night before the exam, it is too little, too late. Having a study buddy is great as it keeps each other disciplined and not fall behind, and explaining a concept to someone else is the best way to learn yourself too.
thanks that was very helpful @UpMagic
how long do I have to drop a course and not have it affect my GPA/transcript?
Stupid question, but how easy is it to drop a class? Is it as simple as logging onto a site and drop the class? Does a refund (if any) come back automatically?
@ProfessorPlum168 Dropping a class is as easy as a few clicks on CalCentral. The deadline is usually a few weeks into the class; look at the academic calendar for the exact date. You don’t get any refund because you pay by the semester, not the units. You can take as many units as you want up to 21.5 or as few as you want (13 in L&S). It’s the same amount of money.
very nice. I didn’t know that 13 or 21 was the same. Loading up and then dropping is a nice idea then…
@ProfessorPlum168 Yes, I would highly recommend signing up for more classes than you intend to actually take so you can pick and drop classes you don’t want. Otherwise you may find yourself in a situation where you want to drop a class but other classes are pretty full and you risk not having enough units if you don’t get into another class.
@ProfessorPlum168 It is as simple as logging onto a site and drop the class.
@kjake2000 Anything you drop within 2nd week of instruction does not get a fee. (Expand the ‘Late/Enroll/Drop Fees’ tab in https://registrar.berkeley.edu/tuition-fees-residency/tuition-fees)
Except for a handful of classes that have early drop deadline which is the 2nd week of instruction anyway, you can take the class up to 4 weeks. In most cases, 2 weeks is enough time to decide whether you want to continue with the class or not.