<p>During your first two years, how hard is it to get the classes you want and/or need? Do you end up taking classes you don't need or don't want to take but have to since you cannot get into the classes you want?</p>
<p>I think this depends largely on your major and what classes you want to take. I don’t know about freshman/sophomore year, but as a junior EECS (transfer), getting in can be difficult, especially if you get a late telebears date. Some classes just don’t scale well, so certain classes (especially when taught by a popular professor) can be nearly impossible to get into. Some of the upper division CS courses last semester had to cut a hundred or more students from the waitlist… after tripling the number of seats in the class. For humanities classes, the ones I’ve wanted I haven’t had trouble getting into, despite adding them during phase 2 or later.</p>
<p>It all just depends, really. If you really want a class or think it’ll fill quickly, add it during phase 1. Then just make back up plans in case the other classes you wanted are full during phase 2. Requirements are pretty flexible anyways, so there’s usually a bunch of options when it comes to what you need to take.</p>