<p>With Berkeley being a large public school, is it usually hard to get the classes you need, such as your general ed classes for graduation?</p>
<p>I haven’t had any problems getting into any classes. As long as I phase one the ‘popular’ classes, I get everything I want. Not once have I not gotten the class schedule I wanted, and I’m in my fourth semester.
However, some other people I know with later telebears dates tend to struggle getting into the more popular classes.</p>
<p>For gen ed, there isn’t one specific course that you need but the easy ones will probably be filled really quickly and you may have to take a harder one. For example for R&C A, the German R5A will fill up really fast because its easy but there usually is space in English R1A which is known to be harder but both fulfill the same req.</p>
<p>Part of it depends on your major. EECS/CS had a lot of disappointed people this semester, a bunch of classes (CS170, 161, 160, 169…) had a hundred more students than they could accommodate, which made enrollment difficult. Non-majors were being kicked off of waitlists, 160 had students filling out petitions to get from 200 students down to 100, etc. So, if you’re EECS/CS, maybe. :P</p>
<p>That said, every department’s not going to be like that. Enrollment/waitlists also tend give priority to students majoring in the subject, and to graduating seniors. And if you still manage to find yourself in a “can’t graduate without it” situation, most professors are pretty understanding.</p>
<p>Most requirements are flexible anyways, so even if you don’t get your top pick you’ll be able to find something that fits.</p>
<p>My freshman cub is in L&S and hasn’t had a problem, despite adding some popular classes rather late. You might end up with a Friday 7-10pm final, or a late night lab/discussion group, but so far it’s always worked out.</p>
<p>If you’re in a popular major (my example is EECS/CS, since I’m an EECS major) and you don’t register for required classes relatively early in your academic career, you might not get into one that you need.</p>
<p>I’m taking CS 170, and many people who are having a hard time getting into the class but need it to graduate have been stressing out. This could have been averted if they had taken it earlier. (Not that this is necessarily their fault; the administration is being rather slow about responding to the situation.) If you plan your coursework out, you will have few problems eventually getting into the classes you need to graduate.</p>
<p>(Of course, this is harder if you start your coursework later, especially for junior transfers who start taking the introductory CS series here.)</p>
<p>So it’s better to do your general ed the first two years of college then take your major courses?</p>
<p>If your major has sequences of prerequisites, then you need to take the lower division ones early so that you can take your upper division major courses later.</p>
<p>It is best to take required courses as early as possible so that you have more schedule flexibility later. If (for example) you have three remaining required courses that are sequenced prerequisites, and you plan to stay for three more semesters, then you have no room for error in scheduling. But if you took their prerequisites early enough so that you have five remaining semesters to complete that sequence, then you have more flexibility in scheduling.</p>