<p>I would like my first year of Berkeley to be a time of exploring and having an open mind.
Since I'm considering CompSci, Haas, and med school and anything else interesting or enlightening for that matter, this is the schedule I came up with:</p>
<p>CHEM 1A
MATH 1A
COMPSCI 3L (taken on a pass/no pass basis)</p>
<p>and I'm still looking into seminars, discovery courses, electives, etc., to get my minimum 13 units.</p>
<p>How does this look for someone "testing the waters"?
Any suggestions? Recommendations?</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>=)</p>
<p>Oh, this may be off topic, but...
Should I still look into already full seminars, or am I just wasting my time on the waitlist?
I've been advised to show up to the class anyways since lots of people don't end up showing up.</p>
<p>Those classes are really generic so you wont be testing anything out except CS with CS 3L. Chem 1A will more likely dissuade you from med school than enlighten you. It’s very unfortunate in that freshman year is the time when most people are most confused about majors/careers, but often have the least flexibility and exposure. For example you wont really see if you like MCB neurobiology until you take the upper divs, but by then you are well on your way to graduate in MCB and have no turning back. You might have enough time to “test the waters”, but you will never know if it is right until you jump in =/</p>
<p>Advice from Mathboy – Calbear2012 observes quite accurately that these classes will not give you a good idea as to what major to pick. For one thing, I would talk to lots of Haas people to get an idea what it’s like, and for the other two options, actually sit in on courses more reflective of what you’ll get yourself into.</p>
<p>In particular, I suggest sitting in on CS 61A, if you’re intending on computer science at all. That course actually gives a somewhat high-level view of programming, and the principles, though you will get into several technicalities of the Scheme language. </p>
<p>As for chemistry, try sitting in on other chem classes, like 3A (organic chem), and maybe some upper division chemistry and/or MCB too. I don’t know much about MCB, but Chem 112A and Chem 120A are some classes you might want to look at. </p>
<p>I think if you’re really unsure of what you’re going to do, you should keep to your current schedule and not focus on taking many letter graded courses. You can get hardcore later, and it’s more important to actually figure out a direction to be hardcore towards. That means, as I said, sampling lots of stuff beyond intro classes. If you don’t want to sit in on all those classes, for some of them just try to borrow stuff from the library and do some reading – maybe some of the commonly used texts. </p>
<p>The only way to become less confused is to find out for yourself what stuff is like, and what is the best fit for you.</p>
<p>i’d like to add that berkeley does offer self-study CS classes. They’re for beginners and u can choose what programming language to study as well as the number of units u wanna take it for. u should really check these out. it might be a better idea than taking CS 3L.</p>
<p>First of all, thanks for the advice guys. =)</p>
<p>I think I’m going to stick with the schedule and sit in on some classes that are actually a bit geared towards the majors I’m considering.</p>
<p>There’s something that’s bugging me that I noticed on the Academic Orienteering page where it lists the prerequisites for majors.</p>
<p>Under COMPSCI 003, it said “not offered in Fall 09.” Tele-BEARS, however, had no problem with me signing up for cs3. Also, the UCB Online Schedule of Classes has it as an open course. Is the prerequisite thing just not updated?</p>
<p>Like on the first day or mid-way through when the professor starts blabbing about radical halogenation? I suggest browsing some of the old webcast (<a href=“http://webcast.berkeley.edu%5B/url%5D”>http://webcast.berkeley.edu</a>) and figure out if the class is worth your interest.</p>