<p>I'm in the Pre-Economics and Accounting Major and will be a freshman for the 2011-2012 year. What is the typical course load for a student? I heard it is like four classes, but I was told taking 3 would be a good idea to get used to UCSB. I just want to graduate in four years.</p>
<p>Taking three classes your first quarter would probably work out fine. I did that my first year - then again, I don’t know if I could have found a fourth class at orientation if I had wanted to.</p>
<p>You need 180 units to graduate (184 if you haven’t fulfilled the foreign language requirement), and that’s spread across 12 quarters (3 quarters a year times 4 years), assuming you don’t take any courses during the summer “quarter.” If you took 12 units (usually 3 classes) your first quarter and 16 units every quarter after that, you’d have 188 units at the end of your fourth year, so that would cover everything.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s posted online, but I believe the Economics department has drawn up suggested course schedules (i.e., what to take each quarter you’re here) for all the different majors in the department - if I recall correctly, it’s posted in the hallway outside of the Economics advising office. It might be worth it for you to e-mail one of the advisers and ask for a copy of that.</p>
<p>take 12 first then 14 then 16 units. some ppl say its hard to jump to 16 but its do-able their are some easy A classes lol so maybe you want to do 12 16 then 14 so taht u dont have that many classes for spring quarter, which is the best quarter lol u should def take 3 classes first.</p>
<p>take 5 classes</p>
<p>@flushmaverick: do you think we can just email <a href=“mailto:ugrad@econ.ucsb.edu”>ugrad@econ.ucsb.edu</a> to get that suggested quarter schedule?</p>
<p>Is that schedule the same as the one mentioned on the econ dept. website under undergrad courses? It says “An updated quarterly schedule of classes can be found on GOLD.” Or is that just a schedule of when certain classes are available to register for?</p>
<p>Yes, that email address should get you in contact with the right people.</p>
<p>What’s posted on the website just shows you when every course is offered - what I remember seeing was a table that suggested courses to take for each quarter (for example, under “1st Fall Quarter,” it might list ECON 1, MATH 34A, and a space or two for other miscellaneous classes). I saw this a while back, but I don’t think I’m just making it up or anything.</p>
<p>I’ll try to remember to stop by tomorrow and take a picture of it and post it here so everyone can see it. Of course, you could work out a similar plan on your own just based on the department’s course offerings - I did that a few years ago, and though I haven’t stuck to it completely, I’ve always known where I’ve stood in the major.</p>
<p>The pictures I took were blurry because of the poor lighting and glass case the schedules were in, but here are the pictures I said I’d take earlier.</p>
<p>Econ and Accounting Major:
[url=<a href=“NameBright - Coming Soon”>NameBright - Coming Soon]EconAcctMajor.jpg[/url</a>]</p>
<p>Econ and Math Major:
[url=<a href=“NameBright - Coming Soon”>NameBright - Coming Soon]EconMathMajor.jpg[/url</a>]</p>
<p>The one for the plain Econ major came out really blurry, but it goes like this:</p>
<p>1st Year:
Fall: ECON 1
Winter: ECON 2, MATH 34A
Spring: MATH 34B</p>
<p>2nd Year:
Fall: ECON 10A, PSTAT 5E
(and then declare the major)</p>
<p>3rd Year:
Fall: WRIT 109EC, ECON area “E”*
Winter: ECON 100B, ECON area “E”
Spring ECON 101, ECON area “D”</p>
<p>4th Year:
Fall: ECON 140A, ECON area “D”
Winter: ECON area “D”, ECON area “E”
Spring: ECON area “D”</p>
<p>*The “area D/E” spaces are basically ECON elective courses - they’re listed on the official major sheet.</p>
<p>Personally, I’d say that they’ve suggested a pretty conservative schedule - for example, I don’t know why someone would hold off on taking ECON 100B until a year after taking ECON 10A (formerly 100A). I would think that you’d forget a lot of the material. Perhaps it’s a good plan if you’re thinking about double majoring with the plain Econ major.</p>
<p>besides taking econ classes for the major, what classes would you suggest i take to get either 12 or 16 units for the quarter</p>
<p>wow, thank you so much for posting that! :)</p>
<p>okay, I’m a little unsure about something. You know how for passing the AP test, you can earn a certain amount of credit for the respective subject? Now, that only awards credit for GE and cannot be applied to any courses involved in your major…right? Like by getting a 5 in calculus, you can’t somehow bypass a math requirement to be eligible to move from the pre-major to the econ/math major, can you?</p>
<p>what are some recommended classes that i should take for the first quarter besides that econ class?</p>
<p>
It really depends on what’s open. I took MATH 34A, PSTAT 5E, and Art History 6A my first quarter. The Art History courses require you to memorize a good number of pictures (and brief histories that go with them), so if you’re looking for a more rote-style class, you could go with that. I like what I learned in those classes, but all the stuff I needed to memorize was a bit time consuming, especially because I wasn’t entirely in the swing of things yet.</p>
<p>Frankly, when you’re signing up at orientation, you really won’t have much of a choice between different classes - a lot of the available classes you’ll see have actually had seats reserved specifically for freshmen, so they tend to be big survey/introductory courses. Classics 40 is a popular literature (area G) course, with several books you must read. I’ve heard Sociology 1 isn’t too bad, either.</p>
<p>
I’m sorry - I really don’t know. None of my AP classes applied toward my major (the phased-out Business Economics major), but I remember my freshman year roommate (who has the same major as me) saying that AP Statistics let him skip PSTAT 5E. That was a while back, so I’d definitely e-mail the Econ advisers about using AP credits toward the pre-major.</p>
<p>On a somewhat related note, after my freshman year, I took a summer Introductory Macroeconomics course at a community college and transferred the units to UCSB and used the class toward the pre-major. It fulfilled the last requirement I needed before declaring the full major, but it didn’t do anything to my UCSB GPA (which is a shame, because I did so well in that class…). So I know that pre-major course credits don’t have to come from UCSB entirely.</p>
<p>Take about 14-15 units for your first quarter. </p>
<p>Be sure to check out ES-1 classes out – LOTS of PE activity classes to help you keep in shape (i.e. weightlifting, tennis, volleyball, swimming, and so on. . . )</p>
<p>how is the stressload for 16 units and how much work is given?</p>