<p>Is seventeen units (comp sci, chem + lab, math 54, and an english breadth) manageable for a first semester entrant?</p>
<p>It depends. Which chem?</p>
<p>Just introductory - 1A.</p>
<p>manageable but recommended to take a few less for first semester.</p>
<p>This is a very manageable schedule for someone who has prior programming experience. If you don’t, then I’d recommend holding off on English (or Chem) for a semester. According to my roommate, 61A can be brutal (i.e. many all-nighters) for inexperienced programmers.</p>
<p>Say goodbye to social time.</p>
<p>Manageable in what terms? 3.0 GPA? 4.0 GPA? I’d say that if you’re aiming for a 3.8+ GPA to start off your college experience, I would definitely take less units. However, if you don’t mind getting a B or two, then that schedule would be manageable, although still busier than managing a 4.0 on 13-14 units. This is all a generalization of course.</p>
<p>some can handle it, but you would be surprised how often incoming students misjudge how demanding the work will be and how distracted or impacted they will be due to living on their own for the first time, starting from ground zero building a pool of friends, etc. It isn’t correlated to how heavy a load you successfully managed in high school, unfortunately. Some who juggled really heavy loads including college coursework during high school are hammered by their first semester here, some who floated through a subpar hgih school rise to the occasion and excel with a heavy load, but overall the evidence is that those with a heavier load have an unusually high rate of problems (just for the first semester away at college).</p>
<p>omg don’t do it!!! Seriously, salvage your gpa and your sanity. Unless you are ok graduating with a 3.5 or below! I stuck with fewer units and have a 4.0 in one major and a 3.81 in my other major.</p>
<p>I do have quite a bit of experience in programming, so I gather that CS 61A won’t be too difficult, unless its difficulty lies in tedious busywork which will just eat up my team regardless of experience.</p>
<p>yes to the latter - the time to deal with the detail level of the assignments is what seems to drive the requirement, it is not an issue of time spent mastering basic concepts. Most CS students already have a fair amount of programming experience, but they still have to put in the hours.</p>
<p>Yeah…tedious busywork that eats up your time regardless of experience is exactly what CS61A consists of.</p>
<p>Take it easy your first semester! Seriously. It feels great coming out of your first semester at Cal having done well. Save the academic stress for when you have your bearings. First semester in college is a very weird transition and can often be stressful on its own for non-school-related reasons. Don’t pile on the school stress right away.</p>
<p>If I did want to go lighter, what could I possibly drop? I’m using my English course to satisfy my AC requirement, and the other three courses I’d really like to take this semester.</p>
<p>What class is the English breadth? Anyways, you have eight semesters to satisfy the AC requirement. That’s not necessarily a <em>reason</em> to take it your first semester.</p>
<p>You could drop one of the science classes and take an easy breadth instead. Maybe take 15 units instead of 17.</p>
<p>English 31AC.</p>
<p>Hmm, not sure how that class is. But you could drop it and look for an easy 2-unit breadth.</p>
<p>To my knowledge it’s like a course on race portrayals in American film and literature, and it doesn’t seem to be too bad - covering a few books, watching films on my own time, and writing about them; I don’t think it’d be much of a hassle at all.</p>
<p>Seems quite manageable but if taking the classes is too time consuming you could always drop one and sign up for something else. 15-16 units seem good for a first semester, but units aren’t really a good indicator of workload.</p>