<p>for those of you who graduated from or are current students @ berkeley, what would you do over?</p>
<p>basically, some advice you could pass on to us tiny tots who will be attending this upcoming year :)</p>
<p>clubs we should join?
professors we should meet?
places we should see?
things we should avoid?
anything you think could be helpful?</p>
<p>please, PRETTY please
enlighten meeee!</p>
<p>lol</p>
<ol>
<li>Join a few clubs, even the social ones that you think are lame, even if you end up not going to that many meetings.</li>
<li>Go to office hours, both professor office hours and GSI office hours. You'll hear this from me, from the staff at orientation, and from other students/poster, and chances are you still won't go to them. But you really should. If there are too many students there then forget it, but many professors don't ever have students visit them so it's a great chance for a 1-on-1 session.</li>
<li>Go out once in a while, explore the place. Don't just stay in your room 24/7. Go out to Shattuck on weekends even though it's a bit of a walk. Go to SF once in a while.</li>
<li>The dorms try to hold events every now and then. There's broomballing, dim sum, and other fun stuff. Get some friends from your building and go together.</li>
<li>Avoid getting behind in class. Once you do it's almost impossible to catch up.</li>
<li>If a lecture is useless, and you learn better by reading from the textbook, then by all means forget about the lecture. If you know (from experience) that you'll fall asleep attending one lecture, do yourself a favor and just stay home. However, if you know that by ditching class you won't do anything productive and not study up on the material yourself, it's probably good to attend the class anyway.</li>
<li>Keep an open mind, academically and otherwise. Take advantage of welcome week. Go to a few frats, see what it's like. Explore some majors you haven't thought about before. Take a class just because it sounds interesting (that is, if you have room in your schedule).</li>
</ol>
<p>I'll think up of more later.</p>
<p>lets keep it on the first page while i think.</p>
<p>ps think about this one, and try to answer it here- it's a good question</p>
<p>Clubs: Join any club you are interested in, there are many that people don't even know exist. Take flyers that are handed out to you and see what kinds of events or clubs are available. Fraternities and sororities might be good ideas but always leave yourself open to new opportunities and organizations. You probably will not make friends in your dorm that last throughout your college career, as people will change and move on. The propinquity effect does not always mean your friends will still be your friends after you live in different housing facilities.</p>
<p>Professors: Always go to office hours and ask questions. Even if you think you know the course material, it is always great to go to office hours and review. Going to office hours has been so helpful because I have learned so much and because often your GSI does the class grading. Also go to other GSI's office hours, it doesn't always have to be your own GSI's office hours.</p>
<p>Finally, do not procrastinate and keep your GPA as high as possible. Of course everyone wants to get good grades and do well in college, but consciously make it an even higher priority. Speaking from experience, it will open tons of doors for you in the future. Friends always come and go and you will always meet new people, so don't sacrifice your grades for something that you could always do later on.</p>
<p>take your courses seriously. don't slack because it's your first year.
well, you can and probably should slack your first semester.</p>
<p>oh yea, don't pledge your first semester if you plan to do that. second year is probably ideal.</p>
<p>Find your interest. Do you like to party? Are you focused on academia/research? What's your major?</p>
<p>My main mistakes in my freshman year was not taking enough relevant courses for my major and crowding my later years with harder classes. I could also have gotten a head start on research/jobs/teaching.</p>
<p>I would take it easy on the partying the first sem. It's quite an adjustment going from the HS workload to uni life. There's more to adjust to than the rigour of the material. Once you get a handle on your limits, you can have a good balance of both partying and studying in your second sem.</p>
<p>sorry this probably sounds very stupid to people who've gone to berkeley, but what are office hours? i suppose it's just a period of time when a professor is available for students to approach and ask questions?</p>
<p>Yep, you got it.</p>
<p>go to more office hours....look for/get an apt. earlier than i did, seriously consider a fraternity.</p>
<p>I think Freshman should really spend their first semester getting used to the whole college thing. You'll have enough to deal with balancing academics, a personal life, and (for most people) new responsibilities and independence. Once you have that down you can look for other things such as clubs and the like. </p>
<p>Don't worry about making friends, it'll come to you. I would recommend going to any events they usually have planned for welcome week and the like though, even if it sounds "lame" or might not quite be your style. Explore at least once a week. There are lots of fun places in all directions from Berkeley. </p>
<p>My last general piece of advice is to get in the habit of visiting your professor's office hours and getting to know your GSI's. They are normal people after all and are usually very inclined to help you even in bigger classes. It can be intimidating at first but its a good habit to develop and you'll enjoy your experience ever so much more.</p>
<p>If I had gone to Cal, I would have taught everyone that "Cal" is an abbreviation, and not an acronym.</p>
<p>Just sayin'.</p>
<p>^^ lol amen.</p>
<p>Go to office hours- get to know your teachers. Letters of recs are critical, and the sooner you start the better. Office hours blah blah blah- GO!</p>
<p>Try to get decent-good grades, but don’t ONLY do schoolwork.</p>
<p>Make friends in classes just in case you miss something and particularly if you like to work in groups. If you like to work/study in groups, form them early.</p>
<p>Explore the Bay Area, particularly good Berkeley food.</p>
<p>Ask people that know things about things. They know things that can help you, and many have gone through stuff you're going through and have knowledge that can make your life easier.</p>
<p>Find your interests.</p>
<p>Consider trying some research, even in a field you may not major in.</p>
<p>Set up a pattern of studying and keep it up. Try going to the library- if you study well there, go often.</p>
<p>Join a club and actually get involved with it a little bit- I guess getting your inbox flooded works for some people, but if you’re gonna join, do something once in a while.</p>
<p>Remember you can and should learn a ton OUTSIDE of your classes and your class reading. You will probably have the time to do this, and you should try to, say, read for fun, or teach yourself LaTeX or how to draw or something.</p>
<p>Reflect- take personal inventories. Try to think about what you want out of college, of each semester, of each summer, of each week. Try to complete these goals.</p>
<p>Start your papers and projects early. Just do it.</p>
<p>What are you supposed to do at office hours if you have no questions? I'm hesitant about going to office hours so early if I don't have any questions about the course material at all, and it would be quite wasteful to just go there to "chat" (about what??) with your professor when there are probably other people in line that actually need to talk with the professor for more important reasons (trouble with material, etc.). Should you visit office hours on the very first day? Did you guys do this? What did you guys do at office hours other than asking questions about the course material?</p>
<p>talk about other classes you're taking, career options, summer opportunities, grading, grad school, books you've read. really, almost anything goes.</p>
<p>to OP:</p>
<p>
[quote]
if i were a Cal freshman again, i would...
[/quote]
</p>
<p>co-author a paper with a professor in a peer-reviewed journal</p>
<p>but you would almost certainly fail at doing that. in fact, very few undergraduates get that opportunity, even as advanced students, let alone freshmen. sure, it's more likely than curing cancer or causing world peace, but still have you ever even heard about a freshmen doing that? a sophomore? and even if you have, or can find some online, they're pretty rare cases, and i wonder if that would truly be the best use of the average person's time in the first year. setting oneself up to publish in the future? certainly, particularly if you're interested in academia or researching- that's a great idea. but publishing as as a freshmen? why not get settled in first before trying to play academic.</p>
<p>I'm a grad student, and it's hard enough to co-author with a professor.</p>
<p>what does it matter if thats not feasable for the average freshman, or even most if not all freshman to co-author an article with a professor in a peer-reviewed journal? the OP asked for posters wishful thinking and i described mine.</p>
<p>To be honest, if I could do my 3 years so far over, I'd have obsessed more about my GPA, aiming for a 4.0 instead of settling for A minuses. It opens doors for graduate school, employment, and basically everything. When you first start college, you think oh well nothing to worry about now, but employers/grad schools/internships,everyone cares.</p>
<p>CBrenn86,</p>
<p>The difference between a 3.7 and a 4.0 on the job market is very very small. You're better off spending that time working on research or internships or student organization involvement.</p>
<p>Very few jobs I've applied to have even inquired about my GPA. And for grad schools, the difference between a 3.7 and 4.0 is pretty negligible. At that point, what's going to tip your favor are GRE/GMAT/MCAT scores, activities, research, etc. </p>
<p>Seriously, the marginal returns from 3.5 and up are veeeeery small.</p>