<p>Thank you! Wow, that sucks. It seems like transfer students get the shaft…again.</p>
<p>Well, they give you the opportunity to declare at CalSO if you’ve met the requirements, so if your pre-req isn’t one that prevents you from declaring then you’ll be able to sign up for upper division right away. Some pre-reqs don’t actually stop you from declaring. There is one lower division pre-req that poli sci people have to take at Berkeley, so I assumed that I would have to wait until I completed it this fall, but apparently I was wrong. I was able to declare my major at CalSO, so…good luck.</p>
<p>Though I must admit that some parts of Calso was unnecessary, I still had a wonderful time. I highly recommend sticking through the whole twelve hours if you aren’t extremely fatigued of course. Calso really comes down to what you make of it. This means that if you attend the day just to get information, it will be a long day for you; however, if you really engage with fellow transfer students, it can make the experience so much more worth while. Right from the beginning I had a wonderful twenty-three year old student counselor/guide, and we hit it off right away. During informational tours, I talked to my group members and sometimes we ended up ditching some lectures and just chilled outside of the building and chatted up. You will have a thirty minutes of lunch or so, and more chance to bond with people in a truly relaxing atmosphere. I wasn’t embarrassed to be a transfer student, nor was I treated differently by other Cal students for being one. I had cute sophomore year students walk up to me, while sitting in an auditorium, just to introduce themselves and find a little more about one another. As you can tell by now, I absolutely love women and therefore took extra efforts to get to know as much as I could =]. Beside the positive social scenery, the information the event gives you is just absolutely wonderful. Ranging from answering questions about financial aid, housing, and majors, they answer practically all of your questions and offer amazing career opportunities regardless of your major. It was reassuring to know that regardless of how uncertain I was with my future goals, they were still going to offer one of the most abundant connections with employers, to internships and job opportunities. And although I was so sleepy at the end of it all, almost incapable of driving back to my house, I felt for the first time in my college life, truly happy. I guarantee you will not regret sticking through the whole event, as you’ll truly be able to realize why Cal is such an awesome school!</p>
<p>Dem Bones…why weren’t you able to get your Cal One card during your break or the free time they give you to explore different departments? They give you time in the middle of the day to go and check out different departments, both my husband and I used the time to check out F/A , sign lease agreements in housing and get our Cal One card. </p>
<ul>
<li>For those of you who do not want to sit through all of the lectures, you can look at your program schedule and after you have met w/ your advisors you can see what time each lecture starts/finishes…we just hung out on campus during some of the lectures later in the day and right before the lecture ends we come back to the lecture hall and sit in the back.</li>
</ul>
<p>I didn’t try because I thought the “options” would provide better info. Anyway even better, get the Cal 1 Card and go. I don’t think there is one thing in the second half of the day that’s worth sticking around, unless you enjoy incessant clapping. I don’t think that I’ve clapped so much in my entire life. All the info is online already. They really could have had the whole thing over with in about 2 or 3 hours. Check-in, welcome speech, advisers, and then end it. They drag everything out into one big cheer fest, and everyone asks redundant questions. </p>
<p>I will agree the exterior campus is nice, but the classrooms are so worn. The city of Berkeley is still just as much of a crap hole as I remember, and the bums are more numerous and vagrant than ever. I think even the students at SFSU have a better social scene. The rumors that very few good looking girls go to Berkeley doesn’t do the situation justice. I wish the Peninsula had a UC other than UCSF.</p>
<p>I found the major advising to be quite helpful. did anyone actually declare their major at cal so?</p>
<p>Major advising was excellent. They went in depth into courses, talking about the strengths of instructors, what courses were being canceled in the future, and which courses would be available in the fall only. They answered every question thoroughly. I declared.</p>
<p>I go to CalSO . . . ummm . . . whatever date next Wednesday is. Okay, some questions for those who have done it already:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Don’t care about socializing. Don’t care about seeing the campus. Just want to get some info about my major, register, do anything else convenient and necessary, and go. How long should I plan on staying?</p></li>
<li><p>Do I REALLY need to get there at 7:30? Is there parking available, or am I going to have to leave my car in some weird spot that gets it towed? Also, where do you go once you’re on campus? Just follow everyone else? </p></li>
<li><p>Am I supposed to bring a picture for the Cal 1 card, do they take a picture, or is there no picture involved?</p></li>
<li><p>What DID you bring? I know transcripts. I know a TOOLS classlist if you’re in L&S. What else? Will they give me a lot of stuff to carry around? </p></li>
<li><p>So . . . did you find it easy to figure out what classes to take and how to register for them?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Anyone know if I can switch majors before Calso or while at Calso? (I’m trying to major in something in a different college; trying to change from CNR to L&S)</p>
<p>FeeFee:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>You can leave after you finish major advising, which was 10:45 - 12 I think. Just get your Cal 1 Card on your way out. Your registration code will be up on calso.berkeley.edu, so you’ll be able to register at home on telebears. So 7:30 - 12, 1 if you stick around to eat your lunch. The sandwich wasn’t that bad for how it looked. </p></li>
<li><p>You should try and get there around 7:30. Between 7:30 - 7:45 at the latest. There is free breakfast too, but it’s a kinda long walk after the initial check in, which already takes some time due to lines, and the welcome address starts at 8:30.</p></li>
<li><p>They take your picture there. </p></li>
<li><p>Other than what you mentioned bring a backpack. They give you some folders and a book that I had to carry around.</p></li>
<li><p>Yes, very simple. You’ll figure it out.</p></li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li>Don’t care about socializing. Don’t care about seeing the campus. Just want to get some info about my major, register, do anything else convenient and necessary, and go. How long should I plan on staying?</li>
</ol>
<p>If that is all you want then you only need to stay until lunch which is when all the major advising is done. You can get your Cal1 Card on your own and get your advisor code by logging into calso.berkeley.edu</p>
<ol>
<li>Do I REALLY need to get there at 7:30? Is there parking available, or am I going to have to leave my car in some weird spot that gets it towed? Also, where do you go once you’re on campus? Just follow everyone else? </li>
</ol>
<p>You have to check-in and check-in closes by about 8:15am, so yeah, you need to get there early. In the confirmation email they tell you where to park (its $7) and it also tells you where to meet (Unit 3).</p>
<ol>
<li>Am I supposed to bring a picture for the Cal 1 card, do they take a picture, or is there no picture involved?</li>
</ol>
<p>They take your picture.</p>
<ol>
<li>What DID you bring? I know transcripts. I know a TOOLS classlist if you’re in L&S. What else? Will they give me a lot of stuff to carry around? </li>
</ol>
<p>I’m in COE and I did NOT need my transcripts, but I guess it’s different for the other majors. Really, the only thing I needed was my ID and the papers they sent on the flash drive (student policies and the classes I picked for the advisor to approve). They give you a grip of papers to carry around, but they’re not heavy.</p>
<ol>
<li>So . . . did you find it easy to figure out what classes to take and how to register for them?</li>
</ol>
<p>I figured out what to take before I got there, so I’m not sure about that. And using Telebears is super easy. </p>
<p>All in all, if you do your research CalSO is pretty useless. You should plan to be there at least until noon for major advising. Everything else you can find out/do on your own.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info on CalSO. My friend who got in last year told me to avoid it but I might just go to get my head straight on my major. </p>
<p>I’m currently in PoliSci but I’ve been thinking of switching to history (giving my parents a headache either way…) and I just did the Tools thing. So the class list they said to print out, what is the purpose of it? I don’t believe I’m enrolled in them…is it just so that the counselors have an idea of what I found interesting?</p>
<p>Also anyone got a book in the mail from the L&S Department? Omnivore’s Dilemma? Anyone know whats with that?</p>
<p>Also what’s the question builder? There was a box at the end of Tools where it was like “print out your class list and question builder” I only printed out the class list, when did this qb thing come up?</p>
<p>Niners-Why don’t you just double major? Berkeley makes it really easy since most majors only require 30 units. You will need 50-60 more to graduate anyway.</p>
<p>SkWz,</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure you can change at CalSo since your switch isn’t into anything impacted. (From what I’ve heard L&S is pretty easy to switch into) However, I think you should call your admissions officer to confirm this.</p>
<p>well KC, I have actually considered that. I think I would feel more comfortable talking to an adviser about this before I ultimately decide though. Perhaps I should switch it up and minor in polysci. Iono the feasibility of that though. </p>
<p>aggh. I can’t wait til I’m actually going to Cal. All these uncertainties are annoying.</p>
<p>Dem Bones/other Poli Sci majors,
Was that major prereq you were referring to - Poli Sci 3, the Cal version of Statistics? Can we really skip that? I suck at math and would love to avoid it, lol.</p>
<p>And other CalSO people,
what do you guys do after 12 or w/e that is so useless? do you guys like just tour the campus?</p>
<p>Yeah, I was talking about Poli Sci 3. You can’t skip it, but you can declare your major without taking it. You just have to complete the class at any point during your time at Cal. I was just under the impression that because it is a lower division course and a requirement that we would have to complete it in order to declare the major. My CalSO counselor (which is a student guide for the day) said it isn’t too math intensive though. She said it was just really boring. The advisers said that Poli Sci 3 is available every semester including summer, so you can work it into your schedule at your convenience. They actually recommended not taking it the first semester for some reason. </p>
<p>After 12 you eat lunch, then you listen to a couple speeches. One is transfer students talking about their first year. Then at 2:30 you get to choose two presentations that you want to go to from either the career center, the financial aid office… and others. They just handed out pamphlets and talked about stuff that you can find online. Those are 30 minutes a piece. Then you get a presentation about health and safety where the UC Berkeley PD talk about how to not get raped or robbed, and the people from the Tang health center talk about the student insurance plan. That’s like 40 minutes. Then at a little past 4 you go on a tour, get your Cal ID, and register for classes. That takes until 6 when you go back for a 20-minute closing speech, and then you can opt to eat dinner there. At 12 you can just go get your Cal ID and take off or walk around freely on your own. You’ll be able to register from home.</p>
<p>Niners - the TOOLS class list is completely useless. Nobody mentioned it all day. I just think they want you to have an idea of what to enroll in so they can shuffle you in and out of the computer room where you register quicker. Plus after talking with the advisers I think I only signed up for 1 class that I had on my TOOLS list.</p>
<p>oh i see. thanks bro. so you are not set in groups, right?</p>
<p>also, how about the overnight program? anyone experience that yet?</p>
<p>Yeah, you’re set in groups. You are grouped by major. Groups are like 15 people big, and you have a student leading you around who is usually in the same major.</p>
<p>Oh yeah, if you are intending on leaving early bring or know your student ID number. They need it to make your Cal 1 card.</p>
<p>Oooh, thanks for all the info. So if I leave right after lunch (because, yes, OF COURSE I need my $110 sandwich), will I already know every class I need to sign up for because I’ve already met with my adviser? Basically, WHY do people stay 12 hours and register there, if they can just do it at home? Also, kind of a random question, but on the campus tour do they show you any housing?</p>
<p>EDIT:
I have a Cal ID number??</p>