<p>Hi, I'm an entering freshman, and I'm throwing around some ideas about my possible major. I was wondering if this is a doable combo. At first I was only contemplating Political Economy, but then Astrophysics seemed interesting too. Would I still be able to graduate in a reasonable amount of time (five years, with one or two summers)?</p>
<p>Would an Astrophysics minor be much easier if not a double major (my friend said that since the major was only a few classes more it was worth it)? </p>
<p>Would deciding to major in Political Science instead help at all?</p>
<p>My main concern is all the Math and Physics prerequisites I would have to take... I have a feeling they would fill up my schedule and basically force me to devote all my time to them.</p>
<p>And if this is possible, which classes should I take first semester? So far I have Poli Sci 2 and Stats 2, but that was before my Astrophysics decision. </p>
<p>I would have to essentially take Calc 1B, Physics 7A, Poli Sci 2, and Stats 2 - 16 units already. Is it better for me to not take Stats this semester, and take a DeCal/Seminar instead? </p>
<p>I know I asked a lot of questions, and even if you could just answer one or two of them I'd be thankful :).</p>
<p>Assuming that you have credit for Math 1A, the astrophysics major requires 54 total units, while the astrophysics minor requires 44 total units.</p>
<p>The political economy major requires 13 courses, or about 52 units. It also requires fourth semester foreign language ability, up to 20 units.</p>
<p>L&S breadth will require 2 R&C courses, or about 8 units, and probably about 3 breadths, or about 12 units.</p>
<p>Overall, that is 146 units to double major in astrophysics and political economy, unless you can place ahead in foreign language or R&C, or have scores of 4 on AP economics (both) or score of 5 on AP world history.</p>
<p>The political science major requires 48 units, but no foreign language beyond L&S requirements. Assuming 8 units of R&C and 12 units of breadth, that would be a total of 122 units for double majoring in astrophysics and political science.</p>
<p>Just wondering, but what do you want to do as a career?
If you don’t want an astrophysics career and are purely interested in it, in of itself, you could get a minor or just take a few elective classes in astrophysics.</p>
<p>I would also like to add that if you double major, you cannot stay at Berkeley longer than 4.5 years (9 semesters, summer doesn’t count), if you are at or above 136 units by the end of those years. If you are below 136 units, you can keep staying.</p>
<p>If you single major, you cannot stay longer than 4 years, if you are at or above 130 units at the end.</p>
<p>That being said, unless you have lots of AP credit, it will be prohibitively difficult for you to take 146 units by the end of college, and your GPA might suffer under the workload.</p>
<p>Furthermore, if you are concerned about getting a job after college or going to grad school, taking classes over the summer might be counterproductive because you could instead be using that time to do internships or research with professors.</p>
<p>I am unsure of my future career plans. As of right now, I was simply planning to keep an astrophysics career an option… I also don’t know what I would be if I were a Poli Sci major though…</p>
<p>It seems like my main problem is that it would take too many units to do both, right? My understanding was that those unit counts for majors (ucbalum) do not include things like Pre-requisites, right? So the total units needed would be a lot more…</p>
<p>That being said, it seems more beneficial to do a political science major if I plan to do a double major, since I could only place into a second level language. (this would also potentially free up space for elective classes and seminars and decals).</p>
<p>What do AP classes have to do with unit counts, even if I have a lot? The way the posts sounded made it seem like I have a problem with taking too many units, especially since those don’t figure prerequisites. I do have 30 AP units already, without including this year (I don’t know how IB gets credit, if I have a corresponding AP score).</p>
<p>It’s good to have diverse interests, but it really isn’t necessary to double major. I wouldn’t spend too much time worrying about it. If you take the beginning courses for each major then chances are you’ll eventually come to a natural decision over which one you like more.</p>
<p>AP/IB units don’t really factor into considerations of unit counts since they’re only used for calculating minimum units to graduate, not for unit ceilings. But it’s helpful to be able to skip prereq classes when on a tight schedule, however for L&S there aren’t many classes that AP credit fulfills, besides Math 1ab and Physics 7a for technical majors.</p>
<p>The unit counts listed above are approximations including both lower and upper division required courses for the majors.</p>
<p>AP credit can help you fulfill some prerequisites (Math 1A and/or 1B for astrophysics, Economics 1 and IAS 45 for political economy) or R&C, but will not count against you in the unit cap.</p>
<p>I thought about not majoring/minoring, but by the time I fulfill the prerequisites for any Astrophysics classes, I’ll already have invested so much into it, I might as well continue. To get to Astrophysics 7A, I need Physics 7A, which needs Math 5B. And then for more Astrophysics classes, I need even more math/physics. I guess if I could still do that, and only take basic Astrophysics classes…</p>
<p>That’s what I thought about AP credit… more or less useless. It’ll save me a few classes, but not much.</p>
<p>So I planned out my schedule a bit more, and discovered I could save a significant amount of time if I minored instead of majored in Astrophysics (25 units, because of not having to take some prerequisites). </p>
<p>Of course, if I end up loving Astrophysics, then I might as well make that my major anyway. </p>
<p>Majoring in Poli Sci will take 48 units, and minoring in Astrophysics will take 49 units (if what the general catalog showed was correct). This becomes a total of 97 units.</p>
<p>This also gives me time and unit space for L&S requirements, other classes, DeCals, and Seminars. If I feel like I need to graduate early, I do have my elective AP credits…</p>
<p>But as of right now, I can just aim for completing the Math 1A, 1B, 53, and 54 sequence and the Physics 7A, 7B, and 7C sequence, followed by Astrophysics 7A and 7B.</p>
<p>Minoring is fine. However, if, after a few classes, you end up not liking Astrophysics, don’t minor in it just because it only requires a two more classes and “I might as well.”</p>
<p>AP credits are very useful, they can get you out of more than just a few classes, depending on the specific type of AP credit (i.e Econ/EnglishLit or Lang/Foreign Lang/BC Calc are among the more useful ones).</p>
<p>Of course, I won’t force myself to do anything I don’t like. If it happens that it’s just too much for me, I’ll stick to my Political Science. </p>
<p>I actually already went to the course listings and department pages to see the exact counts that I would need haha - I included classes that I, specifically, would need/want to take, not just a general number. The reason the minoring unit count is so high is because of the Physics and Math coursework I would need to do. My plan depends on the courses not changing much… hopefully they won’t. </p>
<p>I hate to double post, but with Phase II starting, does anyone have any other comments? Should I start taking Calc/Physics this semester? Or try to fulfill college requirements? </p>