<p>I need to submit my SIR by tomorrow and I am leaning a little toward Berkeley after remembering that UCD has the dreaded quarter system and also because according to ratemyprofessors.com the “hardness” of professors isn’t all that much different between UCD and Cal.</p>
<p>So I love the area around UC Davis. However the quarter system scares me. I am used to the semester system as a transfer, I am a student that often flips through textbooks and gets a little upset when an interesting chapter is skipped, and I have a tendency to be overwhelmed easily.</p>
<p>UC Berkeley intimidates me in other ways such as how crowded it is.</p>
<p>It’s a little fast paced, but I don’t think you miss out on much material (just time to comprehend it). If you’ve taken summer classes think of it like a summer session plus an extra four weeks. There’s also not that big of a difference in student size between Davis and Berkeley. Only about a 3.5k difference. Now going from a school like UCSC to Berkeley (Berkeley has over 2x the amount of students that UCSC has) would be a big difference.</p>
<p>I am a transfer student about to finish my first year at Davis. I love the quarter system. Yes, you cannot procrastinate, but I love that it goes by fast as opposed to dragging on forever. The best part is that you get to take so many more classes in your two years compared to a semester school. I am an older student, primarily back at school for personal satisfaction and I love that I have 3 quarters in the year in which to take classes I need as well as some for fun. You need to keep up with reading and projects but I don’t find it bad at all. You need to accept that you are a full-time student and will not have tons and tons of free time but that would be true at Berkeley too. Go where you think you will be happiest and most successful. Do not let the quarter system define Davis. One impt. piece of advice: go easy your first quarter. Seriously, just take say 12 units. You can do more per quarter later but it great to have a relatively easy transition.</p>
<p>I’ve taken summer classes but only one at a time.</p>
<p>Everywhere I look everyone says the quarter system is poison for the stress-sensitive. But we are talking Davis vs. Berkeley here. However one small advantage the quarter system has is that you can take less classes at a time, like 3 classes per quarter instead of 4. Imagine how that is during finals to study for 4 classes at a time. </p>
<p>Also in upper division psychology classes it seems there are a lot of small classes, or am I looking at the review sessions?</p>
<p>The vast majority of students at UC Davis take 4 classes per quarter.</p>
<p>And the quarter system isn’t that bad. The only thing to keep in mind is that you need to hit the ground running. You’ll have midterms the third week of class. Pre-labs will be due the first week of lab. It’s possible to feel extremely far behind as early as week 2. If you’re not on top of your academics the day classes start (oftentimes before classes start) you’ll have a miserable quarter. Just don’t procrastinate, wherever you decide to go.</p>
<p>By the way, it seems like you have a lot of grievances about UC Davis. Please, choose where you want to go and don’t let others make the decision for you.</p>
<p>Actually I have a lot of grievances both ways. UCD has a better atmosphere, more small classes, less crowded, nice place, and I heard there is more professor accessibility, and there is more schedule flexibility such as having multiple classes instead of only having one class where everyone is shoved in.</p>
<p>Edit: I can pass if I take 12 units per quarter. 12 * 6 = 72, 72 + 8(summer session) = 80 quarter units. 80 quarter units + 80 quarter units(60 semester units from CC) = 180 total units.</p>
<p>Edit 2: Most Psych classes are 4 units each. 4 * 3 = 12.</p>
<p>Another thing: How much free time do you have for research, internships, clubs, activities, chilling out?</p>
<p>190 units not 180.</p>
<p>I took 16 units in winter quarter, and yet I had time to go to my internship every Friday afternoon and attend club meetings on Thursdays and every other Tuesdays (one of the clubs I’m in only meets once every other week). </p>
<p>I heard someone mention on the bus once that they had a friend who was taking 20+ units, worked two jobs, and still managed to get A’s in all her classes (apparently she was a pre-med student), be president of her sorority and was socially active, and the person said their friend was still happy.</p>
<p>As for the smaller Psych classes, they’re not necessarily small–they’re just broken up into discussion times, but the sections are the same. For example, there’s section A, but section A is separated into different subsections (A01, A02, A03, A04, etc.). All of section A has the same lecture time, but the discussion sections (the subsections) meet at different times.</p>
<p>Wait wait wait…sorry I haven’t had much sleep due to doing all this heavy duty research on both universities as if I had a final exam soon. 80 +80 = 160. ***** </p>
<p>But you need 180 units…hmm oh s*** But 60 sem unites is = 90 quar units.</p>
<p>Also is it hard to get into Psychology classes? I noticed there are multiples with sizes anywhere from 15-300 and even 60, 90, etc and it’s the most popular major.</p>
<p>Based on my roommate’s experience: yes. For example, in fall quarter, she was #37 on the waitlist for a Psych class that she needed to graduate, and there were many more after her on the waitlist (and instead of accepting people in order off the waitlist, she said that her professor instead accepted people off the waitlist who were 5th years instead). She ended up taking another class and retaking that class in a different quarter.</p>
<p>But because of the quarter system it’s easier to get classes that you missed right?</p>
<p>yes. Only exception is when you have required classes that are offered only once a year (Which isn’t a problem with Psych courses because many of them are offered every quarter, but it’s a problem for majors like Animal Science), so if you don’t get in, you have to wait another year to take the class (I’ve never had that experience, but I’ve heard of that happening to other people).</p>
<p>I think I’m going to pick Davis(I’ll let you know if my decision changes in an hour) because the scheduling is much better and it’s easier to dodge bad professors. At Cal it’s hard to get the good professors and sometimes you just have to take what’s there in order to graduate. It’s a shame because there are a lot of good ones, but at the same time a good share of bad ones and if you really need a class to graduate you just have to swallow it.</p>
<p>This past whole month I have been doing a lot of in-depth research on UCD, UCSD, and UCB(the past week only because of stuff) including reputation, administration, feel, classes, program, professors, accessibility, opportunities, difficulty, value, etc. I feel like I even know the professors of UCB and UCD already.</p>
<p>Well that’s the case with Davis, too, for those classes that only have one professor teaching them (for example, only one professor teaches my ANS 123 class that is required for all ANS majors, and he’s terrible at teaching. Since English isn’t his first language he often has difficulty trying to explain concepts to the class, so he ends up leaving the class extremely confused). You can tell what professors teach what Psych courses here: [UC</a> Davis General Catalog | Psychology (PSC) Courses](<a href=“http://catalog.ucdavis.edu/programs/psc/psccourses.html]UC”>http://catalog.ucdavis.edu/programs/psc/psccourses.html) If there are no names after the roman numerals (which indicates which quarter the class is taught; I = fall quarter, II = winter quarter, III = spring quarter, IV = summer session 1 or 2 or both), it means there are numerous professors teaching the course; if only one name is mentioned, that is the only professor who teaches the course. For example, PSC 113 is only taught by Dr. Schank (my roommate took the course either last quarter or in the fall and she liked him, so I assume he’s a good professor), no matter quarter you take the class in.</p>
<p>Well it’s too late now I’ve already submitted my SIR.</p>
<p>It’s worse on a semester system than a quarter system. I have carefully studied the schedules and catalogs already, and sometimes you do have the class taught by two different professors at the same quarter. That doesn’t happen at Cal or UCSD as far as I know.</p>
<p>@Sabotenderizer</p>
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<p>Huh? Tons of classes at UCSD are taught by multiple professors in the same quarter. I’ve had easily over a third of my classes be taught by multiple professors in the same quarter. I don’t know what schedules you were looking at.</p>
<p>In the same class or separate classes?</p>
<p>^I meant that a class (such as CHEM 6A) has multiple options for which professor teaches it that quarter and at different times. I didn’t mean that there are two professors taking turns teaching one class in the same classroom (although that occasionally can happen). Does that answer your question?</p>
<p>Yes.</p>
<p>I looked at two schedules for Psych upper division for UCSD and didn’t find that unfortunately. Maybe it’s a lower division thing. Anyway I dropped UCSD from my list because quarter system + calc/cogsi/other requirements would kill me.</p>