Hi everyone, I have the opportunity to sign up for this online summer course. It’s 2 credits and is graded on a P/NP system. I’ve read through the syllabus, and it’s basically an introduction to the different courses and majors in L&S. There are a few short/medium essays and blog posts we’d have to write, but it’s mainly watching mini-lectures, doing quizzes, and participating in discussion forums.
I was wondering if anybody had experience with this or if anybody else is signing up, because I’m on the fence about signing up or not. Hoping to find some opinions on it!
(Not sure if relevant, but I’m an international freshman. I think signups are closed for non-international freshmen, but I’m not sure. I do know that the deadline for internationals is 11 June midnight. Not sure why they have a different deadline…)
Website:
summer dot berkeley dot edu/courses/online/ls1
I received that email too and I’m definitely curious, but I’m a January admit so I don’t know if I’m allowed to do it at all as I read something on the website along to effect of “this course is open to freshman coming in Fall 2017” so obviously I don’t really fall into that category…
It’s a rather pointless class if you ask me. You don’t need a course to tell you about “exploring the liberal arts”. All the information can be found in the Berkeley Academic Catalog and other students in the classes above you are a much better source of information on what classes are like and what is available to you.
@anxiousenior1 yeah, I get that it’s a pretty pointless course, but I thought it might be a nice way to start getting into the structure of uni courses and getting used to things like discussions, more essays, etc. etc. But again, I’m not sure.
I still don’t really think it’s worth your time. Online classes are almost nothing like physical classes, and you will most likely never take another online course again unless you go out of your way to find one. I’m not sure if you have to pay for this class, but if you are, it’s a waste of money. If you don’t have to pay for it, then I guess you don’t really lose anything except time perhaps. Just my two cents.
@anxiousenior1 You have to pay for the course (which is somewhere between $900 and $1000), but if you pass you get that cost refunded. I don’t see how anyone could fail the course since it seems really simple, but yeah, I’m not sure if it’s worth the time, either. Will sleep on it again 