<p>Ehh, so-so. Finished last semester w/ a 3.3--not gonna win me any accolades, but at the same time, my future isn't completely blown. I suppose I coulda been a little more true to the game and hit the library more often, but I wanted to keep some semblance of a social life. I was still pulling my community college tricks of writing papers the night b4 they were due and ditching lecture every now and then. In JC, I remember you could just go to most of the lectures, not even read the book sometimes, and still get a "C." This is not the case at the mighty Cal. But for this semester, I think I got that rectified-- I'm shootin' for a 3.7. I just took my first final today and I pimped it, so, we'll see.</p>
<p>You guys will get most of the info you need at CalSO, including a bunch of transfer student perspectives, so don't worry. I would suggest that you prepare to be humbled. You guys were probably among the smarter kids at your JC. That will no longer be the case once you come here. You will be small fishies in a very big pond of intellect. But the good thing is that you will learn a lot from your peers, and you'll be among other motivated students--not the idiots that smoked bowls in between classes everyday at JC. </p>
<p>Don't get overly ambitious at first--take the minimum of 13 units. Take one class you know will be hard (like physics, or calculus for example) and then fill out the rest of your schedule with classes you think will interest you (i.e. ones that will be easier). Don't try and get all brave and take 16 units like I did this semester--won't do that again.</p>
<p>Also, and this is key (they don't tell you this at CalSO): be sure to "overregister" so you can shop around for classes. Meaning, since you're allowed to register for 20.5 units in TeleBEARS Phase II w/o getting L&S approval, you should do it! And then during the first week of the semester, go to the different classes (that'll be a busy week for ya), look at the syllabus, get a feel for the Prof. and GSI. After the second week, drop the ones you don't like (or that look too hard) and keep the rest. Also, during Phase I which you will register for at CalSO, only register for classes you need to take that are popular and are likely to fill up quickly. Don't waste your CalSO registration on classes that nobody wants/needs. When you're looking for classes, many now have websites with their syllabi available for download which means you can start shopping for classes right now if you want. I always look for ones with short papers rather than long ones. I screwed up and took a class with a 15-pager this semester because I liked the prof. Writing that paper SUCKED! One 10-page term paper is better; two five-pagers is the best--shop for those classes.</p>
<p>Prepare to buy lots of books. Your days of having one class and one dinky little textbook for it are OVER! Most, if not all of my classes have required a thick reader--which usually run ~$50-60 each depending on how many journal articles they have in them. And then, you need books. This semester, for my LS class I had to buy 5 books, poli sci i needed 7, for Anthro I needed 8, and sociology i had to buy 4. Total, it was like six-hunsky for books and readers.</p>
<p>If you want to get A's, you need to do more than just skim your readings. You have to highlight, take notes in the margins, find flaws/weaknesses in the logic, and then get on your laptop and write a precis of what you just read and save it for the midterm/final so you can refresh your memory. Many of your classes are going to require that you read ~100 pages a week. If you take 4 classes, that's like reading a book similar in size to Dickens' Great Expectations every week. But if you're econ. or biz it's different--you're doing mostly doing problem sets, which while they're not loads of reading, they still rack your brain. And you're expected to do many of them on Excel. (Same goes for math and other technical majors). Mind you, this if you want to get A's. If you're cool with B's and C's then you can skim the readings, ditch lecture, etc. </p>
<p>That's all for now--can't let you know all the secrets. You guys owe me too much beer already.</p>