<p>I've been having concerns because i know someone who goes to cal and has been constantly whining about not being able to get into certain classes that she needs credits for</p>
<p>how can i avoid this?! does it help that i already know my major? i just don't want to sign up for a class come next year and have to suffer miserably because it's already full. =(</p>
<p>Well, you just have to hope that by your Phase 1, the class that you so desperately need has open seats. The other option would be speaking to the professor and explaining your situation.</p>
<p>Some waitlists work out, some don't. For example, I was #152 on a waiting list for a 700 person class and got into the class by luck.</p>
<p>Note that this doesn't happen all throughout your time at Berkeley. Look at the fall schedule of classes from 2007 -- you'll see that the overwhelming majority of classes don't even have a waitlist. And even then, many of the waitlists aren't updated (e.g. a waitlist says 2 when there are 12 more spots, and those 2 most likely got into the class). This makes sense, considering that Berkeley offers 3,500 courses to its undergrads (and another 3,500 to its grads).</p>
<p><a href="http://schedule.berkeley.edu/srchfall.html%5B/url%5D">http://schedule.berkeley.edu/srchfall.html</a></p>
<p>In addition, some make Berkeley's classes out to be worse in size than they are -- only ~5% are over 100, and more than 60% are below 20. Berkeley doesn't release class subsections, but I daresay they're probably all pretty small for the most part (that's the whole point of a subsection).</p>
<p>I don't think it's really that bad. You will be able to get into the classes you actually NEED but maybe not at a time you would prefer. Ex, a lot of classes that people NEED start at 8 am so usually there is no problem signing up for those.</p>
<p>at the beginning of every semester, enrollment in courses are highly inflated due to shop-n-drop of courses. it's not a big deal at all for most people.</p>
<p>It's never been a real problem for me. I have been waitlisted before but got in fine. General rule is the waitlist will move until 10% of the class size.</p>