<p>Is there anyone out there who can shed some light on the Cal Political science department for me? Who is actually attending please. </p>
<p>I am a CCC freshman looking at transfer options. </p>
<p>tell me about the professors, environment, fellow students (are they really that liberal?), quality.</p>
<p>Thanks much!</p>
<p>I find most of the professors to be pretty even handed. Considering the few classes that I took that focused on American Politics, it wasn’t super biased. You can tell the professor has certain views, but they don’t impose any beliefs on you.</p>
<p>For the comparative/IR/quant/theory courses I’ve taken, they’re pretty comprehensive. I think the classes are interesting and you do learn a lot. But I wouldn’t say that it’s amazing. Though I know that if you spend extra effort (going to office hours etc), you can get a lot more out of each class than I have. :)</p>
<p>I personally think that the classes are overcrowded and difficult to get into. But many classes are pretty decent. With moderately light work, it’s pretty easy to get a good GPA (if law school is what you’re looking at).</p>
<p>The one that I find annoying about PS at Cal is that the classes often fill up. I’m a double major and because my appointment was late I ended up being only able to take one PS class when I wanted to take two UDs. Besides from that minor annoyance, I really love PS.</p>
<p>The major isn’t too competitive. The classes are generally curved to a B or B- meaning that it’ll be easy to get those grades. You really do have to go above and beyond to get the A though. However, if you’re trying to go to law/grad school, the course load and work isn’t too heavy. I’d say it’s moderate and you can easily still get a good GPA if you put in that extra work. You can generally tell what your professors lean to ideologically but they never bring it up. All the classes where I’ve had political bias enter have actually been from non-PS classes. For example, I’ve had my Classics professor for Greek Civ start bashing Sarah Palin during the 2008 elections when the lecture was about Plato.</p>
<p>Yeah, the goal here is to go to law school. It says on the website that Cal students don’t get preference into Boalt, but it seems like you could get to know some of the admissions peeps over there or get to know the professors or something. maybe that wouldn’t help, idk. The classes are too full? That stinks. And Wyfind, is double majoring at cal too much? I was thinking maybe polsci and history or something. Both social science oriented. And I know this is probably a bonehead question, but do you get two BA’s if you double major? It seems like you wouldn’t.</p>
<p>You don’t get 2 BAs. I used to be a double major poli sci with a minor. And it was completely doable. If I just did just Pol Sci, I would have finished in 2 years. so with a double major, it would be 1-2 PS courses per semester + 1-2 other major courses + 1-2 breadths). A pretty light schedule considering PS isn’t that much work (and neither is history). </p>
<p>Also, most say that it’s actually harder to get into the law school of the school you went to as an undergrad. Cause of the sheer number of applicants from said school 
My advice is if baolt is you #1 choice, go elsewhere.</p>
<p>Okay. You would have finished your BA in two years? whaaa? What majors make good combo’s for double majors?</p>
<p>I would have completed my PS major in two years too but because my scholarship gives me four years, they told me to think about studying abroad or doing a double. I’m now doing a double of PS and Legal Studies and I’m going to study abroad next fall year. Doubling is very doable and I’ve found a lot of PS majors are doubles. Classes only fill up because I’ve been told by the department advisors that PS is the second biggest major in College of L&S, MCB apparently is the first. UDs are about 50 seater classes and can be as low as 20 or 30, which is great but a bit annoying sometimes if you’re trying to classes.</p>
<p>If you’d like, the Legal Studies major is a pretty good major. It’s the undergraduate department of Berkeley Law so all the professors are law faculty. It can be a bit annoying though. I’ve had one LS class where the professor was in this “I’m not going to change the way I teach for undergraduates” mentality. My final was 100% of my semester grade, which was definitely stressful. It’s a good way of getting recommendations and all of my GSIs have been 1Ls/2Ls or JSP (basically Law PhD candidates) and very helpful with law school admissions help if you’d like that. I just selected the major because I want to get into policy and find law classes interesting so I don’t have personal experience.</p>
<p>If you want to do History, I might advise against it. I’m pretty sure History requires a thesis. Just choose a second major, if you’d like, because you’d like it. My freshman and sophomore year GPAs were really poor because I wasn’t motivated and interested in any of the classes. Now my GPA has been picking up because I’m not doing boring pre-reqs or breadth classes.</p>
<p>How many units were you guys taking to get done in 2 years? I’m taking 21 next semester, but once again I’m at a CC which I’ll be at for 2 years, so I couldn’t really do it in 2 unfortunately haha. But DOuble majoring definitely sounds like a good idea to me. On average, how many units is a social science double major taking each semester?</p>
<p>I take between 15 and 20 each semester (including p/np courses). I declared Political Science Freshman year. And started taking upper divs right after I declared. If you come in as a junior transfer, it’s a different story. You basically have to take at least 3 extra semesters on top of that. (you need 8 upper divs) usually, you can only get into around 3 upper divs a semester, so you need min 3 semesters to finish you upper divs.</p>
<p>So I would try for a single major first and focus on your GPA. Also, it gives you room to try more fun classes :P.</p>
<p>I took 16 units every semester and declared my PS freshman year and LS double the beginning of my sophomore year. There are ways to get through the major faster like the fact that you have to take one class from each specialization and a certain amount of UDs. What I did was I took PS1-3 and a UD from international relations and political theory so I can hit two birds with one stone. </p>
<p>I have been taking as low as 14 units and no more than 16 units each semester. The most units I’ve taken was 18 one semester when I took a decal and PS179 for fun.</p>
<p>starrynights, since all my general ed (well hopefully most of it) will be done, couldn’t I come jubior year and take 3 upper division classes for two different majors then? so 6 total</p>
<p>No. The reason people don’t take more… is because you only have 10 units for phase 1. Meaning you can only get into 2 upper divs (3 if you’re lucky). So it’s not the matter of if you want to take more, it’s a matter of if they let you take more.</p>
<p>Also, college isn’t like CCC. Don’t think about taking 6 classes until you’ve taken 4, 5, and 6. 6 classes is 24 units, which may sound okay in CCC terms… but is not okay in Berkeley terms (I had a 4.0 in CCC). My suggestion is even if you think you can do it, take 16 units to start. Then take 20 then take 24 and work your way up. (the max I ever took was 20… the difference between 16 and 20 is incredible. For instance, finals get squished together. 1 extra class means more papers, projects, midterms etc between the ones from you other classes, so you don’t get any breaks etc etc).</p>
<p>And since you want to go to law school, I would HIGHLY not suggest that path. Especially if you’re studying for the LSAT + doing some extracurricular along the way.</p>
<p>Do you think I could minor in something? or should I just worry about 1 major and LSAT?</p>
<p>Yes, a minor is good. A minor should be in a non-popular field (so you can complete the courses in time… aka something you can phase 2).</p>
<p>Thanks so much for the input!</p>
<p>I’d probably do a minor if you don’t double. You will not be able to get into more than two PS classes at a time because all of them fill up during the first phase of appointments. I got lucky and was able to take three because one of them was a LS cross-listed with PS next semester. The PS major is only about eight classes, if I recall correctly and you’ll want to take at least 13 units each semester because it’s the minimum. The minor or second major will help you fill up your schedule, especially since you won’t have those annoying breadth classes to take and you only need to take 1 AC class as your non-major requirement otherwise.</p>
<p>what does AC stand for? oh and do you know if transfer students get the same amount of priority (as far as registering for classes goes) as juniors who have already been at the school?</p>