<p>Hey everyone! </p>
<p>So, I have been admitted to Berkeley's College of Letters and Sciences with an intension to major in Computer Science. I've been looking at so many things such as orientation days, computer science courses, what to do over summer, and the degree requirements at the College of Letters & Science—it's a lot to take in. I have quite a few questions and concerns:</p>
<p>1) When does UC Berkeley inform which AP Courses that I took will be accepted for credit? </p>
<p>2) I’ve been wondering where I should start in the progression of computer science courses—CS 10 or CS 61A? The only experience I have had so far involves the following:
-Taking a Java programming class in community college (Mission) during the summer of 2011
-Taking a class in 10th grade that had exploration of HTML, CSS and Python (not very in depth for these, though we did do turtle graphics with Python) as well as working with Lego NXT robots and animating in Alice.
-Exploring HTML/CSS/Javascript/PHP through Codeacademy</p>
<p>3) I’m not sure what to do regarding math. I took Calculus BC in junior year and scored a 5 on the AP Exam. Currently, I am taking Statistics, but I’m not sure if I should start with Math 1B or Math 54 at Berkeley since I took BC back in junior year. (I suppose the situation here is dependent on whether or not AP Credit for BC will be accepted)</p>
<p>4) I took what would be the equivalent of two years of high-school spanish (took courses at Mission college), so what can I do next to fulfill the foreign language requirement?</p>
<p>5) For the upcoming summer, I was thinking of taking courses. What type of course would be best to take over summer at this point?</p>
<ol>
<li><p>AP credits articulations should already be known… I assume this list is up to date: <a href=“University of California Counselors”>University of California Counselors;
And it’ll go up on DARS (accessed through bearfacts) eventually.</p></li>
<li><p>Technically 61A is an intro class, and some students take it without any experience and do fine. For others, CS10 is a better introduction. If you understand basic CS concepts (variables, loops, classes/objects, methods, etc) you probably don’t need to take CS10. Self studying python or watching the old 61A lectures could be helpful, but again it’ll depend on you. Webcasts are here: webcast.berkeley.edu</p></li>
<li><p>I think that satisfies it already?</p></li>
<li><p>If you’re feeling adventurous, 61A is offered over the summer… but then you’ll probably get hilfinger in the fall. Humanities are always an option, or you could take a technical class. Don’t take two STEM classes, it’ll trash your GPA. And you probably don’t want more than 8 credits, even 8 can be a handful over the summer. Otherwise, take the sort of class you’d take in your first semester, or part of a pre-req chain.</p></li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li><p>In addition to the L&S policy linked to in the post above, the L&S CS major accepts AP calculus credit for Math 1A and 1B, although it does not specify exact details. Contact the department to know for sure. The math department’s guidelines are that a 3 or higher counts for Math 1A, while a 5 on BC counts for Math 1A and 1B, but students should check old final exams before deciding whether to skip to take a more advanced math course.
<a href=“http://math.berkeley.edu/courses/choosing/ap-exams”>http://math.berkeley.edu/courses/choosing/ap-exams</a>
<a href=“Exams | Department of Mathematics at University of California Berkeley”>Exams | Department of Mathematics at University of California Berkeley;
<a href=“CS Major Information | EECS at UC Berkeley”>CS Major Information | EECS at UC Berkeley;
<li><p>If you have some programming experience, you are probably fine starting in CS 61A. But you can take a look at the first few lectures and assignments for CS 61A and CS 10 for comparison.
<a href=“CS 61A Spring 2014: Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs”>http://www-inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs61a/sp14/</a>
<a href=“http://www-inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs10/sp14/”>http://www-inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs10/sp14/</a></p></li>
<li><p>See point 1 above and the linked pages from the math department to figure out if you are ready to take Math 54. Also contact the CS department to check whether it follows the same rules as the math department for AP credit against requirements.</p></li>
<li><p>Unfortunately, there is no articulation for Spanish listed between Mission College and Berkeley at <a href=“http://www.assist.org”>http://www.assist.org</a> . You need to ask the Spanish department for placement recommendations. The following page also has some descriptions of each course.
<a href=“http://spanish-portuguese.berkeley.edu/undergraduate/course-offerings-lower-division/”>http://spanish-portuguese.berkeley.edu/undergraduate/course-offerings-lower-division/</a>
The L&S foreign language requirement is described here:
<a href=“http://ls-advise.berkeley.edu/requirement/fl.html”>http://ls-advise.berkeley.edu/requirement/fl.html</a></p></li>
</ol>
<p>Thanks for the answers! They really helped, especially for 1-4.
There’s another thing I realized: One of the conditions stated on the SIR made it seem as if we cannot take community college courses in the summer before the fall semester starts. Is that true?</p>
<p>Also, I am still wondering…as someone who is going into L&S CS this fall, what would be a good thing to do in the upcoming summer?</p>
<p>I’m not sure about CC classes, but if you really want to take summer classes you could look into the freshman edge program. Otherwise, relax, maybe get a job, maybe study ahead for your fall classes! I don’t think there’s really a “right” way to spend summer before freshman year, take it easy. :P</p>
<p>CC classes should be okay (i’m a senior graduating from Cal, and they said I’m not supposed to take CC classes at the same time…but whatever, I never turned in the paperwork for it haha). Other things you could do are do an internship, or prepare for CS61A. CS61A is hard, but if you have some coding experience, you should be fine. Some are able to pass the class without any coding experience…but those people are really smart. Since you have experience with codecademy, just start doing their python track (for cs61a, DeNero teaches using python…other professors use something else). </p>
<p>I’m a CS major. I strongly recommend skipping Math 1B. I’ve heard that it is a tough class with very harsh grading. Math 54 is not going to require much calculus (you will need to know some integration techniques from BC Calculus for the last 1/4 of the class on differential equations, though - but that alone is not worth taking math 1B for).</p>
<p>The ideal thing to do over the summer is an internship. Since those are hard to come by as an incoming freshman, the next best option will be to take 61A over the summer. Just be aware that means you’ll be taking 61B with Hilfinger in the fall, if you follow the normal sequence. 61B with Hilfinger is an extremely tough class, so you should take a very light courseload that semester. Err on the side of a coursleoad that is too light. You could postpone taking 61B until the spring, but I don’t recommend that, because 61B is considered a foundational CS course - it is the most important CS class you will ever take - taking it earlier opens up many many doors (e.g. internships).</p>
<p><a href=“https://schedulebuilder.berkeley.edu/explore/department/FL/2013/92”>https://schedulebuilder.berkeley.edu/explore/department/FL/2013/92</a> indicates that most lower division math courses average grades are B or B- (Math 1B and 53 are B-, while Math 1A, H1B, 54, and H54 are B). However, there may be selection effects in how strong the students are and what their previous preparation is in each course. For example, honors courses often have higher average grades, but that is likely because the strongest-in-math students choose them.</p>
<p><a href=“https://schedulebuilder.berkeley.edu/explore/courses/FL/2013/1456”>https://schedulebuilder.berkeley.edu/explore/courses/FL/2013/1456</a> indicates that Shewchuk’s CS 61B courses have higher grades than Hilfinger’s, but Shewchuk’s spring semester CS 61B courses have higher grades than Shewchuk’s fall semester CS 61B courses, probably due to differences in student strength (spring semester likely has the stronger-students-in-CS who went into CS 61A in the fall).</p>
<p>The reason to take CS 10 is if you feel you don’t know recursion that well … and if you want to get an easy A! To get full credit, take CS10 over the summer, then start with 61A in the fall. </p>
<p>Bumping this a while later, but…how can I contact the Spanish department for placement recommendations? I sent an inquiry about Spanish placement recommendations to the email listed at the bottom left peg of the Spanish course offerings (gspa@berkeley . edu) five days ago; no response yet. Is that the correct email?</p>