Size of class

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
1

<p>I intend to apply for EECS. This program is ranked top3 undergraduate by UsNews&WorldReport. Now, a lot of people complain about the size of the classes. What about EECS? How many people are there per lecture?</p>

2

<p>By a lot of people, how many?</p>

3

<p>lower div, 300-400. upper div, less than 40.</p>

4

<p>Is that for EECS? I'm probably going to do EECS @ Berkeley unless I happen to get rejected or I get accepted elsewhere. Are the classes that large though? I had the feeling that only premed classes were in the ~300 range.</p>

5

<p>300-400 - that's huge!</p>

6

<p>Yeah riyam got it wrong. The biggest lecture this semester is ~174 students.</p>

<p>Many small upper division lectures have <20 students. Small upper div lab sections have <5 students.</p>

7

<p>CS 61A (a lower division EECS prereq) has over 300 students.</p>

<p><a href="http://sis.berkeley.edu/OSOC/osoc?p_term=FL&p_classif=L&p_deptname=Computer+Science&p_presuf=--+Choose+a+Course+Prefix%2FSuffix+--&p_dept=&p_course=&p_title=&p_instr=&p_exam=&p_ccn=&p_day=&p_hour=&p_bldg=&p_units=&p_restr=&p_info=&p_updt=&x=42&y=10%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://sis.berkeley.edu/OSOC/osoc?p_term=FL&p_classif=L&p_deptname=Computer+Science&p_presuf=--+Choose+a+Course+Prefix%2FSuffix+--&p_dept=&p_course=&p_title=&p_instr=&p_exam=&p_ccn=&p_day=&p_hour=&p_bldg=&p_units=&p_restr=&p_info=&p_updt=&x=42&y=10&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>But I agree that the rest of the EE and CS prereqs generally have less than 200 students, and upper division courses rarely exceed 75.</p>

8

<p>Oh right. I only scrolled through courses under Electrical Engineering.</p>

9

<p>Wait... people get into EECS without having CS61A requirements fulfilled? THa mean that they didn't take APCS!! LOL, well I'm a professional software and web developer so the CS part should a breeze for me then.</p>

10

<p>Considering students apply for UCs during their senior year of high school, yes they haven't taken CS61A.</p>

11

<p>oh i was talking about lower div prereqs (like math 53 and such)</p>

12

<p>Expect courses that are prereqs to multiple majors to be over 300 students. Some are 800.</p>

<p>Example:
1500 chem 1A students broken into 3 lectures this semester.</p>

13

<p>Lower division math and science classes are always going to be large, in the hundreds. English classes are small, I'm in a rhetoric class with only 25. Also, after you get thru your freshmen year the classes get progressively smaller, since your going into upper-division which is more major-based.</p>

14

<p>I don't know why so many people fear 300-400 sized-classes. The class is only as big as the number of people sitting in front of you. Just get a good seat near the front.</p>

15

<p>Considering students apply for UCs during their senior year of high school, yes they haven't taken CS61A.</p>

<p>APCS or the community college equivalent = CS61A, and 61B as well, I believe.</p>

16

<p>you don't need much professor-student interaction in those 3-400 student lower div classes anyway. you get help from your GSI if you need any. plus, GSI's are the ones who grade your papers/tests and give you grades, not the professor. sections are no bigger than 40, so it really doesn't make a difference.
berkeley's a huge school so if we can teach the same material to 400 students just as effectively as we can to 40 students, we'll take the 400.</p>

17

<p>
[quote]
Wait... people get into EECS without having CS61A requirements fulfilled? THa mean that they didn't take APCS!! LOL, well I'm a professional software and web developer so the CS part should a breeze for me then.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>You cannot place out of CS61A except in very rare circumstances (e.g. you've taken an almost identical course--and no community colleges I'm aware of teach a 61A-equivalent course). APCS can place you out of 61B, but almost nobody places out of 61A.</p>

<p>Also, I wouldn't be too confident about breezing through CS. Being able to code and being able to get A's on tests are very different things.</p>