<p>So elite, </p>
<ol>
<li><p>would you recommend I put classes in my cart so that when i attend soar it will be ready for them to check out? Or will we cover that there?</p></li>
<li><p>will Soar cover all of this as you are covering with me? Such as what classes I need to take, and where to find what classes are prereqs of eachother.</p></li>
<li><p>Dumb question, where do I park when i attend soar? Do i need to pay? Should I get a parking pass right now or wait?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>@csulb12345, i know for sure that when you get your SOAR confirmation letter in the email a couple weeks before the soar date, theyll give you a one day parking permit that you can print out.</p>
<p>i would definitely recommend putting some classes into your cart to be ready. they will definitely go over quite a bit, but quite honestly, soar was mainly done by people who have no connection to your major. when you get back from the lunch break an advisor from the department will talk to you about similar things i have told you. it will be either Teagle, or Dr. Tobadazeh(or something like that). you might get him to initially sign off on some classes . once he talks to you, he goes over it quickly and you then sign up for classes. </p>
<p>Heres my BIG suggestion (for everybody): if you want to be sure you get your classes, bring a laptop. the reason is, if you dont have one youll be rushing over to the horn center to use a computer there. if you have a laptop you can open it up and connect to beachnet which your advisor is talking and potentially sign up for classes way ahead of everyone. saw some other people do that last year and they definitely got first pick of the soar attendees.</p>
<p>
Do you just need your campus ID and the same password as for my.csulb.edu to get onto the net?</p>
<p>Also, does Teagle mostly work with transfers? Or would us FTF’s be running across him too?</p>
<p>yes for beachnet, you just need your regular log in credentials.</p>
<p>as for teagle, no you will not run into him. those posts were mainly in response to csulb12345. teagle is the mechanical engineering adviser. so unless you are a ME, you wont be seeing him. however you will have your own adviser for your major.</p>
<p>@EliteToast Thanks. Sorry if I didn’t clarify – I’m ME, but an FTF. Does he work with lower division ME majors?</p>
<p>ohhh okay, yeah he will be your advisor then. not sure if he will be at your soar date or not since you guys have a much more clear path on what to take. however when you get advising you will go to him! he teaches a ME 101 class i believe and he would be a fun guy to take it with. so if you get the chance take his class. hes a total badass, i ran into him at starbucks one time before work and we just talked about triathlons for a while just hanging out. very cool guy. honestly one of the best advisers at the school. be glad your not a CE major, i hear horror stories about their adviser.</p>
<p>I’m in the FEA program under Narrative Production and we take (about 40 students) a specific set of classes each semester so does that mean it’s guaranteed or do I still need to make sure I get into them?</p>
<p>@elite Hmm… What if say… I didn’t complete all the GE’s? I’m missing a few like social/arts/etc. but I finished all major pre-reqs for EE? I looked at my “transferred credits” report thing and I have a bunch of red blocks on it (They exempted biological sciences but I just took that in spring! What a waste of time…). I’m just worried about spending too much time after transferring because I’ve already spent a lot of time in my CCC just trying to figure out what I wanted to major in :(</p>
<p>@lakerfan: i couldnt comment on that because it seems as if your major is a special case in terms of class format and sequence. i could see your major adding sections to accomidate for transfers.</p>
<p>@derangedcorgi: my advice: dont worry too much about the time it takes you to graduate. I see too many engineers who are in a rush to graduate, so they take as many units as they can and constantly stress about graduating on time and are overloaded in their classes. My approach? if it takes me an extra semester to graduate because i took my time and learned the material, so what? taking the right load of classes not only allows me to work my internship which is setting me up with a job the minute i get my diploma, it also allows me to enjoy being a student at long beach. (background: took me 3 years at CC and will be 2.5-3 at long beach)
so my advice: get your major classes done and grab one or two ge’s a semester to lighten your load a little bit. youll thank yourself when midterms and finals come around and at MOST youll graduate a semester later than your peers. Whats the worst that can happen? you get an extra 6 months to figure out where youre going to work!</p>
<p>@elite thanks for the wise words! :)</p>
<p>So I went to CSULB today for my SOAR appointment (FTF in ME) – all went very smoothly. Turns out that even though I brought my laptop I couldn’t use it to register, but it was no big deal. I’d already picked out my classes and had them in my shopping cart on MyCSULB, so finalizing it was really fast. Got a schedule that really works for me as a commuter – English 100, Calc 1, History 101, Engineering 101 and MAE 172 (Engineering CAD) all fit into three days, and the commutes are at good traffic times.</p>
<p>A couple of things I didn’t have time to ask:</p>
<p>-- For most of the classes, there isn’t even a teacher assigned yet, and no textbook info. At Long Beach is it important to have all the books by the first day of class? Or do some teachers not even announce the required texts until class begins? Is it common to hold off on buying books (some students say might be thinking about changing their schedule after trying classes out)?</p>
<p>-- MAE 172 is supposed to be two hours of seminar and three hours of lab. For the one I went with, the hours and location for the seminar were shown, but the lab was just listed as “TBA.” Do these “TBA” time slots usually get announced before classes begin? Or do professors usually announce TBA labs (or give options for them?) after classes begin?</p>
<p>Did you have to pay for tuition before SOAR? Or do you do it after? My date is July 10th for Health Science, and I’m lost on what to do next!</p>
<p>You pay for tuition during a period after you register (or after a certain date if your funds all come from financial aid).</p>
<p>First off, congratulations on registering and welcome to your path on becoming a Mechanical Engineer! The road will be tough and youll seriously consider changing your major; but it all builds the character that an engineer needs to be successful.</p>
<p>To answer your questions:</p>
<ol>
<li>Unfortunately thats a problem I have found. The teachers will get announced eventually but you may not know for a while. Dont worry about books just yet. For a class like Calc, youll need your book right away to do assignments so get the book when you can. As for Engr 101 and MAE 172 those arent as essential. you can easily get by without the book for the first week. Youll really enjoy 172 and I honestly think it will be one of the more important classes youll take. One word of advice for that class: The 3d modeling is not the most important aspect at all. Converting that to a 2D drawing which will then be used to machine a part is absolutely important. Using the correct tolerance and standards are vital keys for an ME. (source: 40 hours a week at my internship)</li>
</ol>
<p>Other than that im not sure if i can speak for the book situation in your history and english classes but i imagine youll be fine.</p>
<p>Your professors will all eventually post the book you are going to be using… just not yet.</p>
<p>@EliteToast
Thanks, that’s all good to know. Appreciate the tips on MAE 172. I was only worried about the labs for that class shown as “TBA” in case there was any problem with them working with my schedule, but I’m hoping they’ll give some options so that the lab times work for everyone.</p>
<p>@piiinksugar
I couldn’t have paid tuition before I registered for classes, because it didn’t show up on my account on MyCSULB. It’s due (a) 30 days after you register for classes at SOAR, or (b) by August 14, whichever comes first. (Not sure how it works if it’s coming from financial aid.) About 24 hours after I registered, my tuition suddenly appeared as a balance due on my MyCSULB account. So I now have 30 days to pay it.</p>
<p>In terms of what to do next, if you want to get ahead of the curve, I’d suggest looking at the roadmap of suggested classes for your major even before you go to SOAR, then take a shot at looking at the fall 2013 schedule of classes to actually pick out your schedule. I did this over a couple of days right before SOAR, and put the classes I wanted into my shopping cart on MyCSULB. When I got to SOAR, the advisors just had to look real quickly at my schedule and approve it. Whereas other students who hadn’t done any of this in advance took a while to get their schedules figured out. It looks as though the roadmaps for Health Science are here (you have to scroll down):</p>
<p>[CSULB</a> 2013-14 Catalog - Undergraduate Degree Roadmaps - College of Health and Human Services](<a href=“http://www.csulb.edu/divisions/aa/catalog/current/roadmaps/chhs/index.html]CSULB”>http://www.csulb.edu/divisions/aa/catalog/current/roadmaps/chhs/index.html)</p>
<p>In terms of other stuff, final high school transcripts for first-time freshmen are due July 15, so you want to stay on top of that and make sure your school sends yours.</p>
<p>@EliteToast
BTW when you say the road is tough as an ME major and I’ll seriously consider changing, what part do you think is the toughest? Any particular classes or sequences of classes that everyone agrees are the hardest to survive? Or is it just everything put together that’s challenging?</p>
<p>When that feeling of wanting to quit hits you is when you fail multiple quizes and exams in a semester. However this will probably happen in your junior year alot so youll find everyone else is failing (yet you all still end up with B’s and C’s)</p>
<p>I think that your first two years will be fine. I mean physics, chem, and calc are difficult, but definitely manageable. I think in your junior year you really hit an uphill battle. Im finishing up my junior courses next semester and alot of it can be luck of the draw with professors, but some of those courses are ridiculous. Example: I took MAE 373 last semester (mechanics of deformable bodies) and the class average going into the final was a 57%. Rarely gave partial credit and very difficult quizes/exams. It may not be the individual classes that are hard, but I went from having only physics and calculus as my core difficult classes, to all 5 classes being of that level. I think the load just gets heavier. But I have always made sure I had a life outside of class, studying, and work… i think keeping yourself grounded and happy is key.</p>
<p>Thanks, that’s about what I suspected – looking at the roadmap, by the junior and senior year with the exception of a GE capstone here or there, it’s pretty much all ME all the time. For the time being I thought I’d more or less follow the 4-year roadmap, but leave some room to stretch it into a 4.5 or 5 year plan. I’d rather take it a little slower and increase my chances of doing well rather than try to race through and end up crashing and burning.</p>
<p>Sounds like you have a good head on your shoulders, youll definitely do well!</p>