Soliciting all you geniuses! (I am not trying to sell you anything)

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

<p>Hello. This is my first post, and I desperately need some intelligent people like yourself to weigh in on my situation.</p>

<p>I recently got accepted to the Fall Program for Freshmen, but I think I will go to community college to finish all the a-g courses and get more credit that way. When I attend Berkeley doing the Spring semester, I hope to be able to take (and survive) intro to business. My goal is to double major in business and statistics. With a few dozen credits already completed and 4 APs, I should have second semester sophomore standing. After reading all the other threads, it seems that Berkeley is so DAMN hard. I am good student with 4 APs and a 4.5 weighted and 3.9 unweighted with many community college classes done. Next semester, I hope to finish my R&C req along with some other reqs plus some math courses. To meet eligibility for stats major/min, I need calc I and II, multivar, diff equations, and linear algebra. I hope to take diff equations and linear algebra in CC where it is still easier than Berkeley.</p>

<p>Given my background, do you think that I should go to CC or should I attend FPF? At CC, I could get more reqs done with less sweat and tears while at FPF, I would make more friends before they are all "claimed." If I go to CC, I should clear all the a-g classes, so I avoid the weeder classes. What are any business/stat weeder courses (and profs) that I should avoid? Is stats harder than business? That's what I have assumed, so with all my credits I think I would still have to stay in Berkeley for 3.5 years.</p>

<p>Side questions: what is a good, inexpensive laptop for college? I was thinking of m11x or 1215n, but they are not college laptops. Do students generally have a desktop just in case if their laptops fail for whatever reason?
Do Berkeley students procrastinate like human beings or are they are simply a breed of homo sapiens 2.0 where they are can work all day without be tired?
What is studying like in Berkeley? I can memorize pretty efficiently, so is your grade based on how well you can recall things and apply them or is it based on how generous the prof is with his grading policy?
When you take a math test, are you required to reset your calc in case if you just put all your notes in the program section?</p>

<p>Most important question: how do you get into the mindset of a Berkeley student? With all the stories of cutthroat competition, you would have to be slightly insane to discount it as trivial. I feel fear and inferiority when I am pitted against such high caliber students even though I am probably slightly better than the average Berkeley student. After getting accepted to Berkeley, I was elated, but now I am questioning if suffering for several years is worth it. I got accepted by U of North Carolina as OOS, so I am debating whether to go their instead. It would be more expensive and probably take longer without my CC credits, but at least I would have time to actually SLEEP. I know that I can probably make it easily with a 3.0-3.3, but I'd have to work day and night for 3.5-3.9 GPA. I really want to get a distinction because I missed it during middle and high school with 1 B grade in both.</p>

<p>Sorry for my long post. I apologize in advance. I also want to thank everybody in advance in reading this and helping me out. I definitely appreciate any comments, suggestions, and advice from people who have actually attended Berkeley.</p>

2

<p>You should go to FPF as the experience is infinitely better than going to a CC. The difficulty of Berkeley pre-business is exaggerated. Not sure about Statistics.</p>

3

<p>tl;dr, but i did see this:

two ways to get over it: 1. convince yourself you’re the best, have high self-esteem, and work hard with the mentality “if i work hard i know i’m better than everyone else here” or 2. acknowledge there are many students here who may be better than you at some things and more competitive, but use that slice of humble pie to sit down and work hard and honestly FOCUS on what’s important to you or to improve on whatever it is you want to be the best at. </p>

<p>you said you wanted to graduate with honors (presumably “highest” – what kind of weak beginning goal is “high”?). so keep your nose down and make it happen. </p>

<p>either way, stay focused and stay prioritized, but don’t forget to enjoy college. 3.5-3.9 is attainable even with a life, just make sure you know there’s a time for everything. a “Render unto Caesar…” type of mentality goes a long way.</p>

4

<p>Thanks for the answers.</p>

<p>I have been debating whether to go to CC or FPF. I think I am going to FPF because Berkeley-level classes are simply different than CC. I will probably take calc II again because I took it last year in the summer.</p>

<p>What is 4 courses doing FPF like? Is it manageable? Is it like doing 4 AP classes? I hope that it would be that easy (calc AP, an easy history AP, a nice AP English class, and whatever science AP except chem). When talking about easy, I am talking about relatively easy compared to engineering, biology, and computer science majors.</p>

<p>Is all right if I take classes during the summer to fill my a-g classes? Is it fine to do online classes at an accreditted CC?</p>

<p>I appreciate all the invaluable insights that you have given me. Hope to collect more information.</p>

5

<p>Dude chilll. You’ll be fine. Berkeley is only reasonably hard and I am sure FPF is quite manageable if not downright easy.</p>

<p>It is a good idea to get breadths out of the way early on, either at a CC or your first year or two at Berkeley, just because by the time you are a junior/senior, you will find it pretty annoying to have to complete them (which is the boat I’m in right now).</p>

6

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<p>FPF offers UC Berkeley Extension courses. And many community college students transfer to Berkeley as juniors and do fine.</p>

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<p>If you AP Calculus was AB over a year, note that Berkeley math courses will run at twice the pace (but you should be familiar with that if you took a calculus course at a community college). However, if you did well in the community college equivalent of Math 1B (see [Welcome</a> to ASSIST](<a href=“http://www.assist.org%5DWelcome”>http://www.assist.org) if you are not sure), then why not go directly to Math 53 and 54 (though you’ll need to take them at a community college, not FPF, since FPF only goes up to Math 1B)?</p>

<p>The science courses in FPF are low level courses suitable to fulfill breadth requirements, and will probably be easier than high school AP courses, and much easier than the chemistry, physics, and biology courses that majors in those subjects will take.</p>

<p>If you decide to attend community college and want to take economics, be sure to take both micro and macro, since Berkeley Economics 1 includes both.</p>

7

<p>Thanks for the advice. I took calc II over last summer in 6 weeks. Is that the pace that Berkeley classes will progress at? Since I took calc last summer AND in 6 weeks, I remember next to nothing. Would you guys advise me to take Math 1B in FPF or just jump to the next math course?</p>

<p>Thanks for the help, guys. I really appreciate it!
As a reward, here is some relaxing music.
<a href=“http://www.newgrounds%5B/url%5D”>http://www.newgrounds</a> .com/ audio/ listen/ 352253</p>