<p>Just curious. Besides submitting my transcript, are we supposed to know what classes we want to register for or something? I was thinking the advisors at orientation would pretty much guide us through that whole process. Or is there anything else we should be doing?</p>
<p>I was hoping on telling advisors my vague direction and they’d tell me what classes I should take.</p>
<p>It would be in your best interest to make a general outline of courses you want to take for Fall quarter. When I entered UCSC in 2008, I spent a few days looking up courses in the catalog during the summer. This helped A LOT because those who have no clue about courses might take a long time with the advisors (the line can be very long too). Those who already know what they are going to take can use the computers right away and register. I got all my classes primarily due to this, so I highly recommend it. </p>
<p>If you are an entering freshman: Usually you want to take 3 courses, 1 of them is your core course. For the remaining two, maybe take an intro course towards your major and then an easy GE class. Remember to check ratemyprofessor.com to see how students found some of the professors. I remember seeing a really interesting course in the catalog over the summer, but I looked on ratemyprof and nearly everyone complained that the professor was horrible and had strict grading. I found a better rated professor and got an A+ in the course.</p>
<p>If you are a transfer student, then you might want to have a small chat with your major advisor (you can do this before orientation). Otherwise you should pretty much know your course plan and should finish and remaining pre-reqs if necessary. Yet again, you might want to just take 3 courses to get used to the school.</p>
<p>Otherwise you don’t really need to do anything. Try to make some friends with your classmates before school starts via Facebook groups for entering freshman/transfers. I actually made great friends that way and still keep in contact with them. </p>
<p>Btw: If any of you are majoring in Econ/Business Econ, then I can help you out more with courses/professors/etc.</p>
<p>If you log on to your my ucscportal, there is a link on the left hand side that says orientation. If you click on it there is a bunch of information about the orientation and also a link that says schedules and more. If you click on that one there is a check list of things that you are supposed to do before, during and after orientation. I hope that helps.</p>
<p>hey midnight golfer!! can i get ur contact info? im entering as a econ major! 
thank you so much in advance</p>
<p>@macauboy, send me a private message if you have any questions about the major/courses/professors or any other general questions. I’ll be more than happy to help you out.</p>
<p>I say just planned out what classes you want to take and what time to take them because classes can fill up pretty quick. I don’t know about talking to advisers as I didn’t during orientation weekend because my major department meeting during orientation basically told me about the classes I should sign up for.</p>
<p>Remember to do your summer assignment freshman, lol</p>
<p>Not all core classes have a summer assignment :P</p>
<p>Can you get a hard copy of the course catalog or can you only find it online?</p>
<p>I don’t know if they do it anymore, but I do know that UCSC did send me a hard copy of the course catalog.</p>
<p>I’m wondering, will there still be room for the classes if we sign up during orientation? People make it sound as if people are ALREADY signing up prior to orientation, kinda making me nervous.</p>
<p>Hopefully there will be. Freshman get the least priority when it comes to picking courses. Seniors, juniors, and soph have already signed up for their courses last month and now you guys get the leftovers.</p>
<p>I assume we HAVE to get some courses, like intro courses and whatnot. I’m less concerned with class space if the issue is out of my hands. If I came to orientation and they said
“you should have signed up to this earlier” I’d be irritated. but if all out signing up is there, and we just got out of luck, I can accept that as just a fact of life.</p>
<p>Sounds like a ****load of fun to me.</p>
<p>I’ve HEARD that sometimes they take select courses and close the course, so freshman will have the chance to sign up. However, I’ve only seen that 2-3 times. There’s no way to sign up for classes before a student’s orientation date, so you’re just trying to beat other orientation students now. </p>
<p>In all honesty, it’s not that big of a deal. You’re essentially only signing up for 2 courses (the 3rd is your guaranteed core course), so you should be able to find open lower-division courses. If not, then just crash the class on the first day. Be prepared to have several backups as well.</p>
<p>Thank you, MidnightGolfer! Your posts are always so helpful!</p>
<p>I’m going to the second-to-last orientation, so I’m worried most of the classes will be filled. The flier that came in the mail said, “frosh will be enrolling in their college’s core course and two other 5-credit classes for a total of 15 credits”. Do we sign up for one semester (fall), or the full year? My teacher suggested courses to ease-into the college life (to work on time management, test our endurance, etc). I just have no idea what kind of courses I should take.</p>
<p>Does anyone know if the catalog for this year is out yet?
[The</a> UCSC General Catalog](<a href=“http://reg.ucsc.edu/catalog/]The”>2023-24 General Catalog) <–I checked the site, but there’s nothing</p>
<p>No prob! I’m procrastinating studying on my finals, so I’m finding out all types of ways to continue to delay my studying :P</p>
<p>UCSC runs on the quarter system (fall, winter, spring), so you sign up for 3 courses for Fall quarter only. I would follow that advice and take your first quarter a little easy. I’d take a core course, a course geared towards your major (one that isn’t too difficult), and then an easy GE course. Check ratemyprofessor.com to see how easy a course/prof is.</p>
<p>Use this website to search for classes (same one as your portal’s but you can’t register via this)- <a href=“https://pisa.ucsc.edu/class_search/[/url]”>https://pisa.ucsc.edu/class_search/</a></p>
<p>Do we have to re-register for classes every quarter?</p>
<p>And good to know, I think I’m on the second orientation date.</p>
<p>Oh, and since we have 3 courses per quarter, does that mean only 3 different classes every week? And they vary on meeting days (M, W, F or Tu, Th)?</p>
<p>Yup, you register for classes every quarter. Your sign-up date/time is dependent on how many credits you have.</p>
<p>You have 3 classes, plus any associate labs or sections. Most classes are M/W/F or T/Th, but as I have discovered some classes have odd meeting times. One of my classes next quarter is M/W. And someone I know in an art class has lecture only one day each week, but lab twice I week on top of that.</p>
<p>@MidnightGolfer
One of my friend said he took Chemistry 1A, Latin American/Latin Studies 80x, Merril 80x (what does the 80x mean?) and two 2-unit classes and had 19 units the first quarter. How do 2-unit classes work?</p>