Surviving at Berkeley?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
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<p>Trying your best and getting a C, or even F: it happens, but you’ll be fine. This is why there is the grade replacement policy, where you can replace up to a total of 12 units if you fail a class (D+, D, D-, or F) and retake it for a letter grade. In the humanities, anything above a 3.3 is considered a good GPA, and in engineering, anything above a 3.0 is considered a good GPA. In high school, the same standard would be a 3.8.</p>

<p>Pace of courses: take your freshman year easy and get a feel of it. You can’t really go wrong with 12-14 units. With a light course load, you won’t be overwhelmed and you can use the rest of the time to figure out college, explore extracurriculars, and just get a feel of things.</p>

<p>My main bit of advice for incoming freshman: make friends and form study groups. It’s going to be difficult, and just like most things in life, you won’t do well if you try to tackle it completely by yourself. Remember to actually reach out to others in class and seek out friends and study group partners instead of waiting for stuff to “naturally” happen. Berkeley’s a competitive environment in the sense that if you don’t take those steps yourself, nobody will hold your hand for you, and you will end up falling really hard.</p>

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<p>12 units of in 3 courses which all have labs, large term projects, or lots of computer programming is likely to be more work than 16 units in 4 courses with no labs, large term projects, or computer programming.</p>

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<p>Thanks excelblue and whosthat1234! :slight_smile: I think I will try for Integrative Biology, maybe. :slight_smile: Supposedly, Public Health is the “easy” science major, but it’s also impacted…so a bit difficult to declare that major. :frowning: </p>

<p>I’m so excited! I’m going to the Overnight Stay Program - can’t wait! </p>

<p>Thanks again for all the advice, everyone! :slight_smile: Bumping this, also, for Cal hopefuls to see.</p>

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<p>i think doing well in AP classes and exams in high school + a high score on your SAT exams may be a decent predictor of how well you’re going to do at berkeley, granted you work hard. how did you do on those things?</p>

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<p>Uhm, I received 5’s on all the AP exams that I took. 750’s for Biology and Math 2 for SAT 2. HOWEVER, I had a low SAT score (compared to others), which was around 2050. :frowning: 700 Writing, 610 Reading (I know, very low), and 740 Math. </p>

<p>For some reason, I could never do well on my SAT. :(</p>