UC and CCC classes. Comparing their difficulty.

Transfer Students UC Transfers
1

Hello folks, how is everyone doing?

As far as for lots of majors, the UCs want you to fulfill any remaining major-prep courses or pre-reqs within 4-5 weeks summer classes. But here’s the thing, you must complete them above GPA 3.0, at the UC you’ve transferred to.

In terms of difficulty, how difficult are UC classes?

Any thoughts or comments? :slight_smile:
Thank you!

2

My D is in her first quarter as a transfer student from a cc to UCSD. She will tell you that UC classes are hard and that the quarter system is fast. She also would say that she has great support from her professors and TA’s so far as she is adjusting to her new normal.

3

I took a major requirement at UCB last summer. I can attest to the difficulty, but classes are structured differently than CC classes. Lecture and discussion are made separate (lectures are given in relatively large lecture halls by the professor, and discussion sections are held by graduate student instructors in smaller groups). I found this much better for learning in general.

Classes are generally 3 units at CC, while they are 4 units at UC’s (because of the extra discussion section). As such, you will be required to do more work, and classes cover slightly more material (and are a bit more intense).

IMO, you will be less coddled at a UC than you are at a CC. You will not have multiple choice tests, and you will have to know the material thoroughly to do well on exams.

Depends on the major, though. I hear that UCB’s CS classes are notoriously difficult, I don’t think much can prepare you for that.

4

I think it depends on major. Obviously, any weeder class that is a pre-req will be super-hard because its purpose is to weed applicants out. And, of course, one can assume STEM will be tougher. My daughter is in Media Studies at Berkeley (granted a less-tough major). She says her CCC prepared her well. A bit more reading and general studying, and more papers, and things go faster. Each class starts a new topic - there isn’t a kind of rehash that a CCC might have week to week. But she is remaining mostly comparable to her CCC grades - about a minus sign difference. It’s still early in the game, of course.

They have a student learning center with essay and research workshops, which have given her a lot of pointers. And she says, thus far, all her GSIs (TAs on other campuses) have all been super-supportive, saying their jobs are to aid the student in doing the best he or she can. They aren’t tough or mean. I don’t know if this is a campus-wide mandate or she just got lucky.

5

“She will tell you that UC classes are hard and that the quarter system is fast”
“…and more papers, and things go faster.”
" I hear that UCB’s CS classes are notoriously difficult, I don’t think much can prepare you for that."
“You will not have multiple choice tests, and you will have to know the material thoroughly to do well on exams.”
“- there isn’t a kind of rehash that a CCC might have week to week”
“any weeder class that is a pre-req will be super-hard because its purpose is to weed applicants out”

----GASP.This isn’t happening.Yells

Thank you all three. These are really golden information. I just realized that I need to work as much early as possible to be prepared for UC.

  1. Classes are fast.
  2. Large student numbers in the lecture hall. Discussions with Graduate students.
  3. Weeder class - UCB CS classes(STEM) are tough- will try to knock me off the campus.
  4. Graduate TAs are helpful. There are resources to help you- Learning Center/Workshop/TAs
    Even UberNietzsche agrees to all of these.

Thank you very much. Without all these help- I would’ve been very, very lost.
:smiley:

6

What is your major, @sodoge? Because all my daughter’s tests, including midterms, are multiple choice (psych, etc). I think it depends on subject matter. (Philosophy might be harder to pull off.) One of her psych classes doesn’t even have any papers, but of course in some ways the grading is more intense because it’s all based on midterm, final, and a few quizzes.

7

I am planning to apply as Computer Science(B.A.) at UCB and UCLA as Statistics (B.S.) major.

For now there are two plans.

  1. Apply to UCs on my second year as Computer Sci/Stats major - then get Bachelor - then move on to Graduates for PhD.

  2. If plan 1 fails (nooo), I would apply as Computer Engineer majors at both UCs - then graduate as Bachelor- move on to Masters Degree (technician field).

(Also for USC- I am going to apply as Computer Science major)

8

That sounds like a good game plan and it’s nice that you have a contingency.

9

Thank you. These are just some thoughts. I do not know what will happen in the future :smiley:

10

@lindyk8 Oh, that’s interesting. That makes sense - I took a psychology prof who taught both at Cal and my CC, and his exams were multiple choice. I was under the impression that most weren’t, but given that I’m only roughly familiar with a select few majors at Cal, my being incorrect isn’t at all unlikely. It makes sense that hardcore humanities classes won’t give MC exams, (philosophy), while social sciences often do have them. Good to know - depends on the class naturally.

11

@goldencub, my daughter said that every teacher she has noted the time commitment of dealing with tests that people answer via writing. They like those scantrons or whatever they’re called because it’s an easy turnaround. Having said that, she did mention one or two tests having a few fill in the answer with a sentence or two sort of thing.

12

@lindyk8 That’s interesting. I believe that the Philosophy department (and I’m sure other similar departments) rely heavily on the GSI’s to grade papers/exams. The professors don’t grade anything, to my knowledge - or close to nothing, if there is anything at all.

13

@goldencub one of my daughter’s classes, the prof is grading (no GSIs), but the others have GSIs. But they’re really big classes and maybe it’s just a headache overall. I really don’t know. And I will say - blue books, which we always used - OMG! Trying to read the writing. Kill me now, haha!

14

@lindyk8 I love blue books, for whatever reason - just had an exam in one the other day, actually. I wrote 4 and a half pages in an hour, and I’m pretty sure it’s near impossible to read.

15

I rest my case, haha.

16

You can preview them online to prepare for them.
http://cs61a.org/
http://www-inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs61b/fa15/
http://www-inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs61c/fa15/
https://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs70/fa15/

17

Wow, thx for that @ucbalumnus !

18

WOW Are these free? ? Generous UCB!!!

19

As a Econ major minoring in Math at Berkeley:

(In my humble opinion of course…)

  1. A lower division course here at Berkeley is only slightly harder than its CCC equivalent. The difficulty jump that transfers experience is primarily due to the increased depth in material between lower division and upper division courses rather than the jump from CCC to UC. I also found that this lower / upper division difficulty jump is significantly more pronounced for STEM majors than Humanities majors.
  2. Us transfers are absolutely lucky to be able to take our "weeder" courses at the CCCs. The competition for grades in most weeder courses I've seen is insane with professors introducing artificial curves or ramping up exam difficulty just to separate students when final grades come around. Getting into some of the difficult majors with GPA requirements is much easier as a transfer than as a freshman admit.
  3. I find that with technical courses here at Cal, more often than not, the top grades are pretty much handed out even before the first day of class because there is a very distinct split of students with extensive prior preparation and minimal to no preparation. The "A" students here seem to know the course material from outside learning (MIT Courseware, Itunes U, UC Webcasts, Youtube, etc.) or practical experience (Job, Internships, Personal Projects, etc.) even before taking the course and the rest of the students who step into the first day with little to no outside preparation are just fighting for B's, C's, and (sometimes) D's.
20

Thank you GoldenBear. I extremely agree on number 3. There are students who are just legendary. Those students achieve A when no one else even dream of passing them. Thank you very much!!