<p>Hello! I've been recently admitted as a political science major for Spring 2012 and plan enroll in FPF and i was wondering what the major is like at berkeley. How are the classes/teachers? Are there advisors that can help you complete requirements for law school? For FPF, how many units are considered acceptable? Is it possible to graduate in less than 4 years with AP credits taken into account?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>First of all, congrats on your admission!</p>
<p>While I’m not in political science, I have several friends who are in it, and they all love the program. </p>
<p>Political science is part of L&S, so you’re not officially in the major until you declare a couple years later.</p>
<p>L&S has a few advisors, so you can schedule an appointment with your advisor if you want to talk about requirements for law school. Even before you meet with one of those advisors, though, you will have CalSO, where you get to talk to a trained counselor who will help you pick out your first semester’s classes. There’s lots of people in PoliSci eyeing law school, so you shouldn’t have much issues in terms of advice.</p>
<p>I’m not too sure about FPF, but my general guideline is to take between 13-15 units your first semester. This gives you a decent courseload while still being light enough for you to learn about campus, make mistakes, and ease into college life.</p>
<p>It is possible to graduate in less than 4yr with AP credits, but because of the breadth requirements, you need a very specific set of APs to be of much help.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for your help!</p>
<p>Also, are classes abnormally large or seem too difficult to handle? And how is the housing off campus? Is cafeteria food unbearable?</p>
<p>I’m a poli sci major, taken 3 lower divs and 2 upper divs. All were huge classes. I made it a point to only pick professors and classes that get good reviews (not for an easy A, but students do better in classes they like more) on ratemyprof and courserank. The GSIs are pretty smart. Some are not the best teachers but they know their stuff.</p>
<p>Poli sci lower divs are easy to get into. Upper divs are harder—you just have to play smart with waiting lists. I know people who have taken 3 upper divs. One of my friends got into 4 (is now taking 3).</p>
<p>The major is really straightforward so seeing an adviser isn’t necessary each week. But they’re really helpful. They’re only two of them but they’re amazing–they have to be to deal with one of the biggest majors in L&S.</p>
<p>I did FPF back in the day, majored in poli sci, and and started up at the law school right after undergrad. To answer your questions:</p>
<p>I generally liked the classes and the teachers. Some of the lower div reqs could be a little boring at times, but they were never unbearable and I really liked the upper divs I took. That said, I was never a talk in class/go to office hours type so I tried to take larger classes. Discussion sections are more geared towards student conversation (usually a 10-20% chunk of your grade in the class). I never thought a large lecture was a problem, the prereqs all have big large lectures.</p>
<p>I don’t know about advisors to help you complete law school requirements. But, all you really need to do to get into law school is get good grades and a good lsat score, there aren’t any prerequisites. The career website has timelines and sample resumes to the extent you are really nervous (you shouldn’t be for at least 2-3 more years).</p>
<p>For FPF taking 13-16 units would be ideal. I liked Acker (he teaches a different class now than he used to) and Richards (if you like monkey bones) when I was there.</p>
<p>I graduated in 3.5 years, averaged around 14 units a semester, I think. I took 4 APs in high school. Poli sci added a few additional major requirements since then, so it might take actually planning for it now, it kind of just happened to me. Don’t forget to smell the roses.</p>
<p>I liked the dorm food, but I was in the minority. </p>
<p>Housing can be expensive, things happen on south side, things are quiet on north side. Research before you lease.</p>
<p>@Future: What class did Acker teach before? I thought his Globalization class was fantastic even though there was a lot of reading.</p>
<p>Geo 10: World Regions, Peoples, and States. Basically an intro to world politics and climate zones. There were a couple volumes of reader in that too, but the globalization reader was unquestionably longer when my roommie took that class. It was worth it.</p>
<p>thank you for all of your input! </p>
<p>Also, can someone explain the deal with curves? Do they make it harder to get better grades or easier?</p>