So I’m a transfer student coming to Berkeley in the spring, and I have a few questions on units and graduation. All my breadth courses were completed at a community college and all I’m left with are major requirement courses for graduation. However, completing all my major courses will only leave me at 106 units(I might have like 6 more units if I get fluff credits). I’ve read on some official Berkeley website that you need 120 units to graduate. So my question is, (I know I could ask a counselor, but appointments are booked) will Berkeley make an exception and let me graduate with less than 120 units? Or do I have to stay like an extra semester, summer or winter, and take more fluff classes to fill up the 120 units. Money is a huge issue for me, (tuition and living expenses are not cheap), and I work during the winter and summer to pay bills, and to earn money. If possible, I really don’t want to give up more of my time and money taking useless/fluff classes that I don’t need, and I don’t want to surrender another 3 months of my life for academics and huge tuition bills.
It is definitely spelled out in the catalog. I don’t want to take the 5-15 minutes to dig it out, but it is definitely in there. If you can’t find it, you could ask your academic advisor during orientation (CALSO), when you pick out your classes.
Congratulations on your acceptance to Cal! What major were you accepted to? How many semesters are you thinking it will take to complete the remaining major courses? For EECS (and I’m guessing this is a university wide restriction), you are limited to 70 units you can transfer. You need 120 to graduate … it is a requirement. If you can handle it, you can take more units each semester (thus reducing the number of semesters). You can also take online classes over the summer. The tuition and classes are still expensive, but you won’t have to pay for housing and you can work.
OP cannot be in a CoE major, because it is not possible to fulfill all CoE breadth at community college (since CoE breadth includes at least two upper division H/SS courses). If you have at least 70 units from community college, then you need at least 50 units to reach 120 units for graduation. This would be three semesters of 17 units each or four semesters of 13 units each.
If you have AP, IB, or A-level credit, check with the campus to see whether those units fall under the 70 unit limit.