<p>Do AP unit credits figure into this at all. My son will have around 50 credits (maybe more) when he gets there in the fall. Does this affect the amount of units he will need to take each semester to graduate in four years? Sorry if this is a silly question. I’m just totally lost…</p>
<p>
babydragon, nice job at manipulating words. You were claiming one could still graduate (presumably on time) if they take 13 units every semester, I was pointing out that that was dead wrong</p>
<p>I said
indicating that taking a 13 unit load your first semester won’t be significant. Also, I never talked about getting out of here as fast as possible or taking more than you are comfortable with. I was talking about taking a standard load and being able to get a TeleBEARS appointment that is average for ones class, so that they can actually get the courses they want. After your first semester or two, if you can’t handle 15 units (a standard load), the fact of the matter is you are not working hard enough.</p>
<p>
Your son, in theory, could take the bare minimum of units and graduate in 4 years, though he won’t get very good TeleBEARS appointments if he does that. If he gets bad TeleBEARS, it will be rather difficult to get into all his required courses, which will thus make it hard to graduate on time. After your first semester, a student should probably being taking an average on 15 units each semester.</p>
<p>Okay, so if he takes 13 units first semester, it’s fine. He just takes around 15 every semester after that??? Thanks so much. Sorry to be such a bother.</p>
<p>Well, he can take 13 units again, if he wants to take summer school, but that can be expensive and tiring.</p>
<p>Whichever engineering department he picks to major in will have a curriculum for him to follow. Most of them would probably indicate what to take each semester, and in most cases it will add up to 15 units or more each semester.</p>
<p>Suppose one is a chem engineer and decide to take something like this:</p>
<p>Chem 4A
Math H54
Physics H7A
Chem C96</p>
<p>Even though these classes add up to only 13 units, I really don’t know who can survive that.
My point is, there’s nothing to judge about the number of units taken because some courses are so hard that it is wise to take only 14 or 13, or even 12 units while some semesters it is okay to take 18~19 units and still ace the classes.</p>
<p>My son starts L&S CS 2014 fall. Counselor recommended 13 units, three 4 unit classes plus one 1 unit seminar.
Math1B, CS61A, and one English Reading class. I was comfortable with this. I told him that if he find this is a low work load he can beef up in spring semester with 4 classes. BTW, counselor said Math 1B and CS61A are very hard classes and need extra studying and homework time. </p>
<p>Math 1A and 1B final exams can be found here, if he wants to check his knowledge of the material found in them (assuming that he has taken calculus in high school and has some AP credit):
<a href=“Mathematics Courses - Tau Beta Pi, California Alpha Chapter”>https://tbp.berkeley.edu/courses/math/</a></p>
<p>CS 61A course materials can be found here:
<a href=“CS61A Home Page”>http://www-inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs61a/archives.html</a></p>
<p>An average of 15 units per semester is needed to graduate in 8 semesters, although AP credit can be a buffer against slight underloading.</p>
<p>So I’m only taking 14 units but my schedule looks PACKED. It’s bc I have to take lab sections for chem and cs10. Do you think this might be too much for me? <a href=“http://■■■■■■■.com/view.php?pic=28cezv7&s=8#.U8hhzPldVFI”>http://■■■■■■■.com/view.php?pic=28cezv7&s=8#.U8hhzPldVFI</a></p>
<p>Packed? You have all morning free on MWF.</p>
<p>If you tend to get sleepy in the early afternoon, consider taking the Chemistry 1A lecture in the morning and the Math 1A lecture at some other time.</p>