<p>If my friend graduates in 3 years and hates his or her life, who cares? If i take 6 to 7 and love mine, then go me. </p>
<p>What's the goal here?</p>
<p>I'm not gonna graduate in 3 years !!! There's a bunch of requirements I have to fulfill+ I wanna study abroad.</p>
<p>Well, i guess wanting to be free to study abroad is as close to a reasonable answer for taking 19 units as they come. Do you plan on having free time?</p>
<p>I have to agree with DRab there..."free time" is kinda important...college IS supposed to be a educational AND social experience :)</p>
<p>Definitely, what is more important than that?</p>
<p>can't think of anything off the top of my head :D</p>
<p>I'm leaning toward a smaller class load mainly because I don't know quite what it will be like to balance everything. I would like to sing in a choir also, so I would like to leave room for practices, etc. Plus, I want to make use of the free shuttle to San Francisco on weekends to do the "tourist" thing, being a Socal-er all my life.</p>
<p>Twitb, just to let you know, this is how many, many students have gone down the drain awefully quick. Its good to be confident in your self, but just remember that if you don't do well during your first semester and are put on probation, you'll only have one semester to raise your grades before they give you the boot. Just remember one thing: Cal is hard and they really don't care if you make it or not. Ok, that was two things, but from my angle both are true. If I were you I'd take 13 units first semester to get a feel for things. Then, if all goes well, you can go hog wild the rest of you stay here and take 18,000 units a semester and graduate with trillion degrees.</p>
<p>To support GentlemenandScholar, I know one guy who took 4 classes in his first semester, and got 2 D's and 2 F's, and hence a 0.5 GPA. That happened because of a combination of factors - personal problems, immaturity, etc. He was put on academic probation. Like Gentlemenandscholar said, the rule at Berkeley is that if you are on probation, you have one semester to get yourself out of it or risk expulsion. To get out of expulsion, you have to raise your cumulative GPA above a 2.0. Not your semester GPA, but your cumulative GPA. It's extremely difficult to raise a 0.5 GPA to a 2.0 in just one semester. Sure enough, he wasn't able to do it. He actually did fairly respectably in his second semester, but not by enough to raise his cumulative GPA to above a 2. So he was expelled. </p>
<p>Now think of the consequences. Since he was expelled, he has no chance at getting a degree at Berkeley. Nor does he have much of a chance at getting a degree at any other half-decent university. After all, no half-decent university wants to admit a student who was expelled from his previous university. So he can't go to Berkeley and he can't really go to anywhere else decent. Academically speaking, he's ruined, because he will always have to admit to any future school to which he might apply that he had been previously expelled. Think about that. All he had was one bad semester of immaturity and laziness, but at Berkeley, that's it all takes to ruin yourself for life. He ended up working as a security guard at Safeway. To this day, he laments that he would have been better off if he had simply never gone to Berkeley at all. </p>
<p>So that should just serve to warn you, Berkeley can be coldly ruthless in that way. Berkeley doesn't really care if you make it and it doesn't really care if you ruin yourself academically. That's why you have to be careful to take care of yourself academically. Berkeley certainly isn't going to do it for you.</p>
<p>Astronomy 10
Nutritional Sciences 10
American Studies 10
Social Welfare 39B</p>
<p>13 units
I might drop one of those for a class with 4 units --- I dont want to go past 14 units because I dont want to overburden myself for the first term. Plus, three of those classes fulfill 3 breadth requirements. :)</p>
<p>Hey youre taking American Studies 10, too. Which discussion group are you in?</p>
<p>aw, twitb, just give it a shot. if it seems bad, u have 3-5 weeks to think abt dropping.</p>
<p>Man, that I had dropped my Physics H7A, and you guys still think that's too much of work ?
I know all the Maths material in 53 already, so hopefully it wont be a problem + I know some astronomy too. Elemetary French ? Is it really hard ? Writing will be time consuming, I'll devote a lot of time to that class.
Hahahaha, what do I have to worry? I can handle it, ask Ben.</p>
<p>Don't say you haven't been warned.</p>
<p>thank you very much for the warning</p>
<p>
[quote]
Elemetary French ? Is it really hard ?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>As a person who has learned French, the language is manageable if you have a strong command of English. It is even easier if you know a Romantic langauge, particularly Spanish. Learning a foreign language is always time consuming. </p>
<p>And don't forget that you must sign up for discussion classes...so your schedule will be jammed pack.</p>
<p>I would consider taking about 16 units at most for the first semester. But as I stated before, if you honestly can take on 19 units, then go for it. However, do realize that 19 units equals 19 hours of lecture/discussion time (correct me if I'm wrong) and it is recommended that for each hour you spend in class, you should spend at least another 2 hours studying the material (at least according to theory...but not many people follow that concept). Additionally, you'll find that during finals week, life will be less than wonderful. </p>
<p>And since you plan on studying abroad, those units taken abroad will count towards graduation...it does require planning and what not, but not the point of killing yourself. You're in a new environment and you will have to adjust. </p>
<p>What is your major?</p>
<p>In my schedule, every class fulfills one requirement or another...and I didn't exceed 14 units. So reconsider taking so many units.</p>
<p>(EECS Freshmen)</p>
<p>History 7A
Comparative Lit. R1A
Math 53
CS 61A</p>
<p>12 units</p>
<p>Mack - I am in Wednesday 8-9am for my discussion section.</p>
<p>wasai-mike, don't you have to take 13 units to be considered a full time student? Is it the fact that you are eecs, and therefore in the college of engineering, that allows you to take 12 and be considered full-time?</p>
<p>twitb: I'm with sakky and gentleman on this. It's very easy to come to Cal with a 4.3 GPA from high school, 5s on AP exams, and still end up on academic probation and be dismissed by this time next year. With 13-15 units, you have extra free time to save your GPA if your grades are below a C, especially around finals week. At 19 units, your prospects at avoiding academic probation dim substantially if you get in trouble. </p>
<p>Maybe you'll do ok anyway but you did <em>FAIL</em> the entry level writing exam. Do that in class enough times and the boogeyman story I write above may be true for you.</p>
<p>I think everyone should remember that in case of a completely catastrophic semester, withdrawal from classes (aka nuclear option) allows you to be readmitted in a future term.</p>