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views vary. many suggest taking a slightly light load your first semester just to be sure you sort out the whole college thing, something like 13 or 14 units total. Chem and Calc give you 8 units, thus as a practical matter you will need two more classes to get up to 13-14 units.
Registration occurs in phases, with the first phase at CalSO allowing you to register for no more than 10.5 units of coursework. Later in the summer, phase II is the time when you would add the remaining units up to your intended workload. Many of the courses you might take are 3 or 4 units, which you would not be able to add until phase II.
There are a number of seminars for Freshman, small intimate sessions on interesting topics, which are 1 unit courses, very suitable to add now in Phase I. that would get you to 9 units, with the need to find 1 more class in phase II that fills out your first semester. There are some 2 unit courses as well; one of those could be added in phase I.
On the other hand, you could wait and try for two 3-unit courses. The classes with open spaces in phase II are more limited. You will find that, while you may have a plan for what your full list of classes will be for the semester, practically speaking you may need to be a bit flexible in phase II, choosing among your list of possibilities based on the reality of which are still open.
Expend the most energy selecting your phase I classes, those that are your top priority and/or those that are close to full or historically fill fast. Have ideas for Phase II but put the real focus on that later, once you nail your phase I choices.
Build your plan for phase I before you show up at CalSO, then keep watching the sections to see which are open. schedule.berkeley.edu is the way you look up the courses, then click on the link at the bottom of the class that says "Click here for current enrollment information and course restrictions". That will give you a real-time view of how full the sections are. The numbers you see from schedule.berkeley.edu itself are stale - the value from the night before - and as you edge up to your telebears appointment for a phase of registration, you need a more current view. This will save you tons of time when you log on to telebears during CalSO to register, as you won't be attempting sections that are already too full.
Welcome to Cal - Go Bears!
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