punkdudeus

hookups are big, lotta free love going on, not as much as there should or could be though. You gotta meet people, the social scene's all about knowing people, the more people you know and are friends with, the more parties you're gonna hear of, the more chances to meet more people, the more chances to get some action (this comes from a guy)

SQL

I hear that Clark Kerr can get dull. Would it be better to go for Unit 1 or 2 for socializing and just escape to the library for studying?

About EECS and engineering - is it necessary to take English, or are the other courses in the first list at http://www.coe.berkeley.edu/current_students/hssreq.pdf able to cover for that?
For EECS, is it more beneficial to study Scheme or C in the long run? I'm leaning towards C, but maybe Scheme is used in upper-div, so I thought I'd ask.

Thanks

Azure326

royrules22 - Do you have any control on who your roommate(s?) is, or is it completely random?

What specifically are you finding hard about the EECS program (How, or in what ways is it so difficult?)? Was the transition difficult going from high school work load to EECS work load?

Beatchick

How do you learn what all those numbers and letters that you add to courses mean? I mean, I'd get something like Lit 101 but how do you know what to take first semester and is it possible to find, say, a first semester workload that is relatively simplistic, to ease yourself into this new life? I'm not a slacker, but I am not interested in getting through college with great speed. I want to be able to enjoy it. Thanks!

Golden Bear

Use Cal's Online Catalog:

http://sis.berkeley.edu/catalog/gcc_search_menu

Also use Pick a Prof or Rate My Professors to figure out which professors/classes are easy or hard.

Most people know what courses are jokes or very easy so just ask.

abclichi

I am in for EECS and a RCSA sheet recommends me to take Physics 7a the first semester first year.

Is that class hard? Which professor would you recommend (preferably easy but still teaches something...)? And my current high school AP Physics class is a joke; so will I be screwed when taking Physics 7a?

Are EECS students competitive to the point where they won't help each other? Are study groups prevalent?

Thanks a lot.

Strykur

I've heard some hidious things from MCB majors (Molecular and Cellular Biology/Pre-Med; not relevant EECS necessarily, but still competitive as such). It's basically this: if you need study notes, ASK FROM MORE THAN ONE PERSON, and be careful about study groups. Because the competition can becomes outrageously stifling, people will go to lengths such as creating "fake" (ie. factually incorrect) study sheets to give to other students to lower their grades and throw them off the curve, and even create "fake" study groups, to knock off even more students and help the perpetrators further. If you ever need any help in a competitive major such as MCB (not EECS as much, because the difficulty of the EECS material matters more than the curve), ASK A PROFESSOR/GSI in office hours for the best responses. In EECS, you're pretty much on your own, because the material is so difficult that a curve is secondary to course difficulty.

As for Physics 7A, the material is not too terrible, but the curve is pretty ridiculous (I've seen test results where students will score in the high 90s on midterms, because they have studied to extreme lengths to throttle the curve). An average grade is a B- in the class, but the curve is made so that it's actually impossible to fail outright unless you are at a total loss for the class material. Curved classes I'm aware of where failure is routine are weeders such a Math 1B, Chem 1A, etc. Chemical Engineering is insane - 50+ percent of students will get failing grades, AND NO CURVE IS IN PLACE FOR INFLATION!

royrules22

Well you and a friend can request to be roomates and you will get in. In fact if you request a roomate you are more likely to get a room you want. Or if you want a random roomate you can answer a few questions to narrow down the potential canidates (i.e. non-smoking, etc).

Well the classes are hard. Also I was just not prepared for the work load. For me (except for a select few) all my classes in High School were effing easy. I really didn't have to study and even if I did it would be last minute. There is no ****ing chance you can do that at Cal. You better be prepared to study your ass off here. Firstly the topics are covered more indepth here, and atleast for my classes there is a lot more theory than just number crunching. Be sure to understand the WHY and HOW of things. If you just memorize formulas (which you mostly never have to do anyway thanks to the invention that is the cheat sheet), and learn how to plug it in you will be royally screwed. Do your homework... thrice. Do all your worksheets. Go to office hours (I kick myself for not realizing this sooner), ask help. Usually though unless you are in a weeder course the curve won't hurt you that much if it does.

Well you have to look through the schedule and your college's website (i.e for cs go to cs.berkeley.edu) and they should have your requrements. They'll teach about CCNs and stuff at CalSO so don't worry about it.

Well I found it hard... I got a B- and just blanked out on my final *doh*. Or maybe I'm just an idiot. We never had AP Physics in my school, only Honors. And the class was a joke, and I took it even less seriously. Really the kinetics part you should be able to do (esp. if you had AP). It's when you get to Rotational, waves, pressure (I effing hated this part) that it gets tough. It's more or less the fact that the tests are hard and pretty effing long. Learn the concepts and you should generally do fine. Also don't forget to do the homework (looking at the answer key from DC++ doesn't count), the worksheets, and RTFB (read the ****ing book).

As for the teacher, well I can't really tell but mostly they are generally the same. Except some are harder than the others in terms of their tests (but the curve's usually pan out).

As for being competitive, I have not seen that. Than again none of my CS classes had a curve that could hurt the others (in fact I don't even think it had a curve). So I can't tell for certain, but while everyone is competitive they're not cut-throat.... so far.

Study groups... yea I've seen them. But I'm not in one, and neither are some of my friends. I guess it would be useful if you actually study together (and not all of you are dumb).

MechRocket

how far is san francisco from berkeley? is it an easy commute? do you take a bus to get to SF? THANKS.

fiskelove

The "F" bus comes right to campus. Just hop on and take it directly to the Transbay Terminal in San Francisco -- about 30 minutes. From the Transbay Terminal, you can walk to Chinatown or catch another bus that will take you to Union Square in about 5 minutes. Transportation is great!!

punkdudeus

the BART is even faster, you can get to downtown SF in 15 minutes. although it costs like $6

EastBay107

How hard is it to get an A in English R1A and R1B? Our school is on a block schedule and I had AP english last semester so I don't know if I will be able to prepare for that exam.

MechRocket

should i bring a bike to berkeley (if i get in haha)? i've heard bikes get stolen all the time there though.

punkdudeus

if you bring a bike, bring a crappy one, expensive ones get stolen, get a good lock. you won't really need one your first year as the dorms are close to campus anyway, and most people walk.

Golden Bear

Re EastBay107:

The R&C classes at Berkeley have differing difficulties mainly depending upon how easy/hard the teacher grading is. Typically, English and Comparative Literature's R&C classes have the hardest graders, while Scandinavian and German have some of the easiest R&C classes.

I can personally attest to the easiness of German R5B, which I am taking this semester.