Hello Everyone. Congratulations to all on your accomplishments thus far! Thank you in advance for all those giving tips and advice. My D is an intended film major. She is great with research and writing, however she dislikes Math. She is currently taking pre-Cal honors as a Senior in HS. Does everyone have to take Math?
What Math would she need to start with, or go up to just to claim her Film Studies major.
@scarsinstars If you have any of these you’re covered except for a physical science breadth, but there some really random fun things you can take for a physical science breadth like earthquakes.
SAT I: Reasoning Test—600
SAT II: Subject Test, Math Level II–520
ACT—28, on math portion
Advanced Placement Exams in Calculus AB or BC—score of 3, 4, or 5
Advanced Placement Exam in Computer Science AB—score of 3, 4, or 5
Advanced Placement Exam in Statistics—score of 3, 4, or 5
International Baccalaureate Higher Level Exam in Mathematics or Computer Science score of 5, 6 or 7
A-level Mathematics Exam—grade of A, B, or C
Hi, I am currently deciding whether to go to Cal and have three questions about eecs:
- Is it hard to get into CS classes? I heard eecs as a slight privilege in EE classes over L&S, but how about CS?
- How does rooming work? Do/can EECS students room with L&S students?
- How many classes an we skip? If I already know linear algebra, multivariable calculus, parts of real analysis, have already taken AP Physics C sophomore year, etc. etc. and want to take upper division courses freshman year such as complex analysis, is it possible?
@collegefind1234 Advice from Haas Major (won’t let me post website) has a detailed list.
A lot of clubs require applications, the consulting groups are hard core, actuarial club accept everyone, and the Freshman Sophomore Business Club is probably your best initial option.
@jy2370 Berkeley is pretty good at getting people into their classes. Classes are big, so most people can get them when they need them and since CS61A is needed for a lot of majors, it’s the biggest class on campus with 1700 possible seats every semester (it’s webcast, has a lot of tutoring resources and has a lot of organized study groups). It’s EECS majors get a lot of privileges and resources, so they might get preferential class choice. Mostly they are well funded, in a small college, with good advisers.
For dorms? Yeah EECS majors room with whoever. Everyone mostly rooms with whoever. But EECS majors have pretty similar lifestyles as EECS majors, engineering majors, and CS majors so they seem to be matched up pretty often (sort of cleanish, stay up late, quietish)
Berkeley doesn’t really care about pre-reqs. They’re highly suggested and you should probably do them, but you can do whatever you want and no one will really care. I took 2 random upper division courses first semester of freshman year and it turned out fine, but I pass/no passed one. Maybe check with professors though, especially if it’s a small class. You can skip Math 53, Math 54 (if the math classes were taken at community college), Physics 7A (5 on Physics C). The only thing is, grades are comparative. So if you take complex analysis, you have to know just as much as the rest of the people in the class, who are probably math majors and have a lot of background, to succeed.
I may or may not ask the 16 year old junior transfer eecs major later if I see him.
http://filmmedia.berkeley.edu/programs/undergraduate-program/film-major-requirements
I don’t think film majors have to take any math at all. No math is listed under the major requirements. And if there would be any it would be really light. No worries on that end I believe.
What are the chances of getting off the waitlist this year?
@OskiGrad thank you. I do know they are required to take the 30 units of General courses. I’m sure Math is included. What is considered the light math 
?
Does family’s status really affect your chance of acceptance??
Do they really care who your parents?
@HuyDang They care about international, in state and out of state. They probably slightly care about ability to pay because they’re not a school that explicitly says they ignore it. Other than that, no? You are financially attached to your parents until you’re 26. After 26, your parents’ finances are not taken into account (probably). Is there any specific considerations that you want to be more specific about?
@Scarsinstars
Since Film is in the college of Letters and Science they have to take 7 breadth classes over a range of categories.
https://ls.berkeley.edu/seven-course-breadth-requirement
The closest to math is physical sciences, but even that you can find non math classes in. At Cal they give you a lot of control over the general ed classes so it seems like for Film you can avoid math altogether. I know some humanities majors that took the equivalent of precalc just to try out some math, and never touched it again. Math def isn’t needed for all majors.
@HuyDang
As far as I know, your family’s status plays a very small if any factor in acceptance. Maybe if they donated $20 mill to the school or you have parents that teach in the UC system, but that applies to almost nobody.
Do you think they compare you to another students in the same community college?
I got waitlisted for L&S; originally was planning to go the pre-Econ/pre-Haas route. Is this still feasible should I be admitted to the fall program for freshmen? Am I at a disadvantage for clubs/Haas/jobs if I am in FPF my first semester? Thanks
@Goodwork18 You’ll be fine. You just take your breadths the first semester. You can still join clubs and do on campus jobs if you’re at the FPF Berkeley. You live in the dorms. Lots of jobs, close to campus.
Global Edge is more complicated and I’m less sure about it, but it’ll be fine. Just join a pre-Haas club eventually. Pre-econ only cares about GPA, and you can worry about your GPA anywhere.
Is undergraduate architecture competitive at Berkeley?
@susie0102 Define competitive. It’s hard because everything at Berkeley is hard. People are nice. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. I’m changing the acronym to University of Capable Believers. It’s going to catch on.
Now if you’re talking about getting into architecture, that’s synonymous with getting into L&S which is synonymous with getting into Berkeley. And yes, getting into Berkeley is hard.
Hello,
I am deciding between which entry way I should select. I am in L& S Mathematics.
Can some Cal Bears, parents, alumni, and etc give me what their experience was like? What they liked about their choice and what made their entry way special / unique
Thanks
@Desiree2 If you’re talking about FPF vs not FPF.
FPF pro: small class sizes (far away but only if they still have San Fransisco).
FPF con: less classes to choose from
But it’s only for a semester, so why not. Get to know a small amount of people better. I think they said some of the classes were a bit easier too.
Now if you’re choosing between Global Edge and Berkeley campus, that depends on how housing works. Do you get housing for the semester at Global Edge, but then you come back and you have dorm housing? Or do you not have housing spring semester? What’s the price difference?
Why did you guys choose Berkeley ? Also, can some one tell me more about the politics , student activities, protests at Berkeley ?
@boomboom123
It’s number 1. It has great professors who wrote the books and did the research. If people are talking about research done at a university (podcasts, news, textbooks, Hidden Brain), a lot of the time the research was done here. If I’m trying to get my first job, I have a slightly better chance than people from most other universities. It’s a great academic reputation. Employers/people think we’re hardcore, and that’s why we like keeping that rumor around. The Bay Area is the center of the tech boom world. We just read my Econ teacher’s book and he was saying how the knowledge spillover and venture capitalists and thick (big) labor market cause clustering of tech companies in this one area, and that’s not going to change for a while. My friend in Physics class started a tech startup to make glow in the dark beer and got venture capitalists to invest in it. Bitcoin is big, too. There’s always a conversation about it at dinner. There’s always cool conversations at dinner about Big Bang Theory and poker and financial economics. There’s Lebanese people and Hong Kong people and Chinese and Japanese and Korean and Turkish and Armenian and Nigerian and Guatemalan and French.
It gets me out of my suburbia bubble. It’s the strangest intersection of super rich and homeless people. You know why? Because Berkeley is idealistic. We believe that everyone deserves to be cared for and that we can fix the world’s problems. That’s why there’s protests. The homeless people are cool and they teach you a lot about the world. I know 3 of them by name and they’re nice and interesting. (Also, that clustering thing raises contributions to charity, so it’s a great place for homeless people to be: where their resources and shelters are well funded) My old city virtually immediately kicked out anyone panhandling, so I think it’s nice the lack of discrimination against people with mental illness or low socioeconomic status. Did you know that the UC system is the best college system for social mobility and accepting low income students? (okay. That wasn’t exactly it. It was in Revisionist History, but it made me proud of Berkeley)
You know how you get down to that feeling that all colleges are the same? Like sure, minor differences here and there, but they’d all be fine and you’d be happy? That’s when it gets to the prestige versus money thing. You have to say, you get a lot of bang for your buck from Berkeley, especially compared to run of the mill private schools.
Politically, there’s everyone. The larger but semi-quieter liberals/communist/socialists (okay the socialists have a lot of flyers). The vocal conservative minority. Today, for example, is Israel’s 70th birthday, so you have all of the Jewish people celebrating while the Palestinians have Free Palestine posters and are walking around with Palestinian flags. Protests happen every other month. They’re only big when the far right people try to bring far right people to school (most people are sort of Trump touchy). The protesters just get their area to walk around in and it’s all good.
Anything else you want me to talk about? What are you looking for out of a college? I mean you can get over everything but the people, so go talk to some people, like me. What do you think about the other people at your high school who got in? Are they the type of people who you like?
@boomboom123 It’s a big school - room for many different viewpoints, political leanings, etc. Our family describes Cal as “crunchy”, which can be an allusion to the grittiness of the surrounding city environment (compared to squeaky-clean suburbia), the hippie vibe, whatever. You take that, mix it with people from all over the world, great minds, Div 1 athletics, world-class research, lots of libraries, history, and a hyper aggressive squirrel population, and you get a truly unique experience.