@kkvhg00
Given that R1A classes are comparatively small, it’ll be hard to find someone who’s taken it.
berkeleytime.com can give you a lot of relevant information about classes.
Since you’re trying to tell the difference between R1A classes, make a list of all of the ones offered at times that you would like, and you will appreciate how long that list is when all of the other freshman start enrolling in R1A and the spots slip away before your eyes very quickly.
Investigate the teachers on ratemyprofessors too if you want.
Generally R1 classes have a lot of writing, but a lot of it is revising earlier writing so it’s not that bad plus you get used to writing a lot and doing it quickly.
Film R1A will probably be a lot of film analysis, so think about how well you can pay attention to themes and symbolism and some techniques in movies without losing track of the plot. After you sign up for the class, a few weeks before the class starts, the syllabus will be posted on bcourses. You can review it, see if it sounds scary or not and figure out what you’re doing.
@7iff12321 No. That seems like a completely normal class schedule. And pretty sure that breadths are mostly covered by 4 unit classes. 13 units is boring. It’s not scary until you’re taking 18 units.
I took Bio 1B last semester and I really enjoyed it. The plant section requires a lot of memorization and I did the worst on that section but people really vary in what section they fail at, like some are bad at evolution or ecology. I got an A. The thing about Berkeley is that they switch up teachers a lot and there’s several sections of every class, so teachers vary and class styles vary, but the curve is always the same. I have no idea who any of those teachers are.
Math you’ll have the same amount of math homework as usual. Slader is great and you will love it because unless you both have a good lecturer and/or a good GSI AND show up to class, you might have to teach yourself and Slader helps. Bio 1B is reading li 27 pages and 8 am lectures but since they’re webcast and it’s one of the few large classes that does not take attendance (at least it didn’t last semester), a lot of people don’t come including one of the people in my lab who didn’t go to a single class. Labs have some pre-lab reading, 12 pages in pretty big font every week (and you’re quizzed at the start of lab), but except for one group lab report and one group presentation, all lab-like questions are done in class. R1A is a lot of writing, but you get used to it and actually a lot of the writing is really just editing and turning in drafts so it’s not that bad (I haven’t actually taken any R1 classes at Berkeley but that’s what my friends say). If you went to a good high school, those classes are generally high school level.
Good luck on getting your classes.
Can anyone tell me if taking MCB C62 and MCB 32 together is a bad idea for an incoming freshman? I’m not too sure about how much workload there will be. I will be taking ESPM 50AC and PHILOS 25A along with them. I don’t want to burn out on my first semester. They don’t seem like difficult classes to me but I don’t want to assume incorrectly. Thank you!
@sevstar
I haven’t heard of anyone taking MCB 32. I don’t really know why you’re taking it.
Drugs and the Brain is a popular class. I know a few people who took it. They didn’t say anything negative about it, so I assume it was fine/pretty cool.
ESPM 50AC I tried to get into my first semester because it’s good for so many things but the seats filled up too fast.
PHILOS 25A I hope that you are actually pretty interested in philosophy because that might be a lot of reading. Look up the page count for Five Dialogues, Plato the Republic, and Aristotle.
Go onto berkeleytime.com for all of them and check the grade average and look at the textbooks on the course catalog and see how bad they look. If there are less books than expected, there might be a course reader for 50AC or 25A which is where teachers choose chapters from a lot of books and you read about 40-100 pages a week of different authors.
They’re all lower division so you’re following the Advising advice.
You’re not going to burn out, sounds fine, check on the textbooks.
Anyone have any opinions on CLASICS 10A Intro to Greek Mythology? My kid is taking that for his Philosophy breadth. Berkeleytime shows the class as a median B+, does that mean it’s a really hard class?
@ProfessorPlum168
B+ median is average/high. B- classes are hard, B to B+ classes are normal, A- classes are easy.
It’s good to cover philosophy breadth. You’ll be reading a lot: On the War for Greek Freedom, Works and Days and Theogony, Six Great Dialogues, The Essential Homer : Selections from the Iliad and the Odyssey, On Justice, Power, and Human Nature, The Greek Plays, Acharnians. You might just read parts of the books but it’s pretty likely that you’ll be reading all or most of the books. There’ll also be a lot of writing since it says “interpret” the books, which might be either on demand or take home.
You can take breadths and ACs pass/no pass, so although it might be a lot of work, the pass/nopass deadline is after you get back your midterm, so it’s not too risky. In this class, about 40% get As and about 32% get Bs. Pretty easy class technically. It’s only offered in the fall. If there’s a waitlist, a good amount of people in the class drop, but the class usually isn’t completely full.
I’m applying for Environmental Economics and Policy in CNR this year.
After this semester, I would have either a 3.68 or a 3.76 GPA. What are my chances of getting in? I work and volunteer during my free time. I also volunteered in Indonesia for half a year.
Did anyone else apply to the same major? What are/were your stats?
Kinda freaking out that I won’t be able to get in.
The median Unweighted GPA is around a 3.92 and the 25th percentile is around 3.85 unweighted. So to be under that means that you would probably need super-stellar test scores or other things to compensate.
Oh, I forgot to mention that I’m transferring from a California Community College
any tips for freshmen who are applying?
You can get a few Cs senior year. Essays are weighed pretty heavily and can make up for other mess ups. They like well rounded people more than the Ivys do. You can get a 36 on your ACT, have a sibling who goes here, and still get denied or have mostly As and Bs in high school but a good story and get in (by that I mean she marketed herself as someone who started a nonprofit selling bracelets, or a less intimidating way to say the same thing, she sold bracelets and gave the money to charity).
I don’t know. I feel like by this point in high school, what you’ve got is what you’ve got to work with, so write a good essay and good luck applying everywhere. Hope you visit Berkeley. We’ve actually got a pretty good tour compared to the 15 other ones I went on. They had good luck charms, pretty buildings, specific stories and traditions, and some interesting classes and professors.
Visit schools before March/April or you’re going to spend the month of March scrambling to see if you actually like the places that you got into.
I regret getting the meal plan. I mean, the food is quite good, but the dining places are usually too full and they close after 2:30pm. Where do you guys eat lunch? My favorite places so far are Gypsy, the Snack Shack and Cheese N’ Stuff.
I live in an apartment so I have the MealSavvy App so I don’t have to learn how to cook. It’s an off campus meal plan.
La Val’s and Jasmine Thai on Northside are good, or there’s always just surviving on boba.
looking at my kid’s debit card over the past 2 months, it appears he favors a place called TC Garden, and LaVal’s and Subway on the north side, and T-Toust and Steve’s (both are Korean restaurants) along with Tammy’s Waffles on the south side. No idea if they are any good or not (well, Subway is always good), but these are places that he’s been to at least 6 times, so the food must be a bit edible.
Thanks for the replies, I’m definitely going to check La Val’s and the others. That Meal Savvy app looks interesting!
Have you tried ordering from the Kiwi Bots? I bet people rather walk than pay for the delivery fee, but they look so cute 
Reviews of food apps
Mealsavvy. Pros: requires less decision making. cheaper than dining halls. You don’t have to cook. Also, the people in charge of the app (there’s at least 2 of them) are responsive. If you ask them to fix something on the app, they fix it within a few hours. For 6.66$ a meal for normally 9$ of food, I feel like it works well for me.
Cons: It’s not all of the food on the menu on a restaurant, just about 10 items. And it costs 35$ to cancel if you try to cancel before winter break or summer break, although you can put it on hold for Thanksgiving/Spring break or switch to a smaller plan for free. Also, do everything 7 days before they charge you.
If you do use MealSavvy, 089-708-991-255 referred you (please help me get free food).
And mainayav1 might work for free delivery for the kiwibot, although I got this flyer 2 months ago so it might not.
Snackpass has a lot of deals (for a week) if you use a friend’s code, but you can only exchange codes with a friend once. The deals rotate pretty regularly. Last week it included 99 cent Jamba Juice smoothie and now it includes 99 cent slice from Abe’s pizza, 50% off TeaOne on Telegraph, and 99 cent tacos at Koja. And there’s lots of 50% first time ordering from a store offers and it keeps track of what you buy, like 30 rewards cards at once.
Goodlife Coupons gets those big deals about once a semester to convince everyone to get their app. Like the cheap pizza or crepes or tacos.
I haven’t used Dough very much yet but their design is similar to snackpass but with less restaurant options and deals. They have some deals, 20% off a lot of their stores and rewards for using them, but they try to get your parents to pay a fee to add money to your account and they’re weirder about money than the other places.
^^ I think I’m gonna purchase a MealSavvy plan next semester. I promise I’ll put your number as referral if I do!
Oh wait 089-707-991-255. Typed it in wrong.
@Bry123 I like it. Didn’t know about the cloud thing. Post more things and come eat at Clark Kerr on a Wednesday/Thursday/Saturday/Sunday. We’re far and we’re small so everybody knows everybody. Beats Cafe 3.
I logged in to my Berkeley applicant portal today, and it says that they received my letter of recommendation yesterday. I never got a request from them to send one. Did this happen to anyone else? I’m thinking they might have directly messaged my school? Not sure.