Can anyone start "Some tips for succeeding at Cal"?

UpMagic
Mon, 02 Jun 2014 09:02:44 +0000

Hey, so welcome to Cal.

First of all, here’s the link (http://coe.berkeley.edu/students/current-undergraduates/student-involvement/engineering-student-societies.html) for all the clubs that’s even remotely close to engineering and computer science. Some of them are major-specific and/or need specific GPA to get in, but most of them can be joined by any major and they’re pretty legit. Take some time browsing each clubs and join them if you think any of them are interesting.

Next, signing up for classes. The biggest asset of Cal is a there is a ridiculous variety of courses in any department. In fact, we have a ridiculous variety of departments. When it’s time to sign up for courses, don’t simply pick the top 4 courses and only attend those from day 1. For example, there are three professors to choose from Math 1A. Instead of making all the speculation from ratemyprofessors, actually go to all 3 lectures and check out the professors yourself and decide from there. This is even more helpful later in college and it’s time to take the electives - you want to have the professors that you like to listen to and check out the syllabus to see if you can handle the course.
It will be very tiring to go to potentially up to 10 courses in the first week, but I promise this “shopping” is a very good way to narrow down your choices and take the classes that you feel good about. Don’t worry about registration since people drop out a lot for any classes 2 weeks after school begins.

Lastly, just work hard. People talk about how it’s tough it is here and grade deflation is ruining their lives, but really, too people aren’t working hard enough. For any major in Cal, if you work like you did in junior year in high school for those AP exams, every body should be getting at least 3.5. Do the homework, spend some time on regular basis reading or practicing any concepts or topics that you don’t understand, and this should result in nothing less than A- in any class at Cal even if you never go to office hours. The problem is when students ignore their problems and try to cram everything few days before the exam and then complain about why they sucked. Unlike high school, cramming only works half of the time since the material is kinda tough b/c it’s college, but it’s still undergrad and a lot of stuff we learn are still basic and can be mastered if you put sufficient time into it. Just be diligent and actually work and Berkeley won’t be as terrible as people talk about it.