<p>Here’s my question. Over the past two years (Junior & Senior years of HS) I’ve taken Community College courses at my two local CC’s (also on semester system) here in San Diego. I’m wondering if anyone has experience with CC classes/units as an incoming freshman. Here’s the specific courses and their UCB equivalents (from assist.org):</p>
<p>11th Grade Fall
Spanish 1 (5 units): A => ???
Calculus 1 (Math 180 - 5 units): A => Math 1A/Calculus</p>
<p>11th Grade Spring
Spanish 2 (5 units): A => ???
Calculus 2 (Math 280 - 4 units): A => Math 1B/Calculus</p>
<p>11th Grade Summer
Calculus 3 (Math 281 - 4 units): A => Math 53/Multivariable Calculus</p>
<p>12th Grade Fall
Linear Algebra (Math 284 - 3 units): A => (with Diff. Eq.) Math 54/Linear Algebra and Differential Eq.
Physics 1 (Phyc 190 - 5 units): A => Physics 7A/Physics for Scientists and Engineers</p>
<p>12 Grade Spring
Differential Equations (Math 285 - 3 units): In Progress => (with Linear Algebra) Math 54/L.A. & D.E.
Physics 2 (Phyc 200 - 5 units): In Progress => Physics 7B/Physics for Scientists and Engineers</p>
<p>A couple specific questions that I’m looking at as I make college decisions:
Is this unusual/out of the ordinary, or semi-expected?
How will this affect my experience at Berkeley?
Will this take the bite out of the “brutal” academics @ Cal, specifically in the BioE major?</p>
<p>it’s not particularly surprising, but it’s not like a majority of freshmen come in with a lot of extra CC credits or anything. if these really transfer then I’m sure you’ll have a much easier life here at Cal since you don’t have to compete too much with in the weeder lowerdivs.</p>
<p>but for bioE you still need to take all the lower div Chem (big ouch) +some bio and, naturally, engineering. but i think it’ll be okay for you.</p>
<p>I got these course equivalencies from [Welcome</a> to ASSIST](<a href=“http://www.assist.org%5DWelcome”>http://www.assist.org), the official transfer website between CC’s, CSU’s and the UC system, so I’m pretty sure they work out together.</p>
<p>Yeah…if they do, I’ll basically have already completed the lower div Math + Physics requirements. Which means I’ll just have a <em>ton</em> of Chem & Bio classes along with the eng. classes.</p>
<p>You’re definitely ahead of the game with your Math 53-54 and Physics 7A-7B credit. Most students take those classes at Cal. Your first few semesters are probably going to be full of biology and chemistry classes (as crowslayer13 pointed out), with a few humanities mixed in. But since you don’t have other science lower divs to take, you can double up on them and probably finish all of your lower divs by the end of your first year, which is comfortably a year ahead of average. </p>
<p>It is not that unusual for freshmen to enter with other college credit, but it is not required or expected. Assuming that you did well in the community college courses, then you can continue with the more advanced courses in your major (e.g. the ones that list Math 1A/1B/53/54 and/or Physics 7A/7B as prerequisites).</p>
<p>Effectively, you will end up with additional free elective space in your schedule, where you take additional in-major or out-of-major courses (it may make a double major or a minor more feasable if that is what you want to do). Or you can graduate early (e.g. in 7 instead of 8 semesters) which may be helpful if you need to keep costs / student loans down. Or you can take a semester off at a co-op job/internship and still graduate in four years (7 semesters in school with 1 semester at the co-op job/internship).</p>
<p>Check with the Spanish department as to the equivalency of your Spanish courses (perhaps assist.org may tell you if you look for articulation to the Spanish major). Language courses may not fulfill the [humanities</a> and social studies requirement](<a href=“http://coe.berkeley.edu/hssreq]humanities”>Humanities and Social Sciences - Berkeley Engineering), but they may help you take literature courses that do.</p>
<p>@singh2010. Awesome. Thanks for your input! I guess I should get a head start on all the chem+bio soon!</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus.
I earned A’s in all my courses so far, so I’m fairly sure that I could continue on…</p>
<p>I tossed around the possibility of double majoring in Mathematics along with BioE, but from what I’ve heard from contacts in the BioE program, it’s essentially a 5 or 6 year program stuffed into 4 years. I’m hoping that these extra credits will translate into making that single major less hectic and brutal than normal. And, if things work out, the possibility of graduating a semester or two earlier would greatly help the financial situation.</p>
<p>I checked the assist.org for spanish and it didn’t give any articulation…that’s not the main focus of the cc classes through. :P</p>
<p>If you take no electives that aren’t requirements for your major(s), then a double major in Math and BioE is easily possible given the time frame of 8 semesters and given that you’ve satisfied several requirements already.</p>
<p>Of course, the Biological Science and Physical Science parts of the L&S 7-course breadth will automatically be fulfilled by your Bioengineering requirements, leaving 5 of the categories to fulfill (or 3 if you use certain Math courses on Philosophy and Values and Historical Studies).</p>
<p>If you want to take more advanced courses in Spanish, ask the Spanish department for what you should be placed into.</p>
<p>Check [Welcome</a> to ASSIST](<a href=“http://www.assist.org%5DWelcome”>http://www.assist.org) to see if the course articulates to Chemistry 3B for the MCB major.</p>
<p>However, if you are a pre-med, medical schools may frown on taking pre-med courses at community colleges.</p>
<p>I don’t think it is out of the ordinary. I came in with 48 CC credits and 17 AP Credits (About half of them didn’t transfer).</p>
<p>I did all of my math requirements (1A,1B,53,54) and Physics (AP counted only for 7A)by my Junior year of high school. I don’t think this will take a bite out of the rigorous academics at Cal, since these courses are really the building blocks for harder courses. </p>
<p>The Physics I took during High School, definitely wouldn’t have prepared me for 7C (so I took 7B over my pre-frosh summer), and not having taken really rigorous Math for 2 years definitely didn’t help in College.</p>
<p>So you have to weigh how far ahead you are, with how much more prepared the Cal courses would make you vs. CC courses. If your CC courses were fairly rigorous then you’ll probably be off to a great start. Otherwise you might jump right in to 7C or 110 and start having some problems.</p>
That certainly helps!</p>