<p>I’m doing this for 3 reasons:</p>
<ol>
<li>I want to give back to this community after it helped me so much</li>
<li>I want to help fellow transfer students</li>
<li>I want to spend some time reflecting on my experiences</li>
</ol>
<p>If you have any questions, go ahead and ask!</p>
<p>First off, congrats on making it through your first year! I’m sure the efforts will be worth it a year from now.</p>
<p>As a transfer student, what should we expect? Is the transition hard? </p>
<p>I got accepted as a Mechanical Engineering major and I was wondering how the CoE is in general. I know engineering is highly competitive, but is it bearable?</p>
<p>Also, do you have any tips or suggestions?</p>
<p>Thank you, much appreciated!</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>The transition was hard in some ways, easy in some ways, and just plain weird in others. It was hard studying day in, day out all of my first semester. It was hard going from the top of the class at CC to just an average joe at Cal (seriously, I consistently score around the 50th percentile in all my classes). It’s hard trying to balance school and career. Applying to internships and such is insanely stressful, but you may already have a taste of that.</p>
<p>It was easy transitioning into my living situation. I decided to live in the dorms my first year because I really wanted the dorm experience. I lucked out in that I ended up with a fantastic floor of people. They were supportive and fun and all around excellent friends. I also had a great roommate. Living in a dorm was really an ideal situation for me because it started me off with a built-in group of friends. I’d highly recommend doing that if you can.</p>
<p>Then there’s the weird stuff. It’s weird living in an entirely different city from the one you grew up in. The hobos walking around every street corner are weird. The co-ed bathrooms were a little weird but everyone got over that very quickly. It was weird (at least for the first couple months) waking up in a dorm room. The weird stuff either becomes less weird as time goes on or it just becomes something you live with.</p>
<p>I can’t speak for the CoE as a whole, but my experience in EECS has been very collaborative. It’s competitive in that your peers are all pretty dang smart and hard working, but just about everyone is willing to help you out. Note: my roommate had a very different experience in ChemE; he found the students fairly walled off and unwilling to help.</p>
<p>Tips:
<p>If I have work study, is it hard to find a job? </p>
<p>Hi James! For dorms, were they mostly Freshmen? Did they care whether or not you were a Transfer? I plan on living in the dorms, but I’m scared I might not be able to befriend the Freshmen in the dorms. </p>
<p>Also, do you how much Cal wants you out in 2 years? I want to stay for 3 years. If you wanted to, would you have had time to study abroad? I really want to study abroad for at least 1 semester. </p>
<p>@imaplealot I’m not James, but chiming in anyways. Transferred to EECS 2 years ago, just graduated.</p>
<p>For dorms, depends on where you are. In Wada/Martinez, the upper div apartment dorms, a majority of the residents will be new junior transfers. In any other building, I’d expect it to be mostly freshman. I was in a mini-suite my first year, I think there were 3-ish juniors (2.5 transfers, one RA) on the floor… rest were freshmen. So, depends.</p>
<p>Different colleges should have different rules on unit caps and years, I think? Here’s the CoE policy on extra time: <a href=“http://coe.berkeley.edu/students/current-undergraduates/how-do-i-answers-to-commonly-asked-questions/extra-semester.html”>http://coe.berkeley.edu/students/current-undergraduates/how-do-i-answers-to-commonly-asked-questions/extra-semester.html</a>
Looks like you automatically get an extra semester if you study abroad.</p>
<p>I don’t know about work study; I haven’t done anything with that.</p>
<p>Yes, my dorm floor was mostly freshmen. I lived in Unit 3. Out of 25 or so people on the floor, 3-4 were transfers. Honestly I didn’t even notice that I was older than everyone else. We all got along fine.</p>
<p>Cal gave me an extra (fifth) semester to complete my EECS degree, no questions asked, but getting a sixth is very difficult. My ChemE roommate says he got a sixth without issue.</p>
<p>Are the Wada rooms singles or double/triples? Where do you recommend to live as a transfer?</p>
<p>idk about Wada. Unit 3 was great - its convenience is unmatched among the residence halls. 1 block from campus, tons of restaurants, close(ish) to BART and shattuck, dining commons right out your doorstep. Lively people (as compared to Foothill). </p>
<p>@CSB111 Wada is 2 doubles/triples per apartment, Martinez is 4 singles per apartment. I forget the layout of Channing-bowditch, they should be apartments too, think it’s doubles/triples. Personally I think the apartment-dorms are much nicer than the rest of campus housing, so I would suggest that, but really you could live wherever you’d like. Wada’s a bit farther from campus (~3 blocks), it’s a block away from the dining hall. Martinez is 2-ish blocks from campus and also a block away from food. All the units are pretty close, it’s all southside and fairly close to campus.</p>
<p>Hi @JamesGold. Congrats on your achievement! I’m an Electrical Engineering major at LBCC. I’m gonna be applying this Fall so I can transfer in Fall 2015. I’ve been kinda worried about my GPA since it fell below 3.80. I’d be able to bring it back up to 3.86 by the end of this year though. </p>
<p>What kind of GPA’s is the College of Engineering at Berkeley looking for in EECS transfer students? Do you mind telling me what kind of EC’s you did and what you mentioned in your personal statement?</p>
<p>when you say 50th percentile, are you saying no matter how hard you work, the best you can get is a C? :(</p>
<p>@Churroke He means he’s right around the class average. In EECS, that’s typically a B. You can see past grade distributions here: <a href=“https://schedulebuilder.berkeley.edu/explore/”>https://schedulebuilder.berkeley.edu/explore/</a></p>
<p>Woo, congrats on finishing your first year! </p>
<p>I guess I could ask this on the Cal forum, but in your personal opinion do you think CS 61C is doable during a summer session?</p>
<p>@credulitykills Hundreds of students take it each summer, of course it’s doable. But be careful what you pair it with, something like 61BL and 61C together would be a death wish. 
Expect it to be a higher workload than the average 4 unit class. This should be Alan’s first time lecturing for 61C, but he’s been a TA a gazillion times and he’s pretty good.</p>
<p>@failure622 Haha, yes very true. It seems like a dumb question when you put it that way. I WAS thinking about doubling, but your question solves that problem. Since I’m simply a minor (possible petition for double major with an extra semester) I’ll just hold out and possibly combine it during the regular year with CS 188 or something. Thanks!</p>