Does anyone knows if its possible to declare a different major? Given that both majors are in the same department and have similar pre-requisites i.e. Transferred as Political Econ major and completed Calculus I, and manage to enroll in stat 21 as well as Calculus II during their first semester at Berkeley (both are the courses required to declare Economics major).
As long as in L&S you probably can. Econ is impacted so that could be an issue. But just declare it and see how it goes.
It’s totally possible to declare the econ major as long as you get all the prerequisites done by the end of your semester. You need to have all prerequisites completed or in progress during your first semester as well at the time you are applying for the major. Once all grades are finalized at the end of the fall semester, you will either get an acceptance or rejection with regards to your declaration of major.
The hardest prerequisite to add is the intermediate economics course. 100A and B are full and traditionally don’t have a lot of droppers due to the required nature of the course. 101B is practically impossible at this point as Hawkins doesn’t add more students than he needs too and you will be extremely low on the waitlist if you have yet to add it. 101A is your best shot…and it’s quite the longshot if your not in at this point. If your already in one of those four courses, then all you need to worry about is the GPA requirement. Watch out for Stats 21, it’s historically a weeder and most Econ hopefuls land in the C+/B- range in that class. No idea how Lucas will curve, but generally D’Abrera with Stats 20 is the much easier grade.
@SDGoldenBear So technically, my main priority should be to enroll in one of the four intermediate economics courses, Stats 20 and Math 1B while maintaining a 3.7-4.0 gpa for my first semester. Correct?
PS: I am a sophomore at a CCC at this moment and will be applying to Cal’s Political Economy major this fall.
@SDGoldenBear I’m currently #12 on the waitlist for Econ 100B, are my chances of getting in the class good? getting worried :(( And I waitlisted for a discussion that only has 13/30 people enrolled.
12 sounds pretty good.
@nerdbomb, In that case, it’s in your best interest to apply as a true econ major if that is your real interest. Transfers accepted as econ majors have the ability to receive class enrollment codes that guarantee them a spot for those impacted courses. Non-econ transfers looking to switch into econ are essentially phased out due to lack of spots. I know some non-econ transfers who were looking to double major in econ that had the very first CalSo and even they were placed on the waiting list.
The best course of action if you aren’t considering applying as an econ major is to opt to take an intermediate economic theory course and either IAS45 (poli-econ backup) or Stats 20/21 over summer during transfer edge when spots are normally available. Also if you look at the catalog/guide, you’ll notice all but a few of the upper division electives have 100A/101A as a prerequisite so take the microecon over macroecon if given a choice.
Make sure you get at least a 3.0 avg GPA with all the prerequisites (Including math and econ at your CCC) as well due to there being murmurs of the required GPA going up.
@81Mamba, I hope that’s not section 108 (or whatever section is reserved for late CEC codes). If not, you have a decent shot. Keep in mind the intermediate econ classes have less drops than other classes.
Edit: Added second reply.
@SDGoldenBear I was told that they don’t specifically reserve a section for CEC codes but rather just spaces within the lecture? But yea it’s 108 
lol I was actually like number 26 before last weekend and moved up to 12.
Another question, if waitlists are processed automatically during the weekends, why do I see throughout the week the “open seating” and “in college of l&s” go from full to open and now full? that’s so confusing…
@disyatov12 my daughter heard back from cal housing re cancellation. Here is what they wrote:
“To answer your two questions, you can accept your offer, and later on can request a contract cancellation. However, it is not guaranteed that we will release you from your housing contract, and if we do you will be charged a $150 cancellation fee. You may choose to cancel your contract at the end of the Fall semester and look for alternative lodgings then- that time of year we do tend to release students from their full year contracts because at that time of year with have a number of Spring admitted students who are looking for housing.”
Hope that helps you.
For all the people asking how likely they are to get off the waitlist for any particular class, this was a question I asked at CalSO, and the rule of thumb is that about 10% of students drop any given class. So that means that if you’re in a lecture class with 20 people, only the first 2 on the waitlist are likely to get into the class, whereas in a lecture hall of 250, the top 25 waitlisted students have the best shot.
That being said, professors are frequently allowed to manually increase their maximum class size, so be sure to email your desired professor directly and explain your situation before completely losing hope.
This isn’t directed at any single commenter in particular; I just wanted to share some information I found useful.
does anyone know where uc berkeley transfer FB page is
I just asked my daughter: UC Berkeley Transfer Class of 2017.
Rather than relying on the 10% rule, I find that it’s better to check out telebearsoracle to view past enrollment. Just remember to cross reference it with ninjacourses to adjust for professors ratings. (i.e a professor with higher ratings typically will have higher demand and less less droppers than ones with lower ratings.) Those looking to add capped majors should also be wary of bottleneck classes like UGBA 10, Econ 101, Psych 10, IAS 45, Stats 21, MCB 64, and Psych 10 which have less droppers than the norm.
In addition to the transfer page, I find this one to be most helpful: https://www.facebook.com/groups/calstudytips/. It’s managed by a former professor who is very up to date and informed about the happenings on campus.
Thx for the tips @SDGoldenBear. I’ll pass it on to my daughter.
In regards to housing offered by Cal, I want to accept the offer just incase I don’t find an apartment on my own but I want to know if I will be able to cancel it if I do find my own apartment. Anyone know anything about this?
@bmirza991 my daughter accepted her offer but they did respond to her question about that very issue. I posted the res housing response #1708
@lindyk8 thank you!
transcripts have been finalized! 
@bmirza991 did you send them in person?
My daughter’s also finalized a while back. She brought college in person (it finalized the fastest) and the high school, which was mailed, just recently finalized. Why @ndn, are yours not final yet?
Congratulations for all the transfer students this year!
Also:
Do any of you transfer students have advice that you could give to an Community College student starting this fall?
Specifically for Computer Science if possible. Thanks!