I saw that the cost per credit for a summer term is $421 (found by searching cost per credit, summer UCB). Doesn’t this option make going to UCB much more affordable? You can take 3 courses each summer and graduate in 3 years, saving a lot of money.
Are students allowed to live on campus for the summer? Would anyone who has done this care to elaborate on the process and whether or not they enjoyed the process?
Thanks
It is cost per credit.
Taking 3 courses each summer may be a stretch, but if you take enough summer courses to graduate a year early (> 24 units) at the cost of 24 units x $421/unit = $10,104, then it is saving. especially for OOS students. compared to the regular semester tuition.
For most people, they simply like to take a break for the summer and work on a job/internship. The way I look at summer classes is the workload will be double i.e. a 6-unit workload will feel like a 12-unit workload.
For me I took summer classes to ease the load during the regular semester, but if you have the drive to go intense during the regular semester and during the summer for 3 years practically non-stop, then certainly go for it.
There are separate contract for those who would like to live in the dorms for summer. However, if you haven’t noticed in Free & For Sale page on Facebook, there are tons of summer sublet offers so there are other cheaper ways.
If that is the cost for all students regardless of instate or OOS, then yes for OOS students it saves money. It’s a wash for instate.
The other way to save money would be to take breadth classes or other lower division classes at a CC over the summer. CC rates are $45 per unit. (Note that for CS students, CS61C is a required class and also fulfills the Physical Science breadth, so you save a few pennies there, if saving money is a goal)
Most courses are 6 - 10 weeks long and they cover a lot in those 6 weeks. It is better to take Breadth classes during summer to lighten the load for fall and spring than taking Major related classes during summer. I am planning to take all the AP credits I can get and take summer classes to graduate in max of 3.5 years after factoring in an internship before graduation. Everyone I speak to say that at least one 3-6 month internship is desirable before graduation.
Here’s my schedule
1st year Fall:
CS 61A
EE 16A
Reading & Composition A (R&C)
DeCal or a freshman seminar
Spring:
CS61B
Math 53
Hum/Soc Sci & Amer Cult
Tech Elective
Summer
Reading & Compostition B
Physics 7
My kid was going to take 4 classes in the Fall:
CS61A
MATH 1B
R&C B (either the Music one or the Env Design one. unless he gets a 5 in AP English Lit)
International Studies Breadth
I’m wondering now whether he should follow what others are advising and only take 3 classes plus a decal instead for the first semester. Anyone with advice on this either way? With all the AP and CC credits that he has (up to 39 for AP, 40.5 for CC), I think he wants to graduate in 3 years if possible.
Unless some of those 79.5 units are used to count towards requirements, it is largely a void credit, unfortunately. For this reason alone, I encourage any prospective students to utilize and skip the requirements as much as possible.
As for Decal, I recommend if and only if the person is interested in the subject - it does not count towards grade, and depending on the student instructor or the class, it can be quite some effort and time required. It is a given mindset that the student is enrolled because he/she wants to, not because it’s required.
It goes back to my other post to go into all courses that sounds interesting but feel free to drop all the way to the minimum credit load as needed.
Quite a bit of the credits with go for naught, I agree, but if the end goal is to graduate faster, then some of those credits will come in handy in the race to 120. This is especially true if one is efficient in choosing electives ie only choosing classes that satisfy a requirement.
Another insight I would like to share is graduating just a semester early especially if you expect to get a job after graduation.
Not only it eases the course load compared to graduating a whole year early, but also there is a significant advantage in hiring process as there will be far fewer candidates who list January as the available start date compared to May or August. I know some companies know this pattern and try to hire more for summer, but typically they need people all year-around so getting hired in January should involve the least competition - kinda similar thinking to take the SAT in the spring compared to fall.
thats interesting. thanks and I’ll consider it if I do not choose to go to grad school @UpMagic
Have you freshman folks started looking at breadth classes for registration planning for the fall yet? We looked pretty hard last night for International and there isn’t anything available. The classes are either not open, not applicable, or open only to the particular major. I can’t wait until he gets his sophomore or junior status soon so that he can get a jump on others in the near future.
Same goes for R&C B - everything is either not open or not interesting. Waaaaaah!
@UpMagic regarding your comment in post #5 here, what’s a “void credit”? I am very interested in learning what troubles I did not account for when looking at my son’s credits (he is coming in as a frosh after HS, his major is math). He has 46.7 semester units coming from AP credits, and 14 units coming from 4 CC courses, as well as 15 units coming from a 4-year University courses (12 units are upper division). His major is Math. Math 1A and 1B accounted for via 5 in AP Calculus BC. Substitutes for MATH 53 and 54, coming from the CC and the 4-year university, were already evaluated for equivalency by math department and approved. Also, Math Department already said there is a good chance that his upper division math courses from the 4-year University will be approved as his required upper division math electives. If everything is approved, he needs to take 14 courses to graduate (doable in two years), and we planned what these courses are, to cover all requirements. Thus, I am VERY interested what you mean by “void credit”? Thanks!
@ElenaParent By void credit, I mean out of 46.7 units and other units that have accumulated, it does not count towards fulfilling a requirement and other actual benefits except for the 46.7 unit itself.
As an example, in College of Engineering, if you got a 5 on the AP Stat exam, then you earn 2.7 units. But it doesn’t fulfill any requirements which means it’s void credit.
Check the ‘Requirements Fulfilled’ column and that is the real benefit. This does not seem to be too much an issue for you as you did your homework ahead of time to make sure the CC classes can substitute Math 53 and 54.
@UpMagic Yes, thanks, I indeed did my homework. My son is not in engineering, he is in MATH. Requirements for the major are 5 low division courses and 8 upper division. He already has 4 of the lower and 2 of the upper, this leaves him with just 8 courses to take towards major requirements. Add to this 7-breadth, but 7-breadth overlaps with the major by one course, so 8+6=14. He needs just 14 courses to take, to satisfy everything. One of the 7-breadth conveniently overlaps with R&C, and another - with American institutions. So, yes, he needs those 46.7 units coming from APs, and the 29 units from colleges, to come up with 120 units for graduation. Math department already told him that he is allowed to take any upper division course he wants, no restrictions. So hopefully, not “void credit” here…
Yes, in your case, having only 14 classes left to go actually makes all the 46.7 units count substantially towards the 120-unit graduation requirement.
I myself had over 80 units worth of AP credits and CC units before I started as a freshman, but was unable to utilize most of it so I graduated with over 200 total units which meant that 80 unit was technically unnecessary.
With inspiration from @ElenaParent, we did this 4 year plan to see what was the minimum number of Berkeley classes needed to graduate from Berkeley in CS. This assumes of course he passes the 3.3 initial gauntlet. And it turns out he needs to take 18 classes at Berkeley, or approximately 72 units to graduate with CS only, another 6-8 classes to double major in CS and DS. My kid will have 82.33 units of AP and CC coming in. I’ll assume that the 82.33 will cover the 48 units that make up the difference between 120 and 72. I’ll post some details later tonight or tomorrow on exactly what classes.
I’m still going to bet that it will take him almost 3 years minimum to graduate, ie 24 classes. 3.5 minimum if he goes as a double major.
@UpMagic yes, I already noticed it is hard to utilize your incoming units, one has to plan from the start! @ProfessorPlum168 - I am glad I serve as inspiration! I keep working on it every day (not on the inspiration part - on the degree requirement part), making sure I understand the rules. The current question I have - about residency and how the incoming units are counted when they also serve to satisfy such things as lower and upper division courses in the major - I still have to polish. The L&S advisers are too busy right now, and cannot give their attention to this question, they are dealing with things off immediate concern regarding enrollment. The people who answer immediately are the Math Undergraduate Advisers, Ana Renteria in particular, she provides excellent information, right to the point. Unfortunately, she is responsible only for the major, not for the overall requirements. I guess we will wait a few weeks, and then my kid will have to figure it all out all by himself (a 15 year old!!!). We are on the East Coast, we are not flying in, not even for orientation.
@UpMagic may I ask you another question? My son is aiming to take LATIN 101 (to cover Art and Languages, and to have an upper division course NOT in his major, which is also one of the graduation requirements). He got permission from the professor to enroll), but there are only 3 kids registered at this point. Is it possible for a Berkeley class to be cancelled due to low enrollment? If yes, we probably have to get a spare class for him to maintain the pace of 4 classes per semester… Which is not possible to do before adjustment period starts…
@ElenaParent unlikely it will be cancelled unless it’s zero enrollment. A backup class is should always be in line in case the teaching isn’t so great or it is outrageously intense or anything.
@kjake2000 I think that if you take summer classes as a transfer student, it’s possible to graduate in 1 year or even less with the transfer edge program. I only need 50 units and 12 classes for my major. In my case, this means that if I get the required classes for each semester/summer and pass with a C or higher in all of them, I’ll be done in one year. This is why I think the option of a double-major (or a minor) sounds so attractive. But it must be really hard to get all the classes starting off as undeclared…