@goldencub That’s so insane. My social & political philosophy class is a cake walk compared to that (and I thought it was rather challenging).
How many kids dropped that class? If that class were at my CC, I promise you there’d be no philosophy majors (lol). Kids drop easy classes like International Relations here, because they don’t like taking multiple choice quizzes every other week ahaha. Ended from 35 to 15 students by the end in that class, and I don’t know a single person who didn’t get an A.
@goldencub Yeah, that class was brutal, in a good way. But it also made me fall in love with Philosophy. Did you end up taking Phil 10 this semester? It’s a pretty easy going class, tbh.
@solostish A good chunk of the class dropped. In my English Literature course (Eng. 85B, equivalent to UCB’s 45B requirement for English majors), we were left with only ~10 students by the end of the semester, despite starting with a full class.
@boxandwhiskers I really enjoyed it. I would have liked to take another class with him, but that was just too much.
No, I didn’t - I’m taking an Ethics course online instead. It’s working out well. I would have liked to take Phil 10 before I transferred, but I try to avoid online classes in our CC system. Most online classes aren’t the best as it is - and Moodle is a pretty awful means of running a class as it is.
And yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised that it’s manageable. Many of the ratings on ratemyprofessor are really biased/inaccurate - so many students are deterred from a slightly higher than average amount of work.
@goldencub @boxandwhiskers My god. I didn’t know you guys were already at Berkeley ;P. Seriously, 20,000 words? That alone exceeds the total amount I wrote in Freshman Composition and Critical Thinking combined, if my memory serves me correctly. Hell, maybe my district just babies the students here!
Symbolic Logic is certainly fun. Interestingly there’s several students in my class who are retaking it. It’s frustrating sometimes because they’ll just yell out the answers. Makes me feel slow, haha. But it’s all about practicing the proofs.
@goldencub Seriously. I took Intro to Philosophy with him, online, during the summer, so it was like listening to 5 hours of audios every day and 7,000 word essays and tests every day for 6 weeks. I feel like he would be intense during regular semesters. Everyone I’ve talked to who has taken Philosophy classes has taken him and thinks he’s amazing.
Online classes through Peralta is terrible. 3 of the 6 classes I’m taking are online, and none of those teachers have given me a grade for anything yet, which is lame and frustrating. There was also drama in my Art class at Laney. One day the dean came in and told us they had no idea who the teacher was who was teaching the class and aren’t sure if he was even a teacher and they filed a police report.
@boxandwhiskers That sounds insane. The pacing of summer classes is already very fast - I can hardly imagine how difficult that would be with Amir.
That’s funny. What ended up happening? Or do you not know?
@Cheolf I took that class during my first semester in CC, so I sort of assumed that amount of work would be the norm in college. When I went to Cal’s Shadow Day for prospective transfers, I mentioned how much I was writing to my tour guide (a Sociology transfer), who seemed fear-stricken. I don’t think any college class, even at Berkeley, requires that much writing. To be fair, it was graded based on completion - but everybody in the class really did the work, I think. I know I wasn’t alone in doing all of the required work.
Practice makes perfect. Are you just doing derivations in sentential logic currently? Are you using SI/TI rules?
In the logic class I took at Cal last summer (Philos 12A), the professor (or, rather, lecturer - I think he is wrapping up his PhD?) baked us cookies at the end of the course, before the final. Gotta love Berkeley (although I’ve never heard of any other professor there doing anything like that). The philosophy GSI’s were all very helpful, which makes me look forward to the studying there - if I get in, anyway.
@goldencub Let me give you an idea of how easy my introduction to philosophy class is. ~62% of the grade is derived purely from multiple choice quizzes and weekly forum posts. We have 3 attempts for the quizzes. After each attempt, it shows you the right and wrong answers. Yeah. Did I mention this particular course fulfills a UCLA philosophy prerequisite?
The midterm and final each constitute ~8% of the final grade. There are four essays that represent ~6% of the final grade when COMBINED. Finally, there’s a “final paper” worth ~16% of the grade.
Practice certainly makes perfect. In my symbolic logic course, we just finished up sentential logic and moved on to truth functions and truth tables.
Does anyone receive email from berkeley regarding interviews?
Hey! Yes, I did.
It’s $220!! Also, it says
“Please note: Your application to UC Berkeley will be reviewed regardless of whether you submit an InitialView interview. Each application will be reviewed in its entirety, and some students without an interview may still be accepted.”
Honestly sounds like they make us do it. “Some students without an interview may still be accepted”. Are you effing serious?? $220! And if we don’t do it we may be accepted… Ugh.
I have also received that email. Is it a must and have they been doing this every year or just this year? 
You have to pay to go on an interview??? That seems like such a scam.
So…are these interviews likely offered to all candidates they’re seriously considering, or just ones in the middle of the pack who they’re on the fence about admitting? If you don’t get this email, could it just as easily indicate admissions thinks you’re a strong enough candidate that they don’t feel the need for the interview as that they’re not seriously considering you at all, or is it just a clear-cut bad sign?
EDIT: Nevermind, it looks like InititialView is a platform geared specifically toward international applicants, so if you’re an American applicant, you should not be getting this email either way.
Is this interview just for international students? or domestic students also?
Did everyone get the email? Maybe I’m just a being paranoid but this is really scary haha. I almost had a heart attack when I saw the email subject lol.
After careful research on the website of the company that does the interviews, it is more of a test of English proficiency. I guess they want to make sure applicants, in particular, international applicants can speak English well enough.
@paninichan same, curious about whether everyone receives this email
@omex666 I emailed my TAP advisor just now. She asked me to forward the email to her (so I’m guessing she doesn’t know about this???) I’m still waiting for her reply.
I think it’s a new system. I don’t know why they doing this thing.
VeryVery annoying
Well it might be English proficiency, but I’m a transfer student from cc in California (even though english is not my first language) so why would I get this email.
All of you guys who got it, are you international students?
@forshevchenko I’m an immigrant (moved here 3 years ago) and I got the email. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that English is not our first language.
Btw, while we’re at it, I am considered a resident right? I’m not considered an international student right?