I’m an English major at UC Berkeley and my current goal right now is to become a professor. I realize that to be successful in that field you have to have a kind of “academic pedigree” with some more esteemed universities. This first semester I’m signed up for Japanese 1A, English 45A (English through Milton), English 45C (Twentieth century literature), Intro to Comparative Literature, and a class called Berkeley connect that pairs students up with a graduate student mentor. Altogether, this brings me to 18 units. I’m starting to worry about the toll this will take on me because my three english classes have large amounts of reading and my Japanese class is very difficult.
I was wondering if dropping an English class, which would bring me down to 14 units, would damage my record in the eyes of graduate school admissions staff. I don’t want to appear incapable of a rigorous workload, but I want to transition well into life at Berkeley. The comparative literature class doesn’t even count toward my major, but I’m very interested in the class’ readings. The English major mentorship class is pass or fail and only one unit. So I would only have three real classes this semester.
Will this hurt me when applying to doctorate programs?