ESS 108: Top Registration Tips

LAURA VOGT: Hi my name is Laura Vogt and I’m the communications and events manager for Engineering Student Services in the College of Engineering.  Welcome back this week for our 8th installment of the (Not So) Secret Guide to Being a Berkeley Engineer! This week we are excited to have Chaniqua Butscher join us to talk about Registration tips since you will all be registering beginning next week!  Welcome Chaniqua – why don’t you tell us about yourself?

CHANIQUA BUTSCHER: Thank you Laura. I am an ESS adviser and I’ve been working on Berkeley’s campus for going on twelve years now, I like to think that I have a lot of experience that goes along with that. Looking forward to meeting some new students this fall.

LAURA: Fantastic. Thank you again for joining us today. Registration begins on Monday, July 10th but you’ll need to check CalCentral for your registration appointment time. All of you should have completed Golden Bear Advising and have heard back from your ESS adviser about your proposed schedule.  If you have not completed the advising then you have a hold on your registration – you need to finish Golden Bear Advising before you’ll be able to register. So let’s get into the what you are here to find out – some last minute tips for registering and what we think is important to keep in mind as you make your first semester schedule.

Chaniqua – All colleges on campus have different requirements, different deadlines and the course requirements you could fulfill with your exams might not be the same. The information that you need about College of Engineering is on the COE website: coesandbox.berkeley.edu. Have questions about what requirements ap, ib and a-level exams fulfill? Check the exams page on the website. Have questions about Reading and comp requirement? Check the humanities and social sciences webpage. The information for your major is on the COE website – not a different colleges. One more time it is coesandbox.berkeley.edu.

Laura – How heavy of a schedule should you have for your first semester? Many of the semester program plans show 15-17 units.  If you have tested out of or already completed some of the courses you might think about taking fewer units. Keep in mind that you can sign up for 16 units and then once the semester starts you can drop a class if you realize that it is too much. Some classes have early drop deadlines – or example physics.  The early drop deadline is week and a half after classes begin, you can find the complete list online (we’ll link to the list on welcomengineer.berkeley.edu). All other classes have to be dropped by the 5th week of instruction.

Chaniqua – If you are already thinking about changing your major you’ll need to make an appointment with your ESS adviser during the fall semester.  Until then, you need to prioritize your current major when making your fall schedule.

Laura – Chemistry 1A and 1AL are two different classes. It is sometimes confusing to see that 1AL has a lecture but that is only the lecture for the lab – you’ll still have to take Chem 1A. We strongly suggest taking the lab with the lecture even though you could take the lab the following semester. The material goes together and will be easier in the long run.

Chaniqua – If you have the choice of enrolling in a course, lab or discussion at a less desirable time/day we strongly suggest you do that.  Even if there is a waitlist available for a time you would rather attend the class.  Being in a class is much more important than not getting into the class at all.  Some courses do not offer waitlists, such as physics and math. You are only completely enrolled in a course if there is a spot open in the lecture and a discussion/lab section.

Laura – Avoid time conflicts when making your schedule.  There are few exceptions to this rule.  Time conflicts will take weeks to override and it is important that you are in classes instead of waiting to see if the the time conflict will work out.

Chaniqua – If you are using the swap function there are two key notes.

1. You can not swap for a class if you are already enrolled in that class. For example if you are in Math 1B lecture 1 you can not swap for lecture 2.  If you want to change a discussion section that can be done by clicking options on your enrollment card – you do not need to swap.
2. If you want to swap make sure it is the last thing you do when registering. Otherwise if you are close to the unit cap and do the swap first, you will not be able to add another course.  However, if you have signed up for all your courses and are at the unit cap, then do the swap it will let you go over the cap. It is tricking the system into seeing that you are not enrolled in too many units.

Laura – Remember – if you are having problems registering for a class and you keep getting an error, check the “I” button in schedule planner for the course.  There might be a reserve cap that you didn’t see before.

Chaniqua –  Do not schedule courses with final exam conflicts. Exceptions are not made and instructors don’t offer a second exam time – so you will miss the final exam.

Laura – There’s a rumor that you don’t have to take more than two exams per day.  This is NOT true, there is no limit on the number of exams you can take on one day.

Chaniqua – Make friends with 8am start times. You most likely have been having to get up early for years, that probably won’t change this year.

Laura – Math 53 is not a prerequisite for Math 54. You can take these classes in whichever order you choose. Be aware some classes have Math 53 as a pre-req or concurrent course (such as physics 7B), so in those cases you’ll have to take the math class that is required.

Chaniqua – Most important – if you have a problem registering please send a ticket to Cal Student Central right away.  They are the folks running the registration software and can often help and/or understand the problem faster than us. The link will be on welcomengineer.berkeley.edu.

LAURA: And those are the tips we have for you and your upcoming registration. Good luck and thank you for tuning in this week and again, thank you Chaniqua for stopping by.

CHANIQUA: Thank you and happy scheduling to you all.

LAURA: Tune in next week, we are going to talk about what’s next for all of the incoming students.