Scheduling classes at Berkeley
Ok.. So I have now officially settled into my class schedule, but it was by no means an easy process to get it sorted.
Berkeley’s Telebears system begins before you arrive in the country. I managed to get the telebears site (the site you sign up to classes with) working and immediately found big problems with the list of classes that I had agreed with my home University that I would take (as they met the requirments of my course). For a start some of the classes didn’t exist any more and there didnt seem to be a similar alternative (e.g comparative Psychology). Then I realised that 6 of the 8 classes I had to choose my first term classes from had exams on the same day! Fortunately there were two times on this one day, but that still meant that by taking two classes I immediately ruled out four others (and as I had a late appointment time on telelbears I did not immediately enrol for many of these classes)…
Beware it is almost impossible to sort out all your classes in advance and I do not know anyone who actually did. It worried me a little, but we were all told that if we just emailed the professors, explained our situations and turned up to the classes we would probably get in. This is only partially true. You do have a better chance of getting in, however I was turned away by some courses that were full and gave no exceptions. . and the longer you leave it, the harder it gets (with the occasional exception of a class that lets you straight in last minute). I had quite an experience of trying to get into many different classes, being turned away, or told to hang on without any certainty that I would get a place.. and then also finding out that 4 classes only makes 12 units and i needed 13 units as I come under the college of letters and science over here.. so the question of whether to take a whole other full class or not arose!.. It would be boring to ramble on about all that, but if you are taking Psychology classes at Berkeley, or just having difficulties with telebears i’m happy to answer any q’s.
What would I have done differently?? Once the time came that you are allowed to put more classes than you are going to take onto telebears, I recommend doing just that. If you are not enrolled in classes do two things. Email the proffessor directly (i did this, but not until very late in the process) and also try and find a backup class that you can enrol in incase you don’t get your other one (that way you won’t try the back-up later and find thats full too). Worrying a little was useful for me as it made me try lots of options and my classes sorted out great (partly due to making an effort and probably a bit due to luck)
I ended up getting classes with great proffessors (which was pretty lucky as I didnt actually take that into account when I was selecting my subjects) I also managed to get units for being a research apprentice. under the URAP scheme. It is 9 hours extra commitment a week, but I get to run experiments and work alongside one of the professors in an area that really interests me and it’l look great on my CV as well as fulfilling the research requirment that Glasgow University sets. (Although its not good to rely on this as its very competitive and only a couple of people are selected to work with each proffessor.. You can increase your chances by applying to more than one proffessor, a friend of mine did this and managed to get a place in a different lab to me- I only applied for one position and am lucky that I got it: but URAP is worth looking into..But even if you do get it, you don’t find out until after classes have already started, so you need to have a back-up.. even if that means taking another class that you end up dropping – like I did and getting a $10 fee to drop it..!)
So, I remember very clearly that sorting my classes was a stressful and annoying process that went on forever, but its harder for me to express that now as it all worked out. I do think that you need to try to make it work out (and not just leave everything to fate), but don’t worry too much if you find it difficult.. You are an exception if you don’t. Also You can only sort the fall semester to begin with (I still don’t have my spring semester classes sorted, but I’m hoping that it’l be easier second time round!)
Good Luck..
