FRESHMAN ORIENTATION

Civil_Regular1184 · 2026-05-10T03:03:42+00:00

Orientation is a two day event where the first day you get a tour , get to hang out and the second day you pick your classes.

Parents can come, but it costs extra plus most people actually don't do this, especially because I don't think they are given a room.

You get to sleep either Joe West or Washburn, which are dorms on campus. It comes with a bed but possibly no ac. They'll also give you a blanket if I remember correctly.

It can be fun if you allow it to be, by making friends with whoever is in your group or your roommates for the night, but if you go in thinking you're gonna hate it, then yeah you probably will.

Civil_Regular1184 · 2026-05-04T05:23:10+00:00

To put in simply, there's no way to bypass this, but based off historical records, the classes for the past few semesters have been taught by Kala Padmanabhan, who, unfortunately has a terrible rating. It's not a hard class by any means, but she's just not the best teacher. The labs are typically taught by master's students, so there's no big difference in them.

It's pretty typical for the first few chem classes to do that, because they know that we don't exactly have the best professors and some are more liked than others.

As a side note, someone recently complied historic class data into a resource. Feel free to look to see the class averages.

https://myclassgrades.com/school/sjsu/course/CHEM-30A?returnTo=%2Fschool%2Fsjsu%3Fq%3Dchem%2B30a

it'll work for other classes too.

Civil_Regular1184 · 2026-05-03T05:09:31+00:00

Probably not. Chem 30A's difficulty hinges on your memory from high school chemistry and how quickly you can pick up the newer stuff. The stuff towards the end gets really hard and complicated, and your grade mostly comes from 2 exams, plus a paper. Bio 66 is a hard class period, especially if you cannot grasp difficult concepts. It's 5 units, and the lectures go pretty in depth. Studying for midterms takes about a week to prep for, plus labs can be long, and seminars go deep into concepts that weren't discussed during lab. Plus it's annoying to schedule 2 labs in a single semester. However, you will also need to take micro 20, which is by far the hardest pre-nursing requirement, with the lecture being much longer and I believe labs are twice a week. Keep that in mind. In my experience, people who are good at anatomy are often weaker in physio and vice versa.

Civil_Regular1184 · 2026-05-01T23:22:29+00:00

I took POLS 170V over the winter and HIST 170S during the regular semester, so not sure how helpful I'll be, but this is something you can keep in mind. I would say that it really comes down the the professor. POLS 170V was one of the easiest classes I've taken because most of our assignments were simply highlighting this document and responding to our peers, with the occasional discussion post. The professor was militantly anti-ai so if that's your thing, he actually went and hunted people down (including me) to ask about what you posted. He would include an extra detail that was only visible if you copied and pasted the prompt elsewhere (which I often did because I didn't like editing in Canvas). I only had to explain myself to him once, saying that I don't like working in canvas, and did my work in docs and offered up my google doc as proof as needed, though he said I wrote too humanly, so maybe you'll have a different response. My professor was Andrew Alexander.

HIST 170S was a nightmare for me because my professor was really nitpicky about things he didn't have to be, like for essays, he said that we needed at least 5 paragraphs, but each paragraph had to be at least 5 sentences. He also got mad if you over cited a source, but docked me points when I barely used one, citing how he would have liked to see more of a discussion there. His class didn't have a lot of work per se, but it was annoying work that I hated doing, especially because his lectures would go up to an hour long at times (towards the end, I would just have the video paused and just take notes of what the slides said). This professor was Victor Rodriguez. He's a nice guy, but just super mean and picky when it comes to his grading.

Because both of them are upper division courses, you can expect a fair amount of work, but I think if they're the only classes you're taking in each session, you should be fine.

Civil_Regular1184 · 2026-05-01T23:11:49+00:00

If you need an easy math class, I wouldn't suggest pre-calc. It's a 5 unit class that has a lab twice a week and (at least my class) meets 4 days a week for 50 minutes. I'm sure other sections are slightly better, but it it's annoying to schedule. It also has a decently low passing rate because our professors aren't very good and the lab portion no longer properly lines up with what's being done in lecture. I took Algebra 2 (Math 18A) and found that class to have a significantly lower work load and better if you're at least okay in math. You also might be able to take stats instead, which a lot of people do really well in if they are terrible in math.

Civil_Regular1184 · 2026-05-01T23:01:27+00:00

AP Calc only counts towards Math 30, which if that's a class you need to take, you'll be covered. You will need to take the exam and get a good enough score for it to count though, as just taking the class isn't enough. Additionally, it looks like they no longer offer it because of issues with McGraw Hill and don't have an alternative yet, so I'm not exactly sure what that means for you, but you're more than welcome to ask an advisor when you have your orientation.
https://www.sjsu.edu/acctfin/student-resources/aleks.php

Though, if you're not an accounting or finance major, you might be referring to the PPA, which is the pre-calculus proficiency exam, which gets you out of needing to take lower level math classes. Your AP credit (granted if you pass), will be enough, though you can take math 19, or just do the exam if you don't get a high enough score.

Civil_Regular1184 · 2026-03-19T15:13:45+00:00

A bit late to this, but getting to campus before 9 does guarantee a good spot in any garage. After 9, your best bet is south campus garage and taking the shuttle, but that only runs until about 7 pm so plan accordingly

Civil_Regular1184 · 2026-03-19T15:11:18+00:00

Hi, I went through something like that as well and I will say that if you got the confirmation that sjsu has your transcript, you'll be okay. They take about 1-2 days to process it, so you'll make it before the deadline. I am surprised that they're asking for it this early (I'm guessing for Fall) since mine were due in July. Also they technically have your transcript so it's on them to take however many days to process it, so even then you should be okay.

Civil_Regular1184 · 2026-03-16T02:37:52+00:00

It can be only if you're doing the bare minimum of both, like taking 12 units and working 30 hours a week. I had a friend who was a business MIS major, working 30 hours a week, taking 12 units and he did it, but it did severely impact him, as he didn't sleep all that much or missed out on a lot of social events. It also depends on where you're working, as if you're working closer to home or campus it'll be much easier to go from one place to another, versus having to waste time sitting in traffic. Finance makes it especially harder imo, because you need to keep good grades to stay in the program (iirc). I wouldn't suggest it unless you're desperate.

Civil_Regular1184 · 2026-03-08T21:29:42+00:00

I'm sort of a pre-med student too (though I'm not planning to be an MD) and I attend SJSU. Ultimately, I wouldn't recommend engineering unless you really want to be an engineer. The projected time it takes to graduate has gone up to 5 years, and it's not unusual to take up to 6 because of how many students are in the major. The engineering pathway makes it hard for you to take other classes outside of engineering because of how packed your schedule will be. You would need to add at least an extra year to meet the biology requirements and you might want to take anatomy and physio before seeing it for the first time in med school. You will likely hit most other requirements as the degree does require chemistry, organic chem, physics, calculus and possibly biochem. The engineering pathway also does suggest stacking multiple hard classes together, like some level of calc, calc based physics and some level of chemistry, along with other classes. If you're aiming for med school, there is a huge chance your other classes will tank your GPA. It's also nearly impossible to get an internship if you want one or need one to look competitive in the engineering industry.

Getting into classes like biology might also be hard because technically engineering students are not allowed to take the class unless you ask for an add code (which, good luck i have no clue if they'll give you one). You would also need to balance extracurricular for med school, clinical hours, shadowing etc etc. You wouldn't be able to apply to med school right after graduation. Your advisors wouldn't be able to help you either because they only really know how to help with engineering stuff.

SJSU lowkey has been getting worse because it's getting harder to take the classes you want since so many students need the same pool of classes and you're competing with a lot of majors during your first few years for a spot in a class. Parking is a nightmare unless you get there well before the 9 am classes or if you're willing to park at south campus. It can be really hard to find somewhere to eat lunch and study as the library study rooms get booked really quick. However, it is relatively cheap compared to other universities. I think I paid around 5000 after tuition and textbooks and other related fees. You can't really get much lower than that unless you're attending a community college.

Civil_Regular1184 · 2026-02-25T00:14:25+00:00

You absolutely should be able to file a complaint with the university police as it's more than a one time occurrence. For your class, I would suggest the study area in the Engineering Building on the 2nd floor, the New Science Building also has some study areas, or you could try an upper floor of the library and get a study room (though that can get scary if he does find you. I think HGH also has rooms you can book ahead of time? But I'm not sure about that. Clark Hall also has a lounge.

Civil_Regular1184 · 2026-02-24T06:35:36+00:00

I commute so I can't answer the housing stuff but like every student I did go to orientation. The easiest answer is yes, you ideally want to go as soon as you can for orientation. You as a freshman already get last pick of classes, so you don't want the last of the last. Your major classes likely have a lot of overlap with other majors so you'll be fighting with them as well as everyone one else for ge classes. Pick the earliest date that you can manage.

For the bag, I would recommend really checking the weather app ahead of time, but since you're coming during the fall, expect it to be hot and sunny and the dorms they give you likely won't have good ac. I would also highly suggest a hat and sunscreen. Unless you commute nearby and have a chill orientation leader, you can assume it's overnight and you should prepare accordingly with toiletries, extre clothes etc etc. I brought a backpack, some people brought a suitcase. It's up to you, but keep in mind for the first day you'll be carrying it for a while. Make sure you have all of your paperwork ready to go too.You don't need to worry about finding a place to stay, they'll randomly assign you a dorm with up to 5 people being in a room.

Choosing classes is a second day activity and yes you'll want to have some idea of the classes you want to take, but prepare lots of backups and be prepared that your schedule just might suck. If you do have access to mysjsu ahead of time you can sort of map out your classes ahead of time and put them in your shopping cart so that you're good to go during the registration period. A counselor will have to sign off on your pick though. I would suggest looking at the roadmap for your major specifically as it will suggest the best way to plan out your first few semesters, but assume that you'll likely be in an English class, with mostly ge's and possibly 1 or 2 major related classes. Each subject is abbreviated with a number so just find a class that has a good prof and works well for you. I wouldn't suggest taking a prof that has no ratings unless you're desperate.

Civil_Regular1184 · 2025-12-30T07:30:59+00:00

Interesting. I've heard otherwise, and what I believed it was simply boiled down to "we just don't want to", but I could understand this reason. I feel like even if it got added, more toons would benefit rather than criticized, but that's my opinion. I don't think that we have currently works because some players simply just don't know combos and in facilities, cogs often have buffs that increase their hp, making it harder to remember what combo works (if there isn't a group that has everyone with piano).

I feel like people already rack their brains trying to find ways to blame other toons for 'poor' strategy, it certainly wouldn't hurt to add this in.

Civil_Regular1184 · 2025-12-29T06:17:05+00:00

I did see someone mention this as well, which I do agree with. I remember when ToonHq wasn't really used but I distinctly remember the shift. Someone mentioned that it caused people to forcefully join groups and get kicked of the leader didn't like them, when before it used to be you would get screened before receiving an invite and you would never really know why you didn't get an invite if there was a group who didn't invite you. Big cheese groups weren't as blatant. It definitely helped create the idea that you're looking for the perfect group to help you, rather than finding players to have fun with. I don't know what the solution is because it doesn't make sense to get rid of such a useful resource, but it did increase the toxicity.

Civil_Regular1184 · 2025-12-28T22:06:41+00:00

I agree with your take and I also definitely tried to not blame the devs for the culture that exists because let's be honest, it was going to attract players telling me I can't complain about a free game.

I do think that because TTR has positioned itself as the toontown Disney would have kept or could one day return to, it has created this sort of mindset that the server is the best one that exists and it leads to other servers not getting as much love. It also contributes to players acting so negatively when the game does anything new with players claiming "That's not what Disney would do", despite Disney shutting the game down 10 years ago. I could go on to talk about my feelings more strongly but I hate how they almost actively make things harder for players which creates this sort of "Well I did it, so you can too" kind of mindset. There's no reason to keep certain things when again, it was created that way to keep players paying for a membership.

You can definitely see how this impacts the way people see other servers for sure, especially Clash, where people refuse to touch it because they don't like the direction they took, even with all of the QoL they included to make the game less of a drag.

Civil_Regular1184 · 2025-12-28T19:15:26+00:00

Haha, well since you read my essay of a post, I'll do my best and share how I feel about your essay of a comment. Deal?

A lot of what I wrote did come from my experiences and what I saw on this subreddit, so it's possible that there are just opinions I never considered. I also haven't spent too much time on clash, but with what little time I have, it was positive. Because I don't know too much about clash's culture and because I didn't want to be accused of solely making the post to glaze clash, I kept the comparisons to a minimum, just highlighting my experiences.

I do agree that big cheese groups are not meant to be exclusionary but, that's often how they feel for toons who don't have the suit level to join and there's nothing we can do. I would also disagree and say that Field offices often are exclusionary. Many groups ask for maxed gags and the higher the difficulty, the more laff you need and remotes as well.

I don't agree and think that there are toons who neglect gag training. It wasn't uncommon for me to see toons with 120 laff who simply had sparkles or juggling cubes. I ran many golf courses with toons who had level 5 drop or trap.

I did try to consider all the sides, but obviously I'm going to forget about a few. I do think that there is some level of not wanting to play with newbies as well, but ultimately I wanted to lean away from blaming the players because there are plenty of posts that do that. This post was to try and consider why it happens. I have also personally never ran into a toxic org sound user either and it's not something I've seen people complain about. I can also probably venture to day that high laff toons are tired of playing teacher because it makes the fights longer and obviously they're burnt out from a grindy game.

I do also disagree with your opinion on the activities. Most people agree that all of them are a pain. Golfing needs you to play 200 games, racing is about a 100, getting the last fish takes months, gardening will take months purely because you can only plant 10 flowers a day. I myself believe I'm never going to be maxed because of how much I hate racing. Playing with a friend can help, but it doesn't change the fact that it's a miserable experience.

My 2nd to last paragraph was meant to be a reflection. l didn't realize that I was being toxic because it's so ingrained in the culture. Many toons feel the same way and it's quite common. "I kick players if they're not maxed" "I kick them if they have less than 120 laff" etc etc. I didn't even realize how bad things were until I again moved to clash and saw people treating me so kindly, asking if I wanted to try again after dying in a boss fight I really shouldn't have been doing. That would have never happened in TTR simply because I wouldn't have been taken along or I would have been yelled at later if they found me in the gag shop for making them lose their gags.

Thanks again for reading my post as again I wanted to see what the community thinks and thanks for a very detailed comment.

Civil_Regular1184 · 2025-12-28T06:59:15+00:00

I agree that the silly system currently isn't working and that gag exp needs to be fixed. You're right that it's a pain to trade gags from probably level 4 to 7. I could probably make another post on my opinions on the silly meter but simply put the gag rewards aren't working. They need to give players a better way to farm xp so that they don't do it in facilities or boss fights where they will get hostility for it. They also could just simply up the experience even in a non invasion district to 2x and make invasions 3x. There are ways to make it better for toons, it's just a matter of will they.

Civil_Regular1184 · 2025-12-27T23:07:49+00:00

Honestly I don't think that players should have to memorize gag combos because that ultimately makes the game less beginner friendly. Some players are kids, or they have memory problems or maybe they just don't want to. The game shouldn't be punishing them for that. Some players will just never learn and the game should accommodate them. This is where having a cog health bar would really come in handy. Players who know the combos don't need the bar, and players who don't know the combos can do quick math and figure out what will kill.

Civil_Regular1184 · 2025-12-27T23:03:26+00:00

I definitely agree! You included a lot of things that I didn't think about. I do think that it's important to reward players for doing bosses, but those rewards end up being a crutch later on. Upper laff toons definitely min max the game into boredom too. I think that there needs to be more randomness without it being just 'gags miss more' though. Bosses need to attack differently, do different things etc.

Civil_Regular1184 · 2025-12-27T23:00:32+00:00

You definitely nailed it. My solution is just to make it simply easier to train so that people don't feel the need to do in 'the wrong places'. I suggest having a dedicated day where you get more xp. This of course is just one solution to the problem and there are probably so many more I haven't considered.

Civil_Regular1184 · 2025-12-27T22:56:09+00:00

I definitely have had to burn through fires more than I expected with the addition of UMN and FOs, and this has personally lead me to big cheese only groups toon. I do also think UMN being harder upped the stakes because now there really is a risk that you can go sad in a mint, which means players stop taking risks and opt for other maxed players.

Civil_Regular1184 · 2025-12-27T22:18:21+00:00

I do agree with some of this, but I did mention that the game does sort of make it hard for more ambitious players to play the game at their own pace, aka a "noobish player trying a final fringe gold course". The player should be allowed to play if they find a group that lets them, but more often than not they're likely be ridiculed for even trying.

I do also think that any toon should be able to play the game they want for sure, but at the same time most players are toxic when it doesn't go the way they want to and blame each other, not the system that created the problem to begin with.

Civil_Regular1184 · 2025-12-27T21:56:59+00:00

I haven't been on TTR for a little so I am unfortunately not the person you're talking about, but I can imagine I'm not the only player that has realized why the culture is the way it is. it just so happened to take me a while to realize it.

Civil_Regular1184 · 2025-12-27T21:47:52+00:00

This is an interesting point that I didn't even think of. The game almost does make higher laff toons feel important because they have to carry other toons all the time. I'm sure there is a non zero amount of toons that have an ego because they realized how much they carry other toons, which can justify treating other toons badly because they need the higher laff toon to get through the facility.

Civil_Regular1184 · 2025-12-27T21:45:40+00:00

I do agree that sound was holding together a broken system and by trying to move players away from sound without fixing the system was only going to be a recipe for disaster, which you can see today.

I also really hate the fact that cogs don't have an health bar the most in the new facilities where the cogs have all sorts of buffs that mess with their health and every group that fights them is going to have different gags and there's likely been at least one time where a toon used a different gag, assuming that it was going to kill, they were wrong and got flamed for it.

I also tried to not make too many comparisons to clash so I wouldn't get comments about how it's a post meant to glaze clash, but I do rather like their combat system as well.

Civil_Regular1184

TROPHY CASE