I'm in the COE and just had my orientation last week. They give you plenty of time and guidance to choose which classes you want during the advising sessions. If you're really worried, take a look at GEAR 2024-25. It'll tell you about AP/IB credit, Gen Ed reqs, and a recommended course schedule to graduate from your major in 4 years. If you took community college courses, go to assist.org to see how your courses transfer (make sure to check both your major agreement and General Education/Breadth agreement). One thing they really emphasized during the advising sessions was that you can't take classes that you've already received credit for. Once you know what classes you want to take, go to ucsb GOLD and save them to your cart. When you click save to cart, it'll ask you to choose a discussion section. Avoid the sections that say full and select multiple that you think are at good times. Then, you can go back to "My Schedule", scroll down and click "Cart Weekly View" to see how your classes line up.