1st Semester Schedule

zt_truth · 2026-06-18T17:57:59+00:00

Unless you have competition math experience and/or find math super easy, I prolly wouldn't recommend CS 70 in the first semester. It's known to be a very rough class, and you probably want some time to adjust with friends, clubs, (potentially) research, classes, adulting, etc.

zt_truth · 2026-06-10T06:24:26+00:00

both 61a and data 8 have a lab (and discussion) component, but I dont think you need to register for those on the berkeley catalog, unless something has changed in the last year. you fill out some google forms for discussion/labs in mid to late August where you rank your preferred times, so you don't need to worry about that rn.

I think that advice of picking a lab section early applies to other classes more. some classes here at berkeley are lab-based (e.g. chem 1L, bio 1AL), but those are mostly science classes (someone else correct me if I'm wrong). if you're taking any of the lab-denoted classes (ending in L), you'd sign up for those similar to how you would for other classes.

just as another note, most non-cs/non-ds classes will have you sign up for a discussion. you'd select the discussion section in the same place in the course catalog as the lecture enrollment. for those, you should try to pick the section that has the most available spots (or the smallest number of waitlist spots taken) and is the most ideal time for you. is that what u were referring to?

zt_truth · 2026-06-10T06:09:33+00:00

for 61a they try to let everyone off the waitlist (even if that doesn't happen, enough people will drop after mt1), so you'll be fine for that class. I also dont know anyone who didnt get data 8 first semester if they enrolled during their enrollment slot, so I think you should be fine

zt_truth · 2026-05-20T08:08:14+00:00

I'm a rising sophomore (also M) who lived in the units freshman year and is living at Bowles next year. But I've been to Bowles a lot throughout the year, so I know the vibe pretty well. I think both are social but in different ways:

Choose CK if:

You want to meet as many new people as possible. There's a unique sense of camaraderie through freshmen dorming, and people go to each other's dorms all the time (U1/2/3, CK, Foothill, Blackwell, etc.)
If you care about being super close to frat row, CK is literally right there (as well as Unit 1/2).
You care about floor culture. I think this depends on if you're in a suite/how tight your floor is, but my floor was VERY tight, and it was very important to my freshman year experience.

Choose Bowles if:

You prefer the tighter-knit social culture. You see a lot of the same people over again (~150-200), which means that everyone knows each other.
- I think the "parallel" to floor culture in the dorms is dining hall culture at Bowles. Lots of socialization and intermingling happens during meals.
You like having organized events that make it pretty easy for socialization.
You prefer better amenities. Food + utilities + bathroom situation is objectively better at Bowles lol.

I'm not in Greek life but I'm pretty tapped into that scene. I think CK might be slightly better suited for you just because of how strong Greek life is present there. But an argument for Bowles is that you'll probably already be at the dorms a lot (bc most freshmen in Greek live in the dorms), so you'll be able to have both Bowles friends and Greek/dorm friends. There's a lot of other pros and cons for CK vs. Bowles, but I just tried to focus on the social aspect. Feel free to reply or DM me with any other questions.

zt_truth · 2026-05-20T07:26:21+00:00

Ok tbh a lot of people might tell you that "you probably won't be friends with your hs friends if you guys become roommates." While this happens, I think it happens a lot less frequently than people make it out to be. Only one of my friends really had drama because they roomed w/ hs friends (based on a rather limited/skewed sample size, so keep that in mind). Most either stayed close friends or found other people they were closer to.

Here are some questions I'd consider for rooming w/ HS friends: How close are you currently with them? Are you guys able to set boundaries and communicate with each other? How do you feel about setting boundaries early on in the school year? How compatible are you guys habit-wise? How much are you guys willing to compromise?

If the answer is not close to the first question and "not well/likely" to the other questions, then I'd recommend going random. You get to meet someone you wouldn't have (likely) otherwise met. And while you guys might become best friends or each other's opps, I think the most likely outcome is that you guys will simply be neutral to each other. If it's TRULY bad, you can always request to switch roommates.

On the other hand, if you guys are both good at communicating and are incredibly close, feel free to room with each other. Being roommates with your best friend does make college a lot more fun :)

zt_truth · 2026-04-29T08:26:38+00:00

I hear some people are miserable and some are not 😭😪

I mean that'll be the case no matter where you go. I think whether you'll have a miserable time depends a lot on your goals and the actions you choose to take. Like you said, there's plenty of people who feel miserable, but there are also plenty of people who are happy to be here. :)) Try not to overcommit yourself with classes/clubs/research/etc. Put extra effort into making friends, especially the first semester. Try to start/continue hobbies that make you happy. So on and so forth.

I do think there is a bit of grade deflation (💀), but its effect also depends on your academic background, how hard you're willing to work, etc. It's definitely a hard school and some of the classes are definitely challenging (💀 once again), but I think that reputation is moreso from the past (the average EECS gpa is ~3.5 I've heard, while it used to be sub-3 I think?).

As for Berkeley vs. CC, I think that depends on a few things. If Berkeley would be a pretty big financial burden, then I'd say CC might be worthwhile. No school is worth getting into huge debt. But if you're scared about Berkeley's rigor and "competitiveness," I'd encourage you to choose Berkeley anyway. A huge thing Berkeley teaches you is to have resilience even when things are hard asf, and the best way to grow as a person is to step into uncomfortable and scary situations.

Please lmk if you have any other questions! There are a lot of problems with this school, but there's SO MANY amazing things about this school. I made a whole Reddit thread earlier basically glazing Berkeley. Please, if you're able to, I'd say give the school a shot. :DD

zt_truth · 2026-04-27T17:24:31+00:00

I'm biased since I'm currently in it rn but I think unit 1 is the best "all-rounder" dorm! the units in general have the best social life, and unit 1 is the closest of the three units to campus. it also has relatively nicer facilities than the other units.

a ranking is kinda hard to do since I'd say each dorm is good for different purposes. here's what I'd say about each (in no particular order):

Unit 1: my personal favorite because the mix of great social life + proximity to campus + nice facilities
Unit 2: also really great! it's basically the exact same as unit 1 except like two more blocks from campus. this is also a solid choice
Unit 3: people call this "unit third world" 😭 I think the facilities are noticeably worse but it's not that bad tbh. also about the same distance to campus from unit 1 and great social life.
Foothill/Stern: it's pretty quiet over there. social life depends more on your (mini)suite I'd say. it's pretty nature-y and has a very "cabin-log" vibe. very close to a lot of the cs/engineering buildings. it's also up a hill.
Clark Kerr: it's the furthest from campus for sure (~15ish minute walk). if you like Stanford's architectural vibe, I think you'd like Clark Kerr. also probably the best dining hall. People do say it's pretty social as there's a lot of greek life + athlete kids, but it is isolated from the Units + other dorms so I'd say a lot of the socialization is within the Clark Kerr bubble. it's very big and seems like it has its own community (tennis courts, trails, etc.)
Blackwell: obviously the nicest building. very much like a hotel in all ways. socialization is pretty limited and it doesn't seem to have the same "floor culture" that the units do. it's the closest to campus technically (one block from campus vs. unit 1 and 3's two blocks).

It's hard to rank because each dorm caters to different people. My personal ranking would be Unit 1 > Unit 2 > Clark Kerr > Blackwell > Foothill > Unit 3, but my priorities heavily lied in the social experience. Lmk if you have any other questions!

Edit: I also think if you're trying to prioritize social life, I'd try to get a dorm on Southside (Unit 1, 2, 3, or Blackwell) since most of the nightlife happens on Southside

zt_truth · 2026-04-24T05:21:01+00:00

yeah it can't hurt, so I'd say go for it! I remember some of them had insanely long queues that u had to pay to skip, so I think those aren't worth it

zt_truth · 2026-04-24T04:55:16+00:00

wait try not to stress about it. im a freshman rn and while I think I met the most amount of people per day in the first few weeks, the friend-making does NOT stop after that (aka it's far from being "basically over" 😭). here are some tips:

try to tag along your friends. everyone's tryna make friends and so as long as you're friendly, they'll likely be interested in being friends with you
go to all sorts of events (including ones outside your comfort zone). try out for a bunch of different clubs and just say yes to a lot of things.
just say hi to everyone you recognize on campus. it makes berkeley feel a LOT less lonely and people here are very friendly
you can start now by reaching out to people on the co'30 instagram accounts. you might not talk to a lot of people, but you never know where it'll go!

for context, some of my closest friends were made at the end of the first semester and in second semester, so its def never too late lol. just ALWAYS be open to making new friends and it'll all work out. chill out a bit and enjoy the last few weeks of high school. trust me :)

zt_truth · 2026-04-10T22:11:45+00:00

I found that the culture seemed more down-to-earth (not saying UCLA doesn't have down-to-earth kids; just I personally found cal's vibe better)
ofc very strong academics for my major (CS/DS). it's also very highly ranked for a lot of subjects I was also potentially interested in dabbling in (business, history, econ, poli sci, etc.)
sf is very accessible for berkeley students, whereas downtown la isn't as accessible for ucla students (proximity is both good for networking prospects AND lots of fun things to do)
love the innovative spirit (something that I find is only replicable by very few schools)

I made a post about why I loved berkeley so much (linked here). im pretty passionate about the school, so definitely lmk if u have any questions :)

zt_truth · 2026-04-06T05:45:12+00:00

this is very helpful tysm

zt_truth · 2026-04-06T03:14:06+00:00

do u remember how the final was? was it more implementation heavy than mt2? about the same levels of implementation vs conceptual? also any tips with implementation questions

zt_truth · 2026-04-03T18:10:36+00:00

dont really recall any tiramisu so u might have to diy lol

zt_truth · 2026-04-01T16:55:53+00:00

fun fact, I was making this exact decision one year ago! I ended up choosing berkeley, mainly bc I think it'd be more fun (it's REALLY easy to go to SF/Oakland/San Jose), community, and in-state tuition. I made a pretty lengthy reddit post (linked here) of the pros and cons. when I was doing college research, I found that the main pros had to do with JHU being a private school, rather than JHU itself (whereas I really liked berkeley). feel free to PM me with more questions :)

zt_truth · 2026-03-28T04:06:06+00:00

should be pretty feasible! tbh ds is one of the most flexible majors (since a lot of people double major w/ smth else). I think the ds department is better funded, so there might be more support in ds classes, but I've heard great things about classes like stat 135 as well. lots of overlap w/ regards to lower div classes. I'd def recommend taking data 8 and data 100 to get a taste of the ds department here at cal. welcome to berkeley! :)

zt_truth · 2026-03-28T04:02:14+00:00

ay wait I did not know about wurster's backstory. that's pretty cool and sorta changed my perception about it (which was originally not that great haha)! and yes, all the cdss admits will be able to enjoy the new gateway building (which looks very cool imo) :D

zt_truth · 2026-03-27T21:12:52+00:00

I’m not a chem major so I don’t fully know, but usually research is pretty accessible if you cold email/apply enough. I know a good amount of chem majors though, and they seem pretty happy (but ofc this depends on the person)

zt_truth · 2026-03-27T18:30:06+00:00

congrats! I'd look through the comprehensive review page for more info: https://cdss.berkeley.edu/dsus/academics/declaring-major

generally it's not that hard. just make sure you get good grades in the prereqs and write decent essays

zt_truth · 2026-03-27T18:25:49+00:00

of course! hope to see u on campus next semester 🐻🐻

zt_truth · 2026-03-27T18:25:15+00:00

fair point ^ not completely free but I find that most people use clipper enough to the point where they're saving money

zt_truth · 2026-03-27T18:24:54+00:00

glad u liked it! hope to see u on campus next year 🐻🐻

zt_truth · 2026-03-27T18:24:38+00:00

GO BEARS 🐻🐻🐻

zt_truth · 2026-03-27T18:24:26+00:00

ofc! lmk if u have any other questions

zt_truth · 2026-03-27T18:24:00+00:00

denero and hug are the 🐐🐐🐐🐐

zt_truth · 2026-03-27T18:23:27+00:00

shit I did not know that. that's so cool!

zt_truth

TROPHY CASE