ESS 507: Registration Tips

Laura Vogt:
Hello, and welcome to the not-so-secret guide to being a Berkeley Engineer. My name is Laura Vogt. I’m the Associate Director for Marketing and Communications for the College of Engineering and your podcast host. This summer, I had a few interviews with returning students and I’ve divided them into a few podcasts to share their insights as Berkeley Engineers. Today, we have registration tips from Jasmine Bae, Aylin Figueroa Uribe, Jon Watkins and Bryan Wong. So what are their registration tips? We’ll start with Jasmine.

Jasmine Bae:
Yeah. So it again, really depends on you, but I guess since we’re going back to more of an in-person schedule overall, tips are cater to your schedule as much as possible and block out some times for when you want to study, when you went on to eat lunch or those things and keep that in mind, actually that goes for anyone that’s studying remote as well.

Jasmine Bae:
And for example for me, I like to be out on campus during a normal schedule that nine to five. I try to keep my classes and discussions all within that time period so I don’t have something at 8:00 AM and then another thing at 6:00 PM. And then you have five hours of nothing in between or something like that. That’s a good tip I would bring up.

Jasmine Bae:
And in regards to choosing what professor, what discussion, I also use Berkeley time, which is an ASUC sponsored website that tells you how full classes are as well as grading skills with professors and things like that to pick, “Oh, maybe this one might fill up by the time my enrollment comes” and things like that.

Jasmine Bae:
In addition, something I keep in mind for those that are going in person, is if you have any classes that are back to back, just checking where they are if it says on it, on Google maps or the Berkeley’s school map, it’s really useful to make sure that you’re not running from one side of campus to the other, unless you’re comfortable with that within 10 minutes.

Laura Vogt:
And so what did you learn about classes and registering after your first semester that you make sure you do now when you’re planning your next schedule?

Jasmine Bae:
Yeah. One thing I want to make sure is to put everything in my shopping cart before even my enrollment times are. So when I enroll, I just enroll and everything. In addition to that, I really try to find two or three backup classes that I’m also interested in that will also fit perfectly in my schedule, just in case things do full up or something happens with the class.

Jasmine Bae:
Also, I try to make sure that my schedule is really balanced between technicals and non-technicals. And actually I would say that it doesn’t have to be really non-technicals or breadth requirements, but it could also be something that you’re just really interested in or want to have something fun with that might not necessarily deal with exactly what your major, to get that balance between stuff that you’re learning for your major and things that are just for personal growth.

Laura Vogt:
Bryan, your turn, what are your registration tips?

Bryan Wong:
I definitely took to the internet to get a gist of what to expect. I know that the Berkeley subreddit will be popping off with a lot of course advice during the enrollment period. So definitely keep an eye out for all the opinions from random anonymous users there.

Bryan Wong:
At the same time, I’m pretty sure you’ll hear of popular websites, like Rate my professor. They’re pretty common to use when you look at what to expect from different professors in how they teach. But at the same time, the official Berkeley class or listing websites like guide.berkeley.edu are really helpful to understand exactly what classes you should take before and what the syllabus or curriculum will cover.

Bryan Wong:
But the most important website that I found was called Berkeley time. And this was honestly a lifesaver at times. It’s sponsored by the ASUC, that’s the Associate Students Organizations at UC Berkeley. And it has basically all the grades, grading distributions and enrollment history for almost every class that Berkeley has offered. So you can see and filter these with the professors or the semester in mind and get a feeling of what the average grades or difficulty curve is for these classes.

Bryan Wong:
And when you combine these with what you can get from the official classes.berkeley.edu page and those filters, because this website filters by major requirement and all that, it’s really easy to find out what professor to choose and what time slots to choose.

Bryan Wong:
So for time slots, I also recommend trying to refrain from having early morning classes, because you’ll never know when you might stay up late. It’s definitely hard for these introductory courses when they need to accommodate a huge class size. I’m sure this will be different when this upcoming semester is going to be more remote or have more online classes for these large classes, but at the same time, definitely try your best to have a more fluid sleeping schedule as well.

Laura Vogt:
And Jon, how about you?

Jon Watkins:
Definitely talk to, okay, all of the requirements and whatnot for degree pathways are out there and they’re online, but I would just say, make sure that you are or that if you’re worried about your registration or if you’re registering for classes, that you speak with your counselors, because they will act as a safety net.

Jon Watkins:
I can give actually two examples. So there was a… As a bio-engineering student, we have to take a class called BioE 26. It’s a half unit seminar class, but it’s required to graduate. I think in my third, actually fourth semester, this most recent semester, I had gotten into my head that I’ve been here long enough and I don’t need to talk to a counselor and I can register for classes and I’ll figure it out. And then lo and behold, at the end of the semester, I realized, “Oh my God, I haven’t taken BioE 26 and I need this to graduate and it’s not offered in the fall.” And it was this cascade effect that could have been avoided had I spoke with my advisor, Catherine, in the beginning of the semester about, “Okay, exactly what do I need and whatnot.” So yeah, definitely speak with counselors just to make sure you’re on the right track and getting the required coursework in.

Jon Watkins:
I took classes that weren’t required for my degree. I was able to do that. I’m taking a fifth semester and that was really helpful. I think, I don’t know. This is a little bit off topic of the actual registration, but I took CS 61A and 61B and I had already taken the equivalent of E7 at my community college. And you don’t need those as bio-engineering, but I did anyways. And those were probably the most valuable classes that I will walk away from Berkeley having taken. I would say stay within the lines as is required, but find those opportunities to branch out if you can, because they’re super, they can be really valuable.

Laura Vogt:
Now we’re going to change it up a bit with Aylin. Can you please tell us about your time as a peer advisor in Engineering Student Services? I know students won’t be able to meet with you over the summer, but I want them to know what they can expect when working with you during the fall semester.

Aylin Figueroa Uribe:
Yeah. So as a peer advisor, I’m there mainly if students have questions about… Like I said, a student’s opinion for a class or professor is always very helpful. I can say it for myself. I’ve asked so many other students to give me advice or what they thought about professors so that’s what I am.

Aylin Figueroa Uribe:
I’m that meet, as well as other peer advisors, we’re there for students to come and ask us, “Hey, can you look at this schedule that I’m currently thinking about? What do you think about the workload? Do you think it’s all manageable take these classes together? What do you think about these professors?” And issues like that, where it’s more all opinion-based, but at the end of the day, those opinions are really helpful because students are going to be honest with you.

Aylin Figueroa Uribe:
If they thought a class was hard, or if there was way too much work, we’re going to tell you, “Okay, I took these two classes together and both of them were a super heavy workload. I was able to manage but I just want to let you know that, that’s what you’re getting yourself into or maybe if we haven’t taken the class, we can reach out to other students or just find out ourselves and get back to you.

Aylin Figueroa Uribe:
So we’re there to help students navigate through Berkeley in an unstressful way, if possible. We’re there to help everyone and like you said, the network grows, the more people you know, the better because you may know someone and then they know someone else that can possibly help you if you ask them a question. And that’s what I am.

Aylin Figueroa Uribe:
Last year was my first year working as a peer advisor and I was just a second year. So I had only really gone through one school year at Berkeley. I hadn’t taken too many classes. I didn’t have too much… I had some knowledge for classes and professors, but there were some students that came to me asking for upper division classes.

Aylin Figueroa Uribe:
Well, I haven’t taken those yet, so I couldn’t talk based off my own experience, but I’ve joined organizations and just different clubs where I know older students and I would reach out to them and be, “Hey, someone asked me about this professor. Have you taken the class with this professor? Do you know anyone who has, can you tell me anything about it?” And they would share that information with me. And then I would share that with the student that would ask.

Aylin Figueroa Uribe:
So it was just like I said, this network, everything was growing. And it was actually really interesting because the first semester, last year, a lot of students come to peer advisors when it’s time to register for classes, because that’s when they want all this advice. And I actually talked to a few Civil Engineering students who wanted advice for next semester. And it was crazy to me because I always, as peer advisors, there was always students coming to our zoom calls asking for help.

Aylin Figueroa Uribe:
So it was really hard to sometimes build connections with those students, because there were so many with so many different questions and I found it really interesting how this past semester, I would attend office hours. And there was a few students who, when the professor was trying to introduce us to each other, for the students to know each other, they were, “Oh yeah, I actually talked to her last semester. She was the one who gave me advice that I should probably take this class.”

Aylin Figueroa Uribe:
And it was just crazy because when that would happen, I was, “I don’t remember this, but now that you’re saying it, I recall this so we did send a few emails back and forth.” So it’s just interesting because when they came to ask me the question, we completely didn’t know each other, I gave them the advice. They took it. We were in the same class together and after they said that, “Oh, I already knew her. She actually was my Peer Advisor.” And then for the rest of this past semester, we would text back and forth.

Aylin Figueroa Uribe:
If we ever need help with the class, we actually ask each other, “What are your classes you plan on taking next semester?” So it’s small things like that. It’s not like you have to talk to the students you meet 24/7, but it’s small things like that that matter, “Oh, which classes are you taking next semester? because we could possibly be in the same classes. We’ve already helped each other as following this past semester. It’s very possible that we can do it again next semester because we’re comfortable with each other now.”

Aylin Figueroa Uribe:
So it really just becomes a thing of networking. The first year everyone’s new to Berkeley, everyone feels alone, but in reality you aren’t the only one. So everyone’s scared to reach out. I know I was, I was scared to reach out. I was scared to reach out, but it’s really what got me in the position I am, where I know a lot of people and I’m in a way better position now to navigate through Berkeley than I could have been.

Laura Vogt:
Thank you again to Jasmine, Brian, John and Eileen for sharing registration tips through your experience. And thank you for listening to the not-so-secret guide to being a Berkeley Engineer. I look forward to podcasting with you next week.