My Advice to Incoming Freshman

Learn from my first mistakes at Berkeley

Posted on September 5, 2019

My Advice to Incoming Freshman

I was a straight A student back in high school and at least the stereotype for me was that taking as many AP Classes as possible and getting good grades in them meant that I was smart. For me doing more and doing well was something I took pride in. I came into my freshman year at Berkeley with the same mindset. I was at a school with some of the brightest kids in the country and I needed to somehow set myself apart from everyone. Many times I heard sayings like

“Take your first semester at Berkeley easy, it’s a big adjustment and a different rigor” - random Berkeley student

I would then proceed to look at all the averages of classes I was gonna take on Berkeley Time and scoff at people getting Bs or B+s in these classes (especially in the CS classes). I’ve always been above average and what was to change in college. Oh how wrong I was

The thing about a top university is they humble everyone real quick. No one is above the system especially at Berkeley. So I took a pretty heavy course load my first semester. The recommended course load for a freshman is around 14 units. A unit at Berkeley is defined as 3 hours of course work per week. For some people doing about 42 hours of work per week is pretty good, but for me? Nah. I wanted to do 57. That’s right, I took 19 units my first semester of college. The classes included:

  • CS61A: Structure and Interpretations of Programs (B average)
  • Math 54: Linear Algebra and Differential Equations (B average)
  • Data 8: Foundations of Data Science (B+ average)
  • History 7A: History of U.S. from Settlement to Civil War (B+ average)
  • Introduction to Mathematical Thinking (Pass No Pass Class)

I thought I could handle all this course load consisting of three technical classes and one class I need to take for a breath requirement through my College of Letters and Sciences. Keep in mind also, for me to declare my CS major, I have to get an average of a 3.3 GPA (B+ average) over three CS classes at Berkeley and one of them is CS61A.

Meme
Trying to declare CS at Berkeley

Needless to say even though I put in some considerable amount of work towards all my classes (finals week was almost the end of me), but I still ended up doing worse than I hoped to do coming into the semester.

I hope you take this story with a grain of salt and learn form my mistakes. So here are a few tips to survive college and life in general patented by me, a college student trying to figure it out.

1. Create Priorities

Life isn’t all about school. If you spend every waking moment going to class, then discussions, then lab, then office hours, then review session etc., you’re going to go insane. Trust me I almost did. Create a clear cut plan of what you want to get done in a week so that you can maintain a balance in your life. When college arrives, every student is the driver of their car called your time and we have to do everything to not swerve off the road into the deep end. Create clear cut priorities of this is the amount of classes I want to take per semester so that I can do my major in X amount of time. I want to work out this many times in a week, and spend this much time with friends. When I know how much time I want to dedicate to each important activity in my life I end up being a lot happier in the end.

2. Plan the Work, Work the Plan

“If you want to get everything that you want done, create a plan and then execute it. Plan the work, then work the plan Jai.” - my Dad

Thanks Dad. I wish I had listened to you sooner. Once you have a set of priorities, you have to block out time each day of every week to spend that dedicated amount of time on that priority. Most of the time, when I don’t have a schedule of things to do, especially on the weekends, I just end up wasting time either on YouTube or Reddit or talking to friends or what not. Then Sunday night roles around and then BAM, all my priorities hit me like a truck. Take my advice, and avoid my suffering. I’m going to link this article by a former Berkeley CS alum who has his own blog (and inspired me to start my own). The article is a productive hacking guide and it’s super useful if you’re new to effectively planning how you want your calendar to look and execute on them. Take a look and be sure to follow through on the advice James gives you. It’ll help you in the long run.

3. Take Breaks and Find Hobbies

I’ll admit. I’m not some a genius, math olympiad, workaholic who spends every waking moment trying to cure cancer. That’s just not me, and you, the reader, might be able to relate. I still strive to work very hard at the things I love and want to do, but I think taking breaks and taking time away from mentally taxing activities is just as important as working hard. If I spend too long banging my head on problems that I can’t solve, I start to get frustrated and my brain starts to feel like an anchor. But when I take a break and come back to the problem, I find myself able to think more clearly and even solve the problem because I realize something I wasn't able to notice an hour or two ago. Here’s a list of hobbies I’ve found to ease my mind and maybe you can make some of them yours too: running, throwing the frisbee around, swimming, spending time with friends, cleaning the dishes. Yours will be different, but whatever it is, it will be important for your overall happiness.

4. Go. To. Every. Class

Seriously. Go to them. Every. Single. One. Yes, I can already hear the excuses

“It’s just one day and I have other stuff I can to do if I don’t go to that class”

Well if you’re in this predicament, look back at my point #2. If you are planning your work and working your plan one should never find themselves in a position where they have to skip class in order to get work done. You can’t just prioritize work over going to class; it never works like that. Skipping class results in falling behind, not knowing what was discussed, and most importantly not getting that interaction between Professor and student. No one is paying tens of thousands of dollars a year to sit at home, watch webcasts, and not interact with your Professors because that’s not what college is meant for! You’re paying to go to a great institution, make the most out of it. So take my advice and go to every single lecture, discussion, and lab and it will pay off because I wish someone had told me to.

5. No Days Off

I recently started building this philosophy for myself over the summer. The human brain learns the best when information is presented in bite sized, swallowable pieces. The brain can’t take an elephant sized chunk of information in one night and then be able to think critically about it the next day. In short: don’t cram! Here’s what I mean by no days off:

  1. Everyday one should be recalling what was taught in class/discussion that day and reviewing the material.
  2. Doing HW couple days early besides the night before
  3. Going beyond what’s being taught in class, and doing extra stuff (even when there’s no HW) so you can understand the material

That’s just a couple of things I’ve started to do, but I love to deploy this advice my friend Sohum always says:

”The Grind NEVER stops. Never.”

There’s no such things as days off, so wake up and put in the work everyday.

Conclusion

I hope this article helped whoever is reading this. This advice isn't just for students, I believe anyone can take something from this. Remember it’s much easier to learn from other’s (my) mistakes rather than doing them yourselves and experiencing the pain.

If you enjoyed this article feel free to follow me on my socials! They’re all linked below and can’t wait to keep updating this blog.

Until next time,

Jai Bansal