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Academic Advising
Undergraduate students
For undergraduate advising, information, or referrals, contact your school or college below.

Haas School of Business: haas.berkeley.edu/undergrad; S450 Student Services Building #1900; uginfo@haas.berkeley.edu; 510/642-1421.

College of Chemistry: chemistry.berkeley.edu/student_info/undergrad_info/index.html; 420 Latimer Hall; cocug@berkeley.edu; 510/642-5060.

College of Engineering: coe.berkeley.edu/students/current-undergraduates; 308 McLaughlin Hall; 510/642-7594.

College of Environmental Design: ced.berkeley.edu; 232 Wurster Hall; hagstrom@berkeley.edu; 510/642-4944.

College of Letters and Science: ls-advise.berkeley.edu; 113 Campbell Hall; KpasaLnS@berkeley.edu; 510/642-1483.

College of Natural Resources: cnr.berkeley.edu/site/oisa.php; 260 Mulford Hall; cnrteaching@nature.berkeley.edu; 510/642-0542.

At Berkeley, you have a number of academic advisers available to help answer your questions regarding University, College, major/minor requirements, policies, and procedures. For example, if you need help understanding University or College policies and requirements, you might consult with a college or peer adviser. For questions about a particular major or minor, you might consult with a departmental adviser, faculty adviser, or a peer adviser for that specific department.

Whether or not you have already been assigned an academic adviser depends on what school/college and department you’ve been admitted to, and your status (declared or undeclared).

Remember, all advisers are ready and eager to help you transition to Cal and create a meaningful educational experience. Advisers can help you discover opportunities to enrich your academic program with course work, research, internship, or study abroad opportunities. Be sure to take advantage of their knowledge and experience while here at Cal.

College advisers can help you plan your academic program, guide you in the selection of a major, suggest enrichment opportunities, check your progress toward a degree, and explain academic policies and requirements. They act as the representatives of the dean of the college in reviewing student petitions. In addition, they offer special assistance to students experiencing academic difficulty, and may offer specialized workshops on a variety of topics.

It is especially important to seek help from the College advisers in your first two years if you’re a freshman, and if you’re a transfer student, during your first year at Berkeley; however, you are welcome to ask for advice throughout your college career. The advisers have access to your academic records, and can refer you to other campus services for special assistance.

For more information about advisers or academic planning, read your College Announcement or Guide.

Graduate students
Most new graduate students are assigned a graduate adviser in their department when they first arrive on campus. This faculty member helps students decide which courses they need to take. The primary adviser who will direct a graduate student’s research and thesis/dissertation is usually chosen by the student, rather than assigned, after the first year of graduate school.

Choosing a major
Most faculty and staff enjoy talking about their programs. They can be valuable assets in choosing a major by providing clarification and discussing the types of skills and course work required. Undergraduate Major Advisers (UMAs) are especially useful in helping you to evaluate whether the department would be a good match for your academic interests and abilities. Visiting a UMA in no way obligates you to declare a major in that department. Many students visit several departments before making a decision about declaring a major.

Students typically feel most comfortable visiting the department once they have reviewed some of the information about the major, which can be found in the General Catalog or on the department’s website. For a list of specific Letters & Science department websites go to ls-major.berkeley.edu/contact.html. Non-L&S students should visit their college’s website.

Make your meeting with a UMA more meaningful by bringing a copy of your transcripts or transfer evaluation with you.

Once you’ve declared a major
Major advisers offer guidance on selecting appropriate course work to complete a major, will refer you to faculty advisers, and can resolve any questions you have on issues such as minimum GPAs and AP credit.

Undergraduates in the College of Letters & Science can access advising information and services in a variety of ways.

Newly admitted first year and transfer students participate in the Finding Your Way Program and can access advising information at yourway.berkeley.edu. The Finding Your Way Program assigns students to L&S advising teams stationed in the Academic Service Centers in the residence halls. New students who are not living on campus can find their advising team housed in 113 Campbell Hall.

Continuing students (i.e., sophomores, juniors, and seniors) can find advising help at 113 Campbell Hall (MTuThF, 9am-4pm; W, 1pm-4pm). Drop-in sessions: first come, first served, MTuThF, 9am-1:30pm; W, 1-2:30pm. Scheduled appointments: MTuThF, 2-4pm

Graduating seniors, and those who have questions about how transfer credit applies to college requirements: MWThF, 9am-noon and 1-4pm; 510/642-7391.

Advising can also be found at the Chavez Center on Mondays and Tuesdays, and via peer advisers at mobile carts on Sproul Plaza, Moffitt Library (just outside the Free Speech Café), and in the residence hall dining commons during the dinner hours. Peer advisers are L&S students who have participated in an extensive training and are qualified to answer quick questions.

General information (i.e., information that does not require reviewing student records): ls-advise.berkeley.edu; KpasaLnS@berkeley.edu, 510/642-1483.

Undergraduate majors
Every student must select a field of concentration and pursue a major, normally by taking a minimum number of units in one school or department. Occasionally—as in Business Administration or Optometry—the school and the department are the same. Admission to these schools is at the upper-division level (after completing 60 units of lower-division requirements for Business Administration, or 90 units for Optometry). In Chemistry, Engineering, Environmental Design, and Natural Resources, you are admitted to the major you indicated on your application.

Unlike the other schools and colleges, in Letters & Science (L&S), all students are admitted as undeclared, and you must seek admission to a major program after entering the University. The College of Letters & Science is Cal’s liberal arts college, and offers more than 70 majors in the arts and humanities, biological sciences, physical sciences, and social sciences, as well as a wide variety of interdisciplinary major programs. In L&S you may declare your major once you have completed the prerequisites and obtained approval from the major adviser. You must declare a major before the beginning of your junior year. Junior transfer students must declare a major by the start of their second semester.

Currently six L&S majors are “capped” (i.e., admission to the major is restricted due to very high student interest and demand): Economics, Media Studies, Operations Research & Management Science, Psychology, Public Health, and Social Welfare. You must apply for these majors when you have reached fewer than—or equal to—80 total units (including work-in-progress, but excluding high school enrichment units, e.g., Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, or other college units earned prior to high school graduation). If you are a junior transfer (i.e., you had 60 or more units completed at the time of transfer), you will be given one semester—your first on the Berkeley campus—to apply for a capped major (ls-advise.berkeley.edu; 113 Campbell Hall; 510/642-1483). For more information on declaring an L&S major, visit ls-major.berkeley.edu/declare.html.

Academic Orienteering is an online advising workshop for newly admitted freshman students in L&S (ls-orientation.berkeley.edu/intro.html).

TOOLS is an online advising workshop for newly admitted transfer students in L&S that introduces campus resources and academic enrichment opportunities, and reviews degree requirements, policies and procedures. TOOLS helps students declare their intended majors by identifying major prerequisite courses, and explains what transfer students should consider when choosing courses for their first semester at Cal (ls-tools.berkeley.edu).

Minors
While each student must complete a major, graduating with a minor is optional. The purpose of minors is to foster coherence in the academic work students complete outside their majors and to provide official recognition by the University for such work. There are currently more than 60 minors in the College of Letters & Science, seven minors in the College of Environmental Design, five in the College of Natural Resources, three in the College of Engineering, two in the College of Chemistry, two in the School of Education, one in the School of Public Policy, and one offered through the Energy and Resources Group. Information on the various minors may be obtained from the school or college, and from participating departments.

DARS/DARSweb
The Degree Audit Reporting System (DARS) is an online service that can help you stay on track to graduate by enabling you to:

Look for the link to DARSweb on Bear Facts (bearfacts.berkeley.edu) or use this direct link (sis.berkeley.edu/darsweb/servlet/StudentServlet) and log on with your CalNet ID and passphrase.

Student Life Advising Services/Educational Opportunity Program (SLAS/EOP)
SLAS/EOP offers academic counseling and advising to EOP students (low-income, first-generation, California residents), historically underrepresented students, as well as undergraduate students who participated in pre-Cal preparation and pipeline programs. SLAS/EOP provides students with alternatives when confronted with decisions, concerns, or problems that may affect progress toward graduation, as well as guidance and resources to facilitate the attainment of students’ personal, academic, and career goals. Contact SLAS/EOP for more information (slas.berkeley.edu; 119 Cesar Chavez Student Center; 510/642-7224).

EOP Support Services
EOP is a comprehensive support service for low-income, first-generation college students. To qualify for sponsorship, students must meet all three of the following eligibility requirements:

SLAS/EOP, Berkeley’s primary EOP support service, provides academic counseling along with personal, financial, and career guidance to undergraduate students. Students receive information that assists them with making choices that affect academic and personal progress. SLAS/EOP’s extensive referral network connects students with other academic support services across the campus, and the department is committed to improving the quality of students’ intellectual, educational, and social lives (slas.berkeley.edu; 119 Cesar Chavez Student Center; 510/642-7224).