Tele-BEARS dos and don'ts
Before your Tele-BEARS appointment
Do be prepared! It’s a good idea to plan several alternate schedules so you won’t waste your time hunting through the Schedule of Classes or the General Catalog during your actual Tele-BEARS appointment. Remember, you have a ten-minute time limit before Tele-BEARS automatically ends your session (though you can log back on again if you need more time).
Do read the boring blurbs in the Schedule of Classes about adding specific courses. Certain classes have special requirements, such as auditions or a preliminary exam, and may ask you for a CEC (Class Entry Code) in order to enroll. Contact the specific department for enrollment information.
Do be aware of exam group conflicts; Tele-BEARS will inform you if you have signed up for courses with the same exam groups. Most faculty are not sympathetic to rearranging finals.
Do schedule courses back to back. Classes start at ten minutes after the listed start time (e.g., 9:10 start for a 9-10am class), so you’ll usually have enough time to get to the next building.
Do sign up for a variety of courses. For instance, the reading and composition requirement for many colleges can be met by classes from 15 different departments. Be adventurous and try African American Studies 1A or Dramatic Art 1B. (Check your College or School Announcement for all your options.)
Do try to get some basic courses (like a math course or Reading & Composition 1A-1B) and breadth requirements (see your College or School Announcement). It’s helpful to also look for transitional classes, such as Freshman and Sophomore Seminars (because they’re small classes, check page 64), and classes that satisfy more than one requirement.
Do make note of Early Drop Deadline courses in which you might be enrolling because you only have until the end of the second week of classes to drop them.
Do choose a good instructor. They are everywhere, and some have received Distinguished Teaching Awards (marked with a dagger before their names in the General Catalog). You probably won’t go wrong if you choose one of these people. Also, ask other students about instructors they’ve enjoyed. (Check pages 89-114 for a list of classes taught by faculty recommended by students.)
Do take advantage of the P/NP (pass/not pass) grading option, but check your College or School Announcement for any requirement restrictions that may apply.
Do try to declare your major as soon as possible. Many upper division classes are restricted to major-only students, and you may not get in if your major isn’t officially declared.
Don’t worry about taking all your basic requirements your first semester. Many of these courses (such as Reading & Composition 1A classes, Economics 1, Political Science 1, Business Administration 10, Math and Chemistry 1A) are offered every semester, so you can wait a semester or two if you want. Don’t worry, it’s okay to mix and match reading and composition requirement classes. For example, you can take Rhetoric 1A in your first semester and Asian American Studies 2B the next semester.
Don’t take more than two classes with science labs or studio classes. These courses take more time than others, and you don’t want to burn out.
Don’t believe rumors about Mickey Mouse classes; Astronomy 10, for instance, may be a cinch for someone with a science background, but some humanities-type majors might struggle to get a C. Music 27 may be nicknamed “clapping for credit,” but you’d better be musically inclined if you expect it to be easy.
During your Tele-BEARS appointment
Don’t click the “back” button on your web browser (this can mess things up!) or click the “continue” or “confirm” buttons more than once.
Don’t be discouraged if a course you want is full. Get on the waiting list right away! That’s the only way you’ll ultimately be eligible to enroll in the course.
Don’t stress if Tele-BEARS is slow or offline for a few minutes! Try again in a few minutes or a couple hours if you get a busy message. Be patient because during your Phase I and II appointment times, you have a 24-hour period in which to adjust your schedule, and you can always log in during open hours (M-F, 7am-8am and 7pm-midnight, SaSu, noon to midnight) to make schedule additions or changes.
Don’t use Tele-BEARS unnecessarily, especially during the beginning of the Adjustment Period. You might be preventing another student from using the system.
Don’t forget to use Tele-BEARS during Phase II. This is the time when you can complete your schedule and add more units to reach your college or school’s minimum.
Don’t forget to pay your registration fees! You aren’t officially registered until you have some units (actual, not waitlisted) and have started paying your registration fees.
Don’t hog classes! Drop unwanted courses right away; this frees up space for other students who want to add them.
Don’t worry about getting all your courses before classes start. You’ll still get your Cal 1 Card (student ID) even if you’re enrolled in just one class. You have until the end of the Adjustment Period to enroll in your college or school’s minimum units.
Class scheduling advice
Do go to the first meeting of classes you’re already enrolled in—you may be dropped if you don’t show up!
Do attend your first discussion or laboratory session even if it is held before the first lecture because you may be dropped otherwise.
Do go to the first meeting of classes for which you’re on the waiting list; you’ll get a better idea of your chances for enrolling.
Do drop courses you don’t want by the end of the second week of classes so you can avoid the $10-per-class drop fee.
Do check your schedule periodically on Bear Facts (bearfacts.berkeley.edu). Some of your classes may have changed their times or locations, or may even have been cancelled. You also could have been dropped from or added to a class by the instructor!
Don’t add a course after the semester is in full swing if you haven’t been attending. Doing so could have a deleterious effect on your grade, if not your sanity.
Don’t neglect going to the classes you already have even if you don’t think you want them. In case you aren’t admitted to any new courses you’re on the waiting list for, you’ll still have backup classes.
Don’t forget to add courses by the end of the third week of classes so you can avoid the $5-per-class add fee.
How to talk to faculty
Odd as it may seem, faculty likes to see students, and we think office hours are an invaluable way for students to get more out of a class and for us to learn what students are thinking. Sometimes five or 10 minutes with one or two students can straighten out an hour’s worth of confusion in class. In large classes especially, office hours give us the only way to get to know students as individuals. (Which means, of course, you should take advantage of office hours if you think you’ll ever need letters of recommendation. On the other hand, it is easy to spot students who are there only for the eventual letter of rec, and the conversation is usually strained and fake.)
But there can be good and bad interactions in office hours. Don’t wait until the last minute to go to office hours with questions. Go as soon as they arise, not the day before the midterm. Let an instructor know you’ve arrived. Be sure to come prepared—bring the article, book, assignment. Don’t wait until you sit down to rummage through your stuff looking for the correct piece of paper. Take notes. Here are the things I wish students wouldn’t say:
1) “I don’t understand (choose one: partial differential equations, Moby Dick, supply side economics).” This is not particularly helpful to you or the instructor. It’s like saying “I don’t understand the meaning of life.” It can’t be taken care of in one office hour.
2) “How can I get a better grade?” I am reminded of an old joke. A young tourist in New York stopped a police officer and said, “How do I get to Carnegie Hall?” The officer replied, “Practice.” So, “How can I get a better grade?” “Study.” There, now you don’t need to cover that in office hours.
3) “I missed class yesterday. Did we do anything important?” What would you like us to say? No, you didn’t miss anything important. Rarely do we cover important things in class. But I’ll let you know if we do. It’s a student’s responsibility to get notes from other class members, not a professor s obligation to give an instant replay. A variation is the question “Do I have to know this?”
Here are the things that I like to hear:
1) “In Lady Chatterly’s Lover, I still don’t understand who ‘John Thomas’ is.” Go in with a particular question or set of questions that show you’re thinking.
2) “In class you said that our welfare system serves a practical purpose. I understand what you meant, but isn’t it more political than practical?” If you go in to challenge or refute something said in class, do it in the spirit of intellectual discussion—which we love—rather than confrontation—which we hate.
3) “I read that book (or article, or watched that movie, or went to that exhibit) you recommended and have a question about it.” A student who does something beyond the requirements is dearly regarded.
These are only suggestions to get you going. You don’t actually have to go in with a particular question; maybe you just want to talk about a book or an idea. That’s great. But the key word is “talk.” We ask questions all day long, and it can be exhausting to think of things to ask a student: “What classes are you taking?” “How’s your dog?” You’re better off taking the lead. A couple of notes on emailing: Don’t call your instructors by their first names unless they’ve given you leave to do that. Don’t email your instructor with questions that can be easily found in the syllabus or on the webpage. Don’t add your instructor to any email lists you have, without permission. No random jokes, political messages, friends and family phone deals, etc.
—Stephen K. Tollefson, Recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award
College Writing Program, author of Grammar Grams
Director, Office of Educational Development
Added comments by: Melinda Erikson, College Writing Programs; Gail Offen-Brown, College Writing Programs; and Kathleen Ryan, Plant and Microbial Biology