August
- Attend campus, College and departmental orientations.
- Familiarize yourself with the ME Curriculum.
- Finalized your Fall semester schedule.
- Consider who will be in your course study groups.
- Figure out who to go to if you need:
- Tutoring and help with homework (Student Learning Center, Center for Access to Engineering Excellence, etc.)
- Help with administrative questions
- Academic advising
- Academic accommodations
- To connect with certain populations of people
- Just someone to talk to
- Go to Calapalooza.
September
- Establish your course study groups (i.e. who you will be studying with).
- Check out the various general meetings for student organizations and competition groups. Competition groups are a fantastic and fun way to get hands-on experience in ME.
- ME-Affiliated Student Organizations
- UC Berkeley Student Organizations
- Think about which groups you are most interested in (and have adequate time for) and join at least one of them.
- Check out the annual ME Career Fair.
- Familiarize yourself with UC Berkeley’s Scholarship Connection, and periodically check it for scholarships you may be eligible to apply for and their deadlines.
October
- If you don’t know already, figure out who your faculty advisor is.
- Prepare your Spring course schedule.
- Meet with your faculty advisor, or attend ME Drop-In Advising to get your schedule approved and to receive your required Adviser Code (you need this to officially enroll in your Spring courses).
November
- If you are interested in going abroad, ME suggests that instead of the traditional junior year, that you might consider taking the Fall or Spring of your Sophomore year. This is a good time to start looking at the various programs available and application deadlines within the Berkeley Study Abroad program.
Spring Semester
- Many departments on campus offer minor programs in which you may be interested. There are some minor programs that you can get started on as early as your first year. For details on their respective requirements, please see the minor departments’ websites. Some popular minors for our students have been: Blum Center for Developing Economies: Global Poverty and Practice; Business Administration; Civil Engineering; Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences; Computer Science (Letters and Science); Environmental Economics and Policy; Industrial Engineering And Operations Research; Mathematics; Music; Political Economy; Physics; and Statistics.
- For students interested in design, there is a Human-Centered Design Thread on campus.
- At the end of the year, assess your academic life (study habits, grades, organization, etc.) and make a plan for improvement for your Sophomore year.