University of California-Berkeley Top Questions

What are the most popular classes offered?

Marston

Some of the most popular classes are Astronomy 10 with Filipenko and Physics for Future Presidents. My caveat is that a lot of students who take Physics for Future Presidents end up regretting it, because the lack of math makes the material more intangible. Physics 7A or 8A would replace it, but would likely be much more difficult and would require more of a math background (such as 1A and 1B). The requirements can be checked on schedule.berkeley.edu. Also, I suggest looking on ratemyprofessor to get a sense of which professors are highly rated. Furthermore, CourseRank is another service when you have your calnet (the Berkeley username/password) ID, which has users rank their classes and compiles grade distributions.

.

It's hard to say, but usually classes offered by famous professors are relatively popular. Anything with former poet laureate Robert Hass--poetry in translation, American poetry, or the environmental science/literature split class--fills up quickly, as does anything with famous cognitive scientist George Lakoff; I'm thinking specifically of his enticingly-titled class "The Mind, Language, and Politics".