Sometimes You Just Have to Grin and Bear It: Tips for Tele-BEARS

Once again, Tele-BEARS season is upon us. But don’t pull your hair out just yet, because we have a list of helpful tips to get you through this difficult time.

1. Save the Date

As soon as you get that first email notifying you of your Tele-BEARS appointments, grab your planner (or your palm, whatever works), and write the down the dates and times. Then, tattoo it onto your wrist so that you never forget, like this guy, who wanted to forever remember that very special McDonald’s meal.

2. Exhaust Your Resources, Then Exhaust Them Again

After you have ingrained those very important dates into your brain, check out every useful Berkeley website:

• Online Schedule of Classes: This tool will help you search for a class by department, number, upper or lower division, course type (Honors, AC, etc.), days and times, CCN, final exam group, building, number of units, and more. It’s a great place to start your search.
• Schedule Builder: Here you can actually build multiple schedules, so you can better decide which classes are right for you. It also gives you the grade distributions of past classes.
• Ninja Courses: This has the same basic setup as Schedule Builder, but with the added feature of teacher rankings by students. While this has its benefits, proceed with caution.
• Your college’s website: Always make sure that you are up-to-date on requirements. While making your schedule, check this website to confirm that you are on the right path to graduation. If you have any concerns, contact your college or major advisor. For L & S students, you can use the Breadth Search Engine to find the perfect class to fulfill that dreaded requirement.
• Your major website: Similarly, this will help keep you on track to finishing the requirements for your major. Each department announces a list of classes it will offer for the upcoming semester, and specifies which requirement it fulfills. It also contains guidelines for getting into specific classes on Tele-BEARS, so make sure you consult this when planning your Phase I and II.
• The websites of any departments you may want to take a class in: Again, check the guidelines for how to get into the class you want. Some classes do not open to non-majors until Phase II.
• Freshman and Sophomore Seminars: If you are a freshman or a sophomore, then definitely check out the seminars available to you. These are a great way to obtain units and take a small class in a subject you are interested in, but not necessarily fully invested in.
• DeCal: DeCals are another fun way to fill units and explore a certain subject in a low-pressure environment. You won’t be able to sign up for these until after classes have started, but keep them in mind when making your schedule.
• Berkeley Time: This is a quick and easy way to search for classes by requirement, department, time, and more. You can order the list of classes by the number of open seats, average grade, department name, most favorited, and the percentage of enrolled students.
• Telebears Oracle: If you want to see how fast your classes will fill up, this is the place to go. Telebears Oracle will show you a graph of the number of students enrolled during Phase I and II and the adjustment period for a class in a specific semester.
• Course Advice: Yes, this is a Facebook page. But what better resource do you have other than your peers? This is a great place to go if you have any specific questions after you have used these other websites to do your own research. It’s an open group, so what’s stopping you?

3. Have a Back-up

Sometimes you can’t always get what you want. Make sure you have a Plan B in case Robert Reich’s Wealth and Poverty Class remains impossible to get into, as usual.

4. Use the Enroll/Waitlist Option

Before and after your appointments, check the waitlist status of your classes so that you can make the necessary adjustments to your Phase I and II plan. Click the Enroll/Waitlist link on the left-hand side of your Tele-BEARS screen, type in the CCN of your class, and the site will give you the number of students enrolled, the number waitlisted, and the maximum number for enrollment and the waitlist. This will help you figure out which of your classes is filling up faster, and therefore which ones you should Phase I or Phase II.

5. Utilize Open Hours and the Adjustment Period

If the class you wanted was full during your appointment time, keep checking back during open hours. You can check enrollment through the Enroll/Waitlist option and even enroll in the class during open hours and the adjustment period, provided your appointment time has passed. The Tele-BEARS open hours and adjustment period schedule is here.

6. Know That Nothing is Final

You may think you have the perfect schedule, but you may make changes to it through to the second or third week of classes, and that is totally OK. Be the flexible yogi we know you can be. Sometimes you just have to grin and bear it.

7. Don’t Miss Your Appointments

Again, remember your appointment times, or else you’ll risk an impression of the White Rabbit.

 

Good luck hunting! (For classes! Jeez.)

 

Image Sources: The Stir, Meme Center, Lera Blog, Imgur