The General Catalog (both the printed and on-line editions) contains the official descriptions of every class taught at Cal. Because the printed version is a 2-year catalog, the on-line version is much more accurate and up to date. As you might have noticed by now, sometimes these descriptions are really hard to understand. This is especially true for engineering classes, where the descriptions are often so technical it's impossible for anyone but the instructor to understand what the class is about. Therefore, a list of all the required engineering courses (E 28, E 36, etc.) and all of the undergraduate CEE courses is presented here. 

Many of the courses listed in the catalog include information on the instructor that teaches the course or the semester which the course is taught. Although this information is always correct for some classes, it is never totally accurate. Don't be surprised if you're planning on taking a particular class in the spring, only to find that as soon as you want to take it they moved it to the fall. 
 

General Advice on Courses 

Prerequisites 

Prerequisites are there for a reason: you are expected to understand the material in the required prerequisite courses. You should always try to fulfill prereqs before taking any course. If you want to take a class that you do not meet the requirements for, speak to the instructor. Professors will generally (though not always) give you the benefit of the doubt, letting you take the course even though you do not meet the prereqs. You may need to do some extra studying to make up for your lack of experience. 

Which Class Should I Take? 

You might be unsure which classes you should take to fulfill your needs. Since each individual student has his or her own interests and goals, there's no way we can thoroughly answer that question for you here. However, we can provide you with some general advice on selecting classes. 

Technical Courses 

Besides the required engineering courses, you can choose four of the seven core courses and fifteen units of technical electives. Your best sources of advise on which classes to take are your mentors: your faculty advisor and your alumni mentor (if you chose to participate in the EAS Mentoring Program). You should take the classes that best suit your needs and interests, and your mentors will help you determine what courses will do that. In addition, here are a few things to keep in mind when picking classes: 

• If you are emphasizing in Environmental Engineering, you should take E 115 as your Engineering Science Elective. All other emphases should take ME 104.
• CEE 193 is a far more difficult course than Stat 25. However, as risk management is becoming increasingly important in engineering, CEE 193 will be much more beneficial to you in the long run.
• E 190 is an excellent and extremely useful course unless you are already a great technical writer and public speaker. Often in CEE, your communication skills will be far more useful to you than your technical skills, so taking a course to improve those skill is wise.
• If you feel you want to study more within your emphasis but you've already taken most of the upper division courses offered for it, consider taking graduate courses.
• If you want more hands on, practical experience, consider taking more than one design course. The additional design courses beyond the first will count toward your technical electives.
• If you're really interested in conducting research, speak to a professor about doing a research project and getting CEE 199 credit for it.

Giving advice on humanities courses to take may be even more difficult than giving advice on engineering courses. A few points you should keep in mind though: 

• Choose classes that sound interesting to you, not just classes that have a reputation as being easy.
• Consider taking classes that are related to your emphasis (examples: ESPM classes if you're in Environmental Engineering, Architecture if you're in Structural Engineering, Urban Planning if you're in Transportation Engineering, Law or Business if you're in Construction Engineering).
• If you're a poor writer, take classes that require lots of writing. While this may make your life a little more painful now, you'll be thankful in the future when your job may depend on your writing ability. The same advice goes for public speaking.
• If you're thinking of working with an international company, consider taking a foreign language. If you already know a foreign language, learn a different one.
• Spread your humanities out over your entire time at Cal so you don't have long stretches of nothing but technical courses.

Always make sure that the class you want to take will fulfill one of your humanities requirements. 
 

Well, we're not quite at the point where we can put up courses descriptions on the web.    But there is progress being made and we hope to have it up and running very soon.  If you would like to contribute in any way, please email Brett Young (his address is listed below) and tell him your constructive opinions of courses that you've taken.  He would like that very much.

In the meantime, you can to the Schedule of Classes.