The first 10 seconds is how I feel.
Berkeley should hire a couple software engineers to fix their online interfaces (e.g. for class registration). People have obviously noticed the problem and now there are layers and layers of web pages / services maintained by different organizations / departments that each contain different amounts of information. It’s all very confusing, disorganized, and arduous, and I miss MIT WebSIS. Here is a guide with some simplified steps for paying fees at Berkeley and class registration for EECS graduate classes:
Shortcut for paying bills/fees:
- Login to e-bill/e-check. Scroll to the bottom and click “I agree.”
- Click “Pay now” and follow instructions from there.
Methodology for class registration:
- Browse for possible classes of interest: Look through the relevant listings [CS, EE, CS-next, EE-next]. This just gives you the names of the courses offered this/next semester. To get the description of the classes, you’ll need to follow the links to the general catalog, but even then, they are probably out of date because the process for faculty to update it is arduous. Good luck finding any descriptions for the special seminars (e.g. CS 294). You might have to be on some mailing list at the right time to get these, so try searching your inbox…
- Create a schedule of your classes: Go to ScheduleBuilder and start adding your classes of interest. In the first field, type the department (“EE” or “CS”) and in the next field type the number of the course. When you’re done, click “Generate Schedules.” Select “Save as Main Schedule.” Next, view your Saved Schedules. Optionally export the calendar by selecting “Download iCal.” (From there, you can import this into gCalendar, iCal, etc.) Take note of the CCN numbers displayed to the right side of the interface. You’ll need these for the actual registration step.
- An alternative to the previous step is to build the schedule in your head and get the CCN numbers straight from [EE Fall, CS Fall, Stat Fall] [EE Spring, CS Spring, Stat Spring]. Apparently, some of the classes have a direct link to register a class from this interface, but it seems inconsistent.
- Finally, login to TeleBEARS to actually register your classes. Be sure to do this outside of its schedule maintenance hours of 6-7am M-F, 6-noon Su, and some Saturdays. I don’t know what this means, but if your appointment has expired, forget about accessing TeleBEARS at normal hours. Here are the available “Open Hours”: 7-8am, 7pm-12am M-F, and 12pm-12am Sa-Su. WTF. Also FYI, you can’t register for more than 1 seminar (i.e. CS 294) because the registrar thinks they are all the same class. Okay, anyway. First, click on the top tab for the semester that you’re registering for. To the left, click “Add class,” and enter in the CCN from the previous step. Repeat for all your classes.
Links:
Bear Facts [link]: student homepage (i.e. websis)
TeleBEARS [link]: pre-registration, current class list, registration change, there is a tab for each semester
General class catalog [EECS, EE, CS]: usually out of date and doesn’t contain information about special seminars
Class listings [EE Fall, CS Fall] [EE Spring, CS Spring]: contains CCN and enrollment status for graduate classes
Class schedule [CS, EE, CS-next, EE-next]: includes class time, lists special classes (CS 298 = Seminars, CS 294 = Courses, not sure where the descriptions are though)
Class schedule [link, ScheduleBuilder]: printable class schedules, clunky searchable interface for classes
EECS Grad Info [link]
EECS Grad Handbook [link]
Transfer Credit Petition [link]
Add/Drop Form [link]
Please feel free to comment with suggestions on what else to include in this reference.
