Re: Classes
Jeremi misses an opportunity; Luca details his new classes
Welcome back to Jeremi and Luca’s Newsletter, a weekly update from two friends connected by a relentless desire to learn.
Enjoy a closer look at what we’re reading, working on, and thinking about—from the small learnings to the large perspective shifts.
Jeremi: Inaction
This week, a door opened and I did not walk through it.
I’ve been crashing a graduate class on Robot Learning. I initially tried to petition to be enrolled, though my petition was rejected because there wasn’t enough space in the class.
I approached the professor to understand—who explained to me that since this is a project-based course, he was constrained on how much work he could grade.
I understood. Still, I had a friend who was also crashing the course, and we planned to do a project together, (generally) following the curriculum of the class.
This changed when the professor let in all B.S./M.S. students (a 5-year program where students complete their bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the same time). Most people who were crashing (including my friend) were in this program. This left me as one of the few students still crashing and not enrolled.
Of course, it doesn’t make much of a difference to me whether I’m officially on the class roster. The more unfortunate news was when the professor made it clear that I wouldn’t be able to work with my friend on this project we had planned because he was enrolled and I was not.
While slightly disappointed, my plan remained the same. I showed up to every lecture, eager to learn. I continued to work on this personal project, though now it would have to be solo.
This past week, people began to drop the class. The possibility that there might be space for me to enroll emerged. Speaking with my parents, I decided that I would ask the professor one more time if I could be officially enrolled.
I did not do this.
I didn’t approach him after class on Tuesday. I debated whether to go to his office hours. I ended up walking to his office, but upon seeing that someone was already meeting with him, I decided not to wait and turned around.
Eventually, I did ask him on Thursday, and he said he was willing to sign my petition. It took me until the next day, Friday, to fill out the petition and go to his office to ask him to sign it—but he had already left for the weekend.
Why did I stall so much? Why did I find it so hard to bring myself to jump on this opportunity?
I knew the odds of success were slim. I would need to convince the school to let me enroll despite the deadline having already passed and despite not having met the unit requirements.
And truth be told, this anticipation of rejection made me hesitate to ask in the first place. I think part of me wanted to interpret it as a signal of whether I deserved to be in the class.
This certainly is irrational. The professor had explained to me that restrictions in enrollment were due to the size of the class. And the possibility that the graduate advisor turns me down shouldn’t stop me from making my case anyways.
I will still crash the course, learn a lot from the lectures, and work on this personal project.
But, I would like to work on becoming more comfortable asking for what I want even when the high likelihood of rejection makes me less enthusiastic.
Luca: Breadth
I recently decided to step away from the startup I’ve been working on since April. It was a tough decision, but the right one all the same. I think I may dive deeper into that decision in a future newsletter; for now, I’m back at school with a clean slate.
Two newsletters ago, I wrote about how I wanted this semester to be my “People Semester.” That intention has held, but two more have surfaced since.
Since I came to Berkeley in 2023, I’ve always had outside projects or work. I have yet to take full advantage of being where I am. For that reason, I also want this semester to be my “Berkeley Semester.”
Then, with more time on my hands and a lack of clear direction other than forward (certainly no lack of velocity), I see these next few months as an opportunity to maximize exposure to new people and ideas—an “Exposure Semester.”
One of the most obvious ways to pursue this is via classes. Instead of choosing classes by requirements, I wanted to choose them by curiosity. And if I could fulfill requirements while taking classes I’m interested in, all the better.
My classes this semester:
Linear Algebra
Data Structures (Computer Science)
Cultures of Franco-America
History of Religion
AI and Public Policy
Technology, Risk, and Security Colloquium
Wind Ensemble
Linear Algebra and Data Structures are two classes I need to take for my analytics major, but I’m looking forward to them nonetheless. I’ve been enjoying Berkeley’s math and computer science classes and the material always offers a good challenge.
I chose Cultures of Franco-America to fulfill my “American Cultures” requirement because of a completely different kind of challenge; the course examines race and identity in a way that I’m sure will push me to look at new perspectives, and that makes me really excited.
History of Religion—one of the most popular classes at Cal, covering a topic I am endlessly curious about, taught by a great professor. Also fulfills a history requirement.
Finally, the colloquium and AI policy class, both led by Professor Reddie who also taught my emerging technology and national security class last semester. The AI policy class counts toward my public policy minor; the colloquium is out of interest.
Both policy offerings bring in fantastic weekly speakers… a brief look at some of the ones I’m most excited about:
Peter Norvig: Director of Research at Google, wrote leading AI textbook
Louis Stewart and Kelly Tsu: strategy and government affairs at NVIDIA
Nicholas Shenkin: FBI counterintelligence special agent, prev. M&A attorney
Dr. Alice Hunt Friend: Head of AI & Emerging Tech Policy at Google
Ok, and I also listed Wind Ensemble because I technically have to enroll in the two-unit course since I auditioned for and joined it this semester. But long story short, I’m back playing the trumpet again!
This semester will be hugely eclectic, and I’m super excited about that. Between math, French literature, religion, computer science, and public policy, I’m able to maximize learning across a breadth of interesting subjects.
Luca, your classes sound awesome! Can't wait to hear more. Jeremi, learning to ask for what you want without fear of rejection is hard and a critical skill to acquire for everything you might want in life.