Department of Chemistry - University of California at Berkeley

Registration requirements for Ph.D. students are relatively informal. Each student during their first year in the program must see an academic advisor during the Tele-BEARS period each semester to work out a schedule that best suits the student's individual needs. There is flexibility in the choice of courses that a student may take, particularly after the first year. See suggested course sequences for first year students in various sub-disciplines of chemistry below. In addition to lecture courses, there are three kinds of courses you can get course credit for. These are

Seminar (Chemistry 298- sections 1-8): Student can register for up to 3 seminars for 1 unit only, every semester.
Enrollment in a seminar means regular attendance at (a) seminars given by outside speakers and Berkeley faculty appropriate to a student's area of specialization, (b) student seminars in at least one of the two divisions of the graduate program, and (c) group seminar organized by a student's research group. Enrollment is on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory (S/U) basis.
Research (Chemistry 299): Since the Ph.D. is a research degree, each student in the Ph.D. program is expected to show progress in research every semester. In the first semester each student should choose a field of interest and a research director. Since new students do not have a research director when registering for the first time, they will normally sign up for research under the Department Chair's name. (Chemistry 299-section 1). Once a research director has been chosen, students should sign up for research units under their research advisor. Research is always variable in the number of units, ranging from 1-9 and must be taken for a letter grade.

A student's load of formal classes and seminars will determine the number of research units that he/she will sign up for each semester, i.e., sign up for formal classes and seminars, then fill up your schedule with as many Chemistry 299 units are you need to bring your schedule up to 12 units. All students are required to carry a total of 12 units each semester, while in the program.
Teaching (Chemistry 300): Students enroll for 2 units of Chemistry 300 during the semesters in which they serve as teaching assistants. Student must enroll for a letter grade in the Chemistry 300 section for the course they 8are teaching.