The Most Useful and Mind-Blowing Courses I took at UC Berkeley

With insights and tips for each

Picture Credit: Louis H. G.

These are the courses that most changed my worldview and equipped me with practical life skills.

My studies focused on business, design, data science, cognitive science, and entrepreneurship, but I think anyone would find these courses beneficial and interesting regardless of their discipline.

I included a few general topics or actionable tips I found valuable but keep in mind that they represent only a tiny fraction of the course content. They generally have A-/B+ class averages although they vary in workload.

Beyond the content, the best parts were the professors who I can say honestly cared about their students and were both exceptionally passionate and knowledgeable. They made a big impact on my way of thinking and life.

Let’s Jump in!

The Most Practical Courses

Best prepared me for the adult world

Personal Finance (UGBA 135, 2 units)

If you suddenly found yourself entering the adult world and realizing our education system never mentioned how basic things like taxes or personal investing work, this class is for you. It teaches the fundamentals of everything from saving strategies to student loans to investing to taxes.

• Taught me that being value-oriented and frugal, not cheap, is the cornerstone of wealth
• I diversified my investments a lot and added more index funds to my portfolio after the course taught how difficult it is to time the market
• Learned the magic of compounding interest… start investing now!!!

Negotiations (UGBA 152, 3 units)

I asked alumni what one class they regret not taking and this was the most common answer. Life is a series of negotiations whether it’s negotiating for a higher salary or selling something on Craigslist.

In this course, we learned lots of practical frameworks and got the opportunity to try them out in 1–1 and group negotiations. Communications (UGBA 100) and Leadership (UGBA 105) taught supplementary concepts that were useful. Big takeaways:

• Always keep in mind the strength of your BATNA (Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement) and write prep sheets before negotiations
• Prepare for salary negotiations by researching sites like glassdoor and use them as standards
• Approach negotiations with less focus on arguing positions and instead on identifying and addressing interests

Leading People (UGBA 105, 3 units)

Another soft skill I was a bit unsure whether I could really learn in a classroom setting but turned out to provide some useful frameworks and principles related to need theories, motivation, performance, culture, and heuristics. Some takeaways:

• Counterfactuals are a secret key to happiness and understanding that partially inspired me to write this list
• Recognizing how biases like sunk costs and framing affect judgment
• Analyzing my past work/club experiences through organizational behavior frameworks and identifying opportunity areas.

The Classic Cal Courses

For the true Berkeley experience

Wealth and Poverty with Robert Reich (PUB POL C103, 4 units)

Every Berkeley student hears about this course at some point. Professor Robert Reich is one of the biggest celebrities on campus having served under numerous president administrations and as the US Secretary of Labor (1993 to 1997). He saves time to interact with students and even if you don’t agree with his political views, you’ll still find his lectures engaging. Takeaways:

• Just how large income disparities are in the US and why
• Looking at the larger history and picture when analyzing public policy
• All his incredible stories

CS61A (4 units) + Data 8 (4 units)

These are the classic intro CS courses. They’re both a little time-intensive and fast-paced but also the best way to jump into the world of code. I personally had no coding experience before taking them but loved them so much I decided to minor in data science. Some tips and advice:

• Coding is intimidating and overwhelming at first. Then suddenly one day (when you least expect it) it’ll all just click and feel natural. Once you reach this point, other coding languages also feel more intuitive.
• Learn how to debug and approach problems iteratively early on. If you’re struggling, try out CSM mentor sessions (shoutout to Owen).
• Rote memorization doesn’t help as much. The secret to doing well is to just do practice exams over and over.

ps. I never took astro c10 but I heard that’s another classic Cal course

“Mind” Blowing Courses

Fascinating courses about the mind and cognition

Brain, Mind, and Behavior (PSYCH C61, 3 units)

This class is packed with fascinating insights about the brain, perception, and current studies about neuroscience. David Presti was a really fun professor and his book was an interesting read. Big takeaways:

• The anatomy of the brain and its relationship with different functions of the human body plus the neurotransmitters that make it possible.
• The intersection between current technology, law, and neuroscience

Logic (PHILOS 12a, 4 units)

Philos 12a essentially teaches you how to convert any statement or argument into symbolic logic and then analyze them with proofs. It was a little time-intensive, but Professor Holliday’s enthusiasm for the course was contagious and the homework felt like challenging but fun puzzles. Major takeaways:

• Breaking down arguments and analyzing their validity, consistency, and possible contradictions
• Seeing the similarity between logic and math

Example of translating a sentence into predicate logic

Human Contexts of Data and Ethics (HIST C184D) + Consumer Society and Culture (ISF 100I)

HIST C184D and ISF 100I both take a look at fascinating concepts between the intersection of tech, society, and consumption. They ask you to think critically about the ethics of different cases and how they fit in with both historical contexts and future sociotechnical imaginaries. Some takeaways

• How our everyday lives are influenced by ads, trends, and algorithms
• The HCE toolkit to assess tech/trends and their effect on society

Fun Creative Courses

The fun creative classes I always looked forward to

Prototyping and Fabrication (DESINV 22, 3 units)

3D printing, laser cutting, robots, it’s so cool! You’ll definitely spend a lot of time outside of class in the maker space but by the end, it’ll feel worth it.

• Gained familiarity with a ton of cool maker space tools
• Greatly accelerated my design critique skills, one of the most important skills for designers.
• Learned how to design at the intersection of aesthetic and functional

The Laser Drawing Machine Brett Bussell and I designed and built

The Web Design Decal (2 units)

Discover how websites are actually designed and built… then build your own! Their own website is pretty neat. Some major learnings:

• The relationship between the basic coding languages of a website is kind of like the anatomy of the body. Html is the bones defining the structure, CSS is the skin affecting the look and feel, and Javascript is the muscles offering motion and interactions.
• Learned best practices for building websites and how to code them in those three languages.

The first website I ever coded up. I was clearly going through a phase LOL

Foundations Useful for my Career Path

Innovation, tech, and product design related

Design Methodology (3 units) + Design Thinking (2 units)

Both courses teach the fundamentals of design thinking through collaborative projects. The different frameworks taught help fuel iterative, human-centric approaches to problems. I ended up pursuing product design as a career so these foundations were personally useful for me.

“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” — Steve Jobs

Design Thinking Process — image via NNgroup

Product Management Decal (2 units)

PM is a really hot field right now and this course uncovered the mysteries behind what’s actually expected for the role, applications tips, and what a day in the life of a PM is really like. My instructors were Andrew Ansell from the Tech Twins and Diane Lee plus there were lots of interesting guest speakers! Also shoutout to Rani Mavram for developing the course content. Some big learnings:

• The different types of PMs and the most useful skills to learn for the job (especially for nontech backgrounds)
• How PMs interact with different stakeholders, frameworks like waterfall and agile, and methods like STAR
• Resources to check out like Cracking the PM interview, Decode and Conquer, and Swipe to Unlock

Marketing (UGBA 106, 3 units)

Many Haas undergrads consider Professor Brady as their favorite professor.
Watching interesting advertisements and analyzing cases in UGBA 106 was really fun and learning the basics of product and marketing strategies became useful going into tech. Some takeaways:

• Learned different factors that go into engaging and effective marketing campaigns, then practiced applying them in cases
• Learned some basic product strategy and marketing mix concepts

Putting my photoshop skills to use

Reflection

There are so many other courses I want to put on this list but I would basically be copying and pasting my academic summary.

👉 Message me if you need any course advice or tips and follow me for content similar to these courses related to tech, productivity, design, and human behavior

I hope you find this list useful! Good luck and go bears!