DeCal

In case you don’t know about these courses already, DeCals are Pass/No Pass classes that are student-taught and touch on a variety of topics — from Drake to Chocolate to Cardiology.

Friday night’s showcase also included a chance for students to share their social media handles, so that they could follow each others’ work beyond the course’s end. This sense of supportiveness lends itself well to the DeCal, which caters to students of any artistic background.

Despite the alarms ringing in your head, there’s no need to panic. Here are some things to keep in mind throughout your enrollment experiences at UC Berkeley, regardless of how bad it may seem to get.

After perusing a multitude of options, including that one Harry Potter class no one can stop talking about, I arrived at “The Card Counting DeCal: Beating Blackjack and the Statistics Behind It.”

DeCals are one of the hallmarks of UC Berkeley’s curriculum: these student-run courses provide a platform for students to explore their interests and develop new ones.

In my panicked state, in the middle of my freshman year, I just decided to sign up for everything. I figured that if I just tried every extracurricular on campus, one or two were bound to stick.

Fall 2018 is days away, and whether you’re a freshman or a senior, a new semester is always a great excuse to try new things.

Over the course of the DeCal, the facilitators make their way through Drake’s discography, taking about a session and a half to discuss the lyricism, cultural relevance and unique qualities of each of the albums.

From self-proclaimed Frank Ocean connoisseur to star baking champion and everyone in between, there’s an equally unique course available for any student!