How do you survive at UC's?

I'm a high school senior done with my apps. Other than financial aid, I want to know more information about how to survive college. I've heard about different sizes lecture halls in private and public colleges but the UC lecture hall intrigues me. How do you learn in a room with 100+ other students?

I graduated from UCLA last spring and am studying there for graduate school now. First, UCLA does not have a class with 900 students. At the very least that'd be a fire hazard. I've seen some with half that size though...

Basically, you will succeed beyond your wildest dreams if you:
1) Don't procrastinate
2) Go to class

Here's why:
-Start homework days before it's due, papers weeks before. Even brainstorming or outlining papers helps a lot.
-Ask your profs and TAs questions. They'll be glad to help you if they can tell you've put some effort in learning. If you don't go to class, you might afraid of asking a question already covered in class. That means go to class. They get mad if you ask questions at the last minute. That means don't procrastinate.
-Use professor review websites (Bruins, use www.bruinwalk.com) to pick easy/inspiring instructors. This will help you go to class.
-Register for classes AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. This way you can get good class times. This will help you go to class, too.

If you want to be a nerd, read through the school general catalog. Learn what majors are offered, what the GE and major requirements are, plan out your schedule, etc. Hope this helps!

Go to class early and sit at the front and go to the professor's office hours and study away

personally you will have to find a way to survive in college. For instance, if you are taking math class and there are some math questions that you don't get, then go to Professor or TA's Office Hour and ask them questions. If that's not enough, most UC's should have some kind of tutoring program. Always do the homework questions even if you dont need to turn in any homework at all because that's the only way you can practice real questions ( sometime on a midterm or final you might get similar questions from the homework ).

If you still think that's not enough help, then form a study group with your friends ( UC's are pretty big campus, u should be able to find some friends ). sometime you have math tutoring center. If you have an essay to do, then there r ways to edit your essay ( u can pay someone to edit your essay or ask some tutor to edit for you ). So dont worry too much about college, i think the most important part is not to have too much fun in college cause too much party might lower your grades, learn to manage your time the u should be fine. good luck in college !

I went to Berkeley, and my Chem 1A class had about 700 students (not a fire hazard, the classroom was smaller than the Chinese Theater in Hollywood).

The classes are broken down into sections with TAs. Each section is about 20 or so. But the fact is, you have to figure out the best way for you to study, because it's sink or swim, and especially in the first year, some people have no idea what's going on and others have seen the material before. You just have to learn how to concentrate.