<p>With the deadline for apps coming up in late November, I thought I'd pop back up on CC to answer any questions you guys may have. I know some of you are probably worrying endlessly, freaking out, and/or experiencing a ton of stress, but hang in there. It's all worth it in the end.</p>
<p>Background about myself for those that don't know:</p>
<ul>
<li>Transferred last year to UCB with a 3.75.</li>
<li>Applied as a double major, but put phil as my primary major. I'm a psych major now. I love phil and psych, so why not apply to the easier major to get into?</li>
<li>Prereqs: Done for Psych</li>
<li>Personal Statements: Honestly they were okay, but nothing extreme.</li>
<li>Hook: 2-time hs dropout? lol.</li>
<li>Work: 4 jobs.</li>
<li>EC's: PTK and AGS....though I did nothing in either one tbh.</li>
</ul>
<p>I also enjoy poker, College Confidential (drr), and long walks on the beach. Lol jk about the latter!</p>
<p>I know the most about UCB because I go here, but I also know a bunch about the other UC's, majors, prereqs, etc. I kind of immersed myself with the entire transfer process in community college.</p>
<p>The #1 thing people get rejected for at UCLA and UCB is prereq completion; I know two 4.0 CCC students rejected at UCLA for missing a psych prereq. Please focus on GPA and prereqs; this is the last semester to kick some ass and show the adcoms why you belong at the school of your choice. Read assist very carefully and ensure you're on pace to fulfill all requirements. </p>
<p>As for your personal statements, the adcoms love it when students relate their lives/experiences with their major. It just provides credibility to your application...makes it more cohesive. For me, both psych and philosophy made a lot of sense actually. </p>
<p>Feel free to ask me anything too! Hope you guys are doing well, and I wish you all the best of luck!</p>
<p>Do you think it’s overly ambitious to want to double major in L&S (Genetics from MCB and CS) - I did a 2 year/4 semester plan, and if I were able to get into all of my upper div classes, it would work out to 16 units a semester for 4 semesters. L&S majors seem to be super flexible with upper div requirements, which is nice. The two overlapping classes for the two majors are tech electives, btw.</p>
<p>I know you’re not a Cal adviser, but I was just wondering if you knew what their stance was on double majoring in L&S - do a lot of people do it?</p>
<p>Hey! Thanks for making a thread on this. I was wondering, I am applying to UCLA (PSYCH), UCB (SOC.) I have anywhere from a 3.75-3.78 UC trans. GPA. Major GPA is 3.8 for UCLA & 4.0 for BERK. Recieved 4 W’s, 4 D’s (retook them and got A’s), finished pre-reqs & IGETC. Realistically, what are my chances?</p>
<p>How strict are the UC’s with prereqs?
I’ll be starting at Pierce next semester and I’m deciding on majoring in either applied math with a focus on computing or computer science. With either track there will be one or two courses I won’t be able to complete because they are not available in any cc within commuting distance. There is a school, Moorpark, that offers these electrical engineering courses no other school nearby me does, but Moorpark is 30 miles away from me. I mainly travel by public transit and have no problem doing so, but commuting 30 miles via public transit seems draining, especially when considering that no bus passes nearby the school and I would mostly likely make the 3 mile trek to the school by foot.</p>
<p>Berkeley CS has a special problem in that the lower division prerequisites (except for math) are not readily available at most community colleges.</p>
<p>CS 61A: available at one community college (Laney).
CS 61B: available at a small number of community colleges (including Laney and Diablo Valley); partial course available at a small number of other community colleges.
CS 61C: available at one community college (Diablo Valley).
CS 70: not available at any community college.
EE 42: available at a few community colleges (including Laney).</p>
<p>Transfers to Berkeley have to take some or all of the above courses as “catch up” before being able to take upper division CS courses (typically about 7 needed). Doing a double major can make the schedule for your four semesters at Berkeley even more cramped.</p>
<p>The applied math CS cluster at Berkeley lists CS 170, 172, and 174 (the math-like theory courses). CS 170 lists CS 61B as a prerequisite, so you’d still have to deal with “catch up” if you could not take CS 61A and CS 61B at community college.</p>
<p>Doing CS or applied math CS cluster at Berkeley after transferring with none of the CS prerequisites complete is possible, but it makes for a tight schedule (tighter with CS). New transfers to Berkeley CS are often recommended to attend Berkeley summer session before their first regular Berkeley semester to take two of CS 61A, CS 61B, CS 61C, CS 70, EE 42, depending on what they are missing.</p>
<p>However, what you can do is take LA Valley’s CS 836/839 or Canyons CS 182/182L/236 for Berkeley CS 61B, and Moorpark CS M30/M40 for Berkeley CS 61C. Then you will need to “catch up” only on CS 61A, CS 70, and EE 42.</p>
<p>You may also want to take Santa Monica Math 10 or CS 10 or Moorpark Math M21 or LA City Math 727 for Berkeley Math 55, which is needed for the Berkeley Math major, and which is somewhat similar to Berkeley CS 70.</p>
<p>Doing CS is probably better if you want a typical software job, although going in that direction from applied math is also sometimes done (but you’d want to take some additional CS courses besides the theory ones).</p>
<p>Well, I’ve finished 61B, and was planning to complete 61A and EE42 over the summer session, leaving 70 and 61C. All of my MCB pre-reqs are complete as well. I only have 4 courses plus two technical electives (overlapping with CS) to do for MCB. </p>
<p>Summer 2012</p>
<p>CS 61A - 4 units
EE 42/43 - 6 units</p>
<p>Fall 2012</p>
<p>MCB C100A - Biophysical Chem - 4 units
CS 61C - 4 units
CS 70 - Discrete Math - 4 units
Some kind of seminar to put me over the 13 unit full-time min.</p>
<p>Spring 2013</p>
<p>MCB 110 - Molecular Bio/Biochem - 4 units
MCB/CS Tech Elective: BioE 143 - Computational Biology - 4 units
CS170 - 4 units
American Cultures - 3 or 4 units</p>
<p>I think that 16 units a semester is not too bad - but I was wondering how crazy the level of coursework is at Cal? Would 16 units of CS/MCB coursework be a nightmare?</p>
<p>^ Are you some kind of genius/Olympiad? Because no offense, even tho that schedule is possible (16 is common there I think), you will soon hate your life :)</p>
<p>3 CS courses your last semester is just like killing yourself, so I would suggest spreading about a bit. Take American Culture before entering Cal. And if possible, moves your Tech Elective to Summer 2013. That way, you will have a semester with 16 units and the other with 12 units your senior year. (I know it didn’t help much with that schedule, but honestly I don’t know what else to suggest to two majors that have very little overlap, and both are notorious weeders at Cal)</p>
<p>But why planning ahead so much lol?</p>
<p>Btw, I think that double majors will be given an extra semester if you petition… If that’s the case, then it’s possible :)</p>
<p>Why do you have CS 170 listed twice? Are you expecting to get a D or F the first time?</p>
<p>If you want to do industry software jobs, consider including 170, 162, EE122, 169, 186, and 161 in your CS course selection.</p>
<p>The CS courses with programming can be a lot of work, even if they may not be that difficult. I would expect the same for MCB courses with labs.</p>
<p>What is the reason for double majoring CS and MCB? If you are interested in computational biology, a few MCB electives, rather than a full MCB major may be just as good, without cramping your schedule. If you are pre-med, note that majoring in biology is not required (although MCB is filled with pre-meds), and your completing the lower division MCB prerequisites probably covers a lot of the pre-med course requirements already.</p>
<p>If you are thinking of trying to find better job and career prospects by adding MCB, that is probably not worth the effort, as MCB does poorly in the career survey.</p>
<p>Yeah, I’m more interested in going to grad school for Computational Biology than anything else. The listing of CS 170 twice was a typo. I guess that leaves 12 units for one of my senior year semesters, as Sparky said.</p>
<p>It’s difficult for me, because Cal doesn’t offer a Comp. Bio major, so I was just trying to figure out what would work in terms of getting appropriate coursework completed. I was just picking and choosing courses that are akin to courses required by other UCs for their Computational Biology/Bioinformatics majors (UCLA, UCSD). </p>
<p>I mostly just some opinions on whether or not the notion was unrealistic, and I guess the general consensus is that it is. </p>
<p>Thanks for all of the well-thought out advice, guys. I really appreciate it :)</p>
<p>If I get in to Cal, and choose to attend, I’ll probably just do the CS thing and take an MCB/BioE course or two as electives.</p>
<p>You may want to check if additional statistics courses are useful for computational biology. Research papers in biology and medicine commonly refer to statistical analyses, so it is likely that you want a good understanding of statistics in any case.</p>
Have you tried looking into BioEngineering? That one maybe the closest to your desired major available at Cal</p>
<p>
Same here. If I get in, I’m going to choose some Econ as elective. I’m interested in Econ, but 1) Cal doesn’t offer Econ minor 2) Hell no could I complete both majors requirements going in as a transfer under a 2.5 years cap :)</p>
<p>I do not understand pre-requirements of econ. Do we need finish all the stat class before transfer into the uc? if i just finish the econ1 and math(AP-calculus bc-5) ,did that mean i fulfill the requirement of econ?</p>