<p>i got into L&S CS(B.A) for fall 13. Should i pick UCSD CS (B.S) over cal? My concerns are as follows:</p>
<p>1) GPA deflation at cal so it will be impossible to get 3.5+ or may be 3.3+
2) B.A might hold be back (fyi: i read all the threads on B.A vs B.S in CC) and it's evident from the berkeley career center website that not majority people get good position at big firms like google, intel, amazon as opposed to EECS majors.
3) i won't have time doing research since i have to spend lot of time into studies.
4) students might be very competitive and won't share stuffs with others.</p>
<p>plz plz plz reply me if u are a current student and how is going with u right now. i am worrying that a bad gpa frm CAL will ruin my chances at schools like MIT, Stanford for graduate program. </p>
<p>i am in great dilemma choosing between the two schools. any thoughts or suggestions would be HUGGGGGGGGGGEEEEEEEEEEE helpful</p>
<p>I’m EECS, not L&S, but they share most of the same classes.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>It’s not impossible to get good grades at Cal. If you’re in a situation where you’re constantly overloading your schedule with tech classes (ie if you’re a transfer or something) yeah it’s pretty tricky… but it can be done. Just have to work hard. I’m not sure what the average EECS GPA is.</p></li>
<li><p>It’s CS at Berkeley, supposedly employers don’t care if you’ve got a BA or a BS, they care about what you know. The two majors share a bunch of classes. There’s also tons of companies that recruit on campus, career fairs and such, so there’s plenty of opportunities.</p></li>
<li><p>I know nothing about research, but if you balance your courseload correctly I don’t see why it wouldn’t be possible.</p></li>
<li><p>Simple not true. Yes, classes are graded on a curve (so in a sense, you have to compete with other students) but there’s tons of cooperation. People are always helping each other out, explaining concepts, giving hints, whatever. People form study groups, you’ll get some group projects to do, etc. It’s not some cut-throat competition.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Also, I would think graduate programs would see that you went to Cal and know that the classes here are tough sometimes, or at least be able to put your GPA in context. (Disclaimer: I know nothing about grad school admissions.)</p>
<p>Not that it means much, but UCSD was one of my choices as well. I chose Berkeley in a heartbeat, didn’t give the other schools a second thought, and definitely don’t regret it. But everyone’s different, so figure out which school is a better fit for you. :)</p>
<p>
What are you trying to say?</p>
<p>if u go to the berkeley career center and compare the jobs that CS(B.A) and EECS major got after graduation you would find barely few students from CS(B.A) made it top companies whereas a lot of students from EECS ended up in those BIG firms.</p>
<p>I agree with everything failure said. I personally would not believe that BA vs BS stuff. If you believe that then why wouldn’t you believe Cal > sd purely by reputation? Also, if you really want to go by stats, what do the numbers of cal cs vs ucsd cs look like for getting into top companies? I’m not implying anything, just curious. That seems like the statistic you should be looking at, not cal eecs vs cs.</p>
<p>Why do people think that the only computer companies worth aiming for are GAFAM?</p>
<p>One of the things that going to Berkeley for CS or EECS does is put you local to a lot of smaller computer companies that may be more interesting to many students than GAFAM.</p>
<p>Yes, the same applies to Stanford, San Jose State, Santa Clara, and UC Santa Cruz.</p>
<p>Sorry this is kinda unrelated…
I’m really interested in CS but have ZERO experience (currently in AP Calc AB)</p>
<p>Would I be able to succeed in Berkeley’s or SD’s comp sci program?</p>
<p>Some students go into CS 61A cold and do ok, although that is likely more risky.</p>
<p>Other options:</p>
<ul>
<li>Pre-study CS 61A over the summer using the course materials ( [CS</a> 61A Spring 2013: Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs](<a href=“http://www-inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs61a/sp13/]CS”>CS 61A Spring 2013: Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs) ) or the classic introductory CS book ( [Welcome</a> to the SICP Web Site](<a href=“http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/]Welcome”>http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/) ). You can install the Python and Scheme interpreters on your own computer to do the examples and exercises.</li>
<li>Take CS 61AS for 2 units; you can then either complete the entire course in the fall, or complete the remaining units in the spring, depending on your difficult it is initially for you. See [What’s</a> Going On with 61A?](<a href=“http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~bh/61a.html]What’s”>http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~bh/61a.html) .</li>
<li>Take CS 10 before CS 61A.</li>
</ul>
<p>Thanks! And would it be easy to change any major to computer science bs?</p>
<p>It is likely to be much more competitive to change major into EECS in the College of Engineering than to declare CS in the College of Letters and Science (even if it becomes capped with a 3.0 GPA in prerequisites needed to declare). There is not much point to chasing EECS over L&S CS anyway unless you want to emphasize EE over CS or need ABET accreditation for some reason (though for patent exam purposes, a student in a non-ABET-accredited CS major like L&S CS can look up the needed qualifying courses and take them).</p>
<p>@AtypicalAsian </p>
<p>Every since they changed 61A from scheme to python (rather recently I think, within the lat 2 or so years?) you don’t need to have any programming experience to take it. Prior to the switch in language, you had to know how to write a recursion, which is a rather complicated idea for beginners. But now they teach you that in 61A as well. You definitely can succeed if you put the time in. CS10 is another option like ucbalumnus suggested although I didn’t take it. I went into 61A cold as just as you are asking. I did take it in the summer though. I’m not sure how much the difficulty differs from the summer 61A vs the regular semester 61A. But I did take the dreaded Hilfinger for 61B the following fall semester and did fine there as well, so the summer 61A prepped me well considering I was a pure noobie prior to that.</p>
<p>@Quantam12</p>
<p>I also agree with what ucbalumnus said about companies. I know people who work for companies other than GAFAM and make damn good money. Plus their positions are more interesting.</p>
<p>Because of the LS CS GPA cap that’ll be implemented, Won’t UC Berkeley be more of a higher risk but higher reward, granted you might not get into CS? Or is it pretty much if you have a 3.0 or over, you’ll be guaranteed to get in? Not that this affects me personally as I’m coming to Cal planning on a nonimpacted major, but still curious about it as I have friends who plan majoring in LS CS.</p>
<p>Is ucsd computer science bs in the letters and science? Their website shows its impacted. Anyone?</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus & @xfer123…</p>
<p>Thanks a lot guys for taking your time out and comment on my thread. i really appreciate that. </p>
<p>Actually i was just being curious why CS(B.A) barely made it to those GAFAM companies. it’s cool, i am more concerned about my results than jobs now. </p>
<p>But i have some questions though, get back to me if you guys can.</p>
<p>1) a good result from UCSD or an avg. results from Cal, which one is more likely to lead me to a famous graduate school? Do they care about the schools i attended or just the research, GPA and other stuffs? (UCSD is also super rigorous and among top #15 engineering) The reason i am concern about gpa is, the minimum req. for cal’s EECS graduate program is 3.0 and it is super competitive too. </p>
<p>2) i am a transfer student, so do u guys think it will be really hard for me to do well at Cal? like maintaining 3.5+ gpa? i have basic programming experiences in java, C++, data structures. </p>
<p>Thanks a lot guys.</p>
<p>@AtypicalAsian…</p>
<p>CS(B.A/ B.S) is at the “Jacob School of Engineering” in UCSD. they have 6 different college but not like berkeley though. It is going to be impacted for transfer from fall 2015 due to high amount of applicants. btw, it was impacted for freshman starting this fall. hope that helps. here is the proof
[Impacted</a> Majors](<a href=“http://students.ucsd.edu/academics/advising/majors-minors/impacted-majors.html]Impacted”>Capped Majors)</p>
<p>Is UCSD’s CS program well known? I’m not trying to belittle UCSD in any way, I’m just uninformed.</p>