BA vs BS in computer Science in UC Berkely?

What should I choose guys??IDEAS??

Perhaps this comparison chart may help you:
https://eecs.berkeley.edu/academics/undergraduate/eecs-cs-comparison-chart

From an admission standpoint, CoE EECS is generally considered harder to get into than L&S, but L&S students need to complete the L&S CS prerequisites with a 3.30 college GPA to declare the L&S CS major.

Graduating with either would be excellent. :slight_smile:

This actually is somewhat a tough decision because there are so many variables to take into account.

BSCS
-Harder to get into (I assume)
-More math and sciency
-Possibly better job prospects

BACS
-Easier course load (but not by much)
-More Liberal Arts and Humanities classes (Depends if you want this or not)
-Less math and sciency projects

What do you want to do in college and afterwards?

FWIW, I’ve heard from multiple people that there is no difference in job prospects for a BS vs a BA. It will be interesting to hear what other people know or have heard.

^That’s my impression too. Employment is mostly about skills and internships. You can take the courses you need either way. So it’s really which curriculum you prefer. If the BS provides the direct entry to the major, that’s what I would do, but I’m not a big risk taker.

The BS is through the engineering school and the BA is through the arts and sciences school. While the CS class requirements are about the same, what differs is the other classes that you are required to take. Sure it’s really nice to have the direct entry with the BS program, but it might not be the preferred program for you. You need to look at the requirements for each to make your decision.

Career survey results for L&S CS and EECS for 2016:

https://career.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/pdf/Survey/2016CompSci.pdf
https://career.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/pdf/Survey/2016EECS.pdf

Not a lot of difference for those going into employment, although EECS graduates had a higher tendency to go to graduate school. EECS does have a small portion of students emphasizing EE, which can affect the results to a small level (most of its students emphasize CS these days).

I looked at the table- excellent. You should go by what courses you want to have to graduate, not the A or S designation. You have an excellent school for your education.

You are talking about two different majors, btw (thank you ucb… for the links). One is EE/CS- an engineering approach. The other is the liberal arts CS major. Some people prefer the theory over the engineering aspect of things. Some do a lot of math with the CS (or double major). Some schools offer the choice of a BA or BS for CS, depending on breadth requirements met and student choice.

Noted major employers- not unexpected for a CA location. Amazon also gets people from all over- other regions in the US, Canada, India et al.

My son added CS to his honors math at UW-Madison, much more theory than practical programming experience which he picked up in his first job. He chose the BS rather than the BA degree. A distant relative is into the engineering side of things. He is the tinkerer compared to abstract (vs applied math) son.

The bottom line- choose what you like most. Do not worry about jobs- do well and you will get the one that suits you. Deal with how your school manages entry into majors as well.

I’m not sure if it is @wis75’s intention, but it sounds as if EECS is for “engineering aspect” and L&S CS is for “theory.”

This is not the case with my D, who was an EECS undergrad, and now a CS PhD student at Cal. Her work is more “theory” than “engineering aspect.” In fact, she is working on 2 papers that will be (hopefully) presented to the Math department before published.

Your D is in CS for grad school, not the engineering school- therefore the theory makes sense. Undergrad major may have been more engineering classes than the CS majors take. One’s undergrad and grad school fields do not have to be the same. Math is definitely behind computer science theory.

My son got a BS from Carnegie Mellon. He didn’t do anything that I would call engineering. (CS is a stand alone school there.) He minored in Physics, but doesn’t use it on his job.

It does not matter which option is harder/easier to get into. Having a 3.3 in related courses makes sense- you need to know your material to succeed in any major. What does matter is which route most interests you. Simplified- hardware or software. Engineering or liberal arts. As post # 9 shows, you are not limited to engineering after your undergrad degree. If the engineering aspects interest you it may be harder to learn them without taking those classes as an undergrad, ie the EE/CS route. I found it interesting years ago to learn that electrical engineering has evolved to also encompass computer science engineering. It does make sense.

btw- these choices exist at other schools as well. Berkeley and many other schools offer the two overlapping but different fields.

The chart itself does say who the different degree options are better for:

BS: Students who prefer a traditional STEM curriculum; students who may wish to emphasize in EE; students who are certain about their major choice at the time of admission.

BA: Students interested in double majoring in a non-engineering field (e.g. math, stats, physics, english); students who prefer more flexibility; students who want to focus in CS and are not as interested in EE; students who are still exploring their major.

If you’d like to explore a fuller liberal arts curriculum, take some electives in other areas, maybe double major, and/or have close to zero interest in electrical engineering, the BA may be the better choice. If you want to be sure at admission that you can major in CS, and have a strong interest in engineering principles and don’t really care about the exploration and flexibility than the BS may be a better choice.