<p>Hello earthlings! Like most people here, I am applying as a transfer student this November. I am still deciding between CS and CE because I like both software and hardware lol. Nonetheless, I want to ask beside the top three UCs, what other school should I consider for CS/CE? I think I am going to apply to 4-5 schools including the big three. With a GPA of 3.65, maybe all three can be difficult to get in, so I want to pick one or two "safety" schools to TAG with. And I have come up with the following list:</p>
<p>1> Irvine: heard that it has really good CS program. Beside, along with SC and USC, it is one of the three schools in CA that offers a CS: Game Design degree. Right?</p>
<p>Irvine is a very nice town and you can get some pretty nice internships out there (google, for example has an office that’s apparently right down the street!) That, and Computer Science has its own school instead of just being a branch of the Engineering department. </p>
<p>I ended up at UCD for other reasons, but they are pretty good too. </p>
<p>Also: UCSC and computer engineering… picky TAG. They actually do want you to finish -everything- listed on the assist page (or at least their transfer requirements page).</p>
<p>You are probably better off doing a regular CS degree with some additional electives in graphics, artificial intelligence, etc. rather than getting too specialized in game design. Game companies hire a lot of people with regular CS degrees; if you look on their job openings list, they have only a few jobs for those with game design degrees. Meanwhile, with a regular CS degree, you can more easily seek employment in non-game companies hiring those with CS degrees.</p>
<p>Thanks ucbalumnus. That is indeed helpful.
Oh, and your name indicates you graduate from Cal. How hard is their CS (L&S) program? All schools in my area do not have CS61 series’ equivalence, and I hear people say that the series are super hard. That sounds scary for someone has decent programming skill like me…</p>
<p>The hard part (as a transfer) may be trying to cram in all of the CS 61A/61B/61C courses early so that you have time to take the desired upper division courses. None are available at any CC near you (check [Welcome</a> to ASSIST](<a href=“http://www.assist.org%5DWelcome”>http://www.assist.org) – CS 61B is the most commonly found, but is still not that common; CS 61C appears to exist only at Diablo Valley and CS 61A may exist only at Laney)?</p>
<p>Here are the course home pages, where you can see what kind of readings and assignments are given in each course:</p>
<p>Note that the books referenced for CS 61A and the language interpreters used are free (this is for both the Scheme based courses up to Summer 2011 and the Python based course of Fall 2011).</p>
<p>Thank you very much… well, actually, De Anza offers a course similar to CS 61B, but I still have to take CS 47B at Cal if I get accepted, so I think that’s a waste of time and money and I’d rather take the entire series at Cal.</p>
<p>May I ask if it’s possible to petition for another semester or year as transfer student?</p>
<p>Dear earthling …may I give you one piece of sage advice (that I had given to others who did not heed, to their own detriment): Since you’re primarily interested in computer science, Do not apply to EECS! Instead apply to CS in L&S. It is a million (OK maybe not a million, but 50,000) times easier to get into, and there is ABSOLUTELY no difference whatsoever in the curriculum (besides no one wil prevent you from “tayloring” the curriculum to include some hardware courses as well)</p>
<p>The ONLY reason in my opinion to apply to EECS is, if your primary interest is in the EE area (with a few CS courses thrown in for good measure). Also, my Engineering Student Services advisor told me that if you were admitted with 3 or more lower division courses missing they will grant you an extra semester (which is the case with me). 2 extra semesters are virtually never granted. </p>
<p>To be honest it seems almost redundant to have the Option IV (computer science) in EECS. The only mandatory courses that the EECS CS majors have to take are the 2 lower division electrical engineering courses EE40 and EE20N. However the L&S CS majors can take these too if they so choose.</p>
<p>Thanks very much sage haha, but I never say I want EECS. Though I love CE, I never love EE but anyway, that was one heck of an advice, I’ll write it down and keep it for later use :D</p>
<p>Yes, I believe so. Although in my case she was specifically referring to my EECS curriculum, my ESS advisor said that the CS major, while being officially under the L&S dept, is “administered” by the EECS dept for all practical purposes. She said “the university recognizes the difficulty transfers face in ‘pre-req unit-heavy’ majors like engineering and the hard sciences”.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Generally speaking, you will not be held responsible (and it won’t negatively impact your chances) for courses that are not offered at your primary CCC. However, if it is a “commonly offered” course, such as a course in the Physics or Math series, there is an expectation that you will find a nearby CCC and complete it.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This is the sad part! …Until last year a Math 55 equivalent was acceptable. They have said that there is a “grandfathering” provision that will allow students admitted until SPRING 2011 to count Math 55 towards the Discrete Math requirement. However, starting Fall 2012 only CS 70 (for which virtually no CCC has an equivalent) will be mandated. This means you have no choice but to take it at Berkeley. The same applies to EE 42. CCCs simply do not have similar engineering courses!</p>
<p>OMG so even after I transfer (once again assume that I get accepted first lol), I still need the entire 61 series, CS70, EE42, and a hell lot of upper division courses done in 2 years :(, or if lucky, 2.5 years</p>
<p>^^ Yes, that’s correct. It’s pretty intense. Just to give you an idea here’s how my Junior year looks like (as I’ve planned it). I’ve already registered for the fall semester.</p>
<p>Spring 2011: (tentative)
CS 61B, CS 61C, EE 20N and EE 105 (whoa! this is going to be one killer semester!!!)</p>
<p>Then, I’ve got just the 2 senior year semesters + 1 extra semester to complete all the UPPER DIVISION division courses. The only upper div course I will get to complete in my junior year is EE 105!!.</p>
<p>And besides, I’ve taken a 5-unit course in data structures at my community college (and from my experience I can tell that it was pretty in-depth)…but for some reason it does not articulate to CS 61B :rolleyes:</p>
<p>And not to scare you or anything, but in my case having an EE focus it’s pretty OK actually getting it done in 5 semesters total. However, I’m told that it’s a lot harder for those with the CS focus. This is actually another reason to do the L&S CS major. You don’t have to take EE 20N, and so it would probably be pretty manageable to get it done in 5 semesters.</p>
<p>Thank you very much… that is indeed sage’s advice lol. So you are going on the EECS route, did you complete IGETC before transferring? I don’t quite get it, your humanities course I mean.</p>
<p>Do you know how much different is CS70 from Math 55? Assume we all have taken discrete math at our CCC, will CS70 be easy? They use the same textbook as my college, discrete math and app by Rosen I think</p>
<p>Berkeley College of Engineering requires two upper division humanities or social studies courses, at least one of which is in the same general subject area (e.g. history, political science, economics, English, etc.) as another humanities course that you took.</p>
<p>But no CS 61A, CS 61C, or CS 70 at any community college near De Anza (unless you consider Diablo Valley College near).</p>
<p>If you can complete CS 61B, it becomes somewhat more manageable if you transfer to CS at Berkeley, especially if you do a summer session before your first semester at Berkeley:</p>
sorry to forget to mention that</p>
…may I give you one piece of sage advice (that I had given to others who did not heed, to their own detriment): Since you’re primarily interested in computer science, Do not apply to EECS! Instead apply to CS in L&S. It is a million (OK maybe not a million, but 50,000) times easier to get into, and there is ABSOLUTELY no difference whatsoever in the curriculum (besides no one wil prevent you from “tayloring” the curriculum to include some hardware courses as well)</p>
…Until last year a Math 55 equivalent was acceptable. They have said that there is a “grandfathering” provision that will allow students admitted until SPRING 2011 to count Math 55 towards the Discrete Math requirement. However, starting Fall 2012 only CS 70 (for which virtually no CCC has an equivalent) will be mandated. This means you have no choice but to take it at Berkeley. The same applies to EE 42. CCCs simply do not have similar engineering courses!</p>