<p>I'm having a tough time deciding between these three schools. I live in Upstate New York, but travel isn't a big problem. On that note, Cali weather is substantially better, but Providence is still a little step up from where I am. This mainly only matters because I plan to play club tennis. </p>
<p>I am interested in Physics and CS, but those are only two ideas, and I am still exploring options. In general I am 85% sure I'm going to do some sort of science, but for all I know I could get to college and all of a sudden want to do Econ, so I don't want to base my decision too heavily on that. I applied to the arts (letters) and sciences colleges at UCLA and Berkeley because of that. </p>
<p>If you have any advice please let me know, thanks!</p>
<p>For UCLA, you need to transfer to the engineering division to major in CS; this may be difficult, so ask on the UCLA forum.</p>
<p>For Berkeley, you can major in CS in either L&S or engineering; the L&S CS major is not capped now, but may be in the future, requiring a GPA higher than 2.0 to declare. Physics is not capped, but economics is capped at Berkeley (currently, 3.0 GPA needed to declare).</p>
<p>The potential for L&S CS to become capped at Berkeley is due to the increase in popularity of the major (being a “big four in CS” school close to Silicon Valley is likely part of it). Among other things, it does mean CS class sizes are relatively large; see <a href=“http://schedule.berkeley.edu%5B/url%5D”>http://schedule.berkeley.edu</a> if that matters. The large size and proximity to Silicon Valley makes recruiting very good for CS majors at Berkeley (in contrast, it would not be surprising if Brown fed better to investment banking, even among CS majors).</p>
<p>In economics courses, Berkeley offers heavily math-oriented versions of intermediate economics and econometrics (Economics 101A, 101B, 141) that use math beyond the frosh calculus level (e.g. multivariable calculus). You may find that more interesting if you want to go on to PhD study in economics, or study economics from a more mathematical point of view.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus Thank you very much for all of that information. Also, econ was just an example, who knows what I may become interested in, but thanks anyway.</p>
<p>About being a big 4 in the silicon valley: my brother brought up the point that after Berkeley, while I would get a job in the bay area or Cali fairly easily, I would not be able to as easily get a job out east if I wanted to. But after Brown I could fairly easily get a job out east, and if I wanted to go out west it would be easier than if I wanted to go from Berkeley back east.</p>
<p>@UCBChemEGrad Yeah the costs are basically the same.</p>
<p>Even if Berkeley has the stronger science reputation, I think the Brown reputation carries farther in general. And even though Brown may be ranked behind Berkeley in most sciences, is the quality of education really that significantly less?</p>
<p>Oh I have no idea! At the moment, I want to do something science related, but as I said theres about an 85% chance of that, I could end up doing almost anything. I don’t know if I could do just CS alone, thats why I like Physics and CS, but CS could be applicable in any job field at this point really so who knows.</p>
<p>Brown may be a little better for the undecided student, since there are not breadth requirements (except for engineering majors) to get in the way if you need to “catch up” after a late change of major, nor does it appear that there are any capped or limited-enrollment majors (but verify this with the school). However, majors like physics and engineering still need to be started early due to sequenced prerequisites.</p>