<p>Anyone familiar with it?</p>
<p>yeah--what do you want to know?</p>
<p>How does it differ from the L&S school, and what kinds of kids are generally in it?</p>
<p>CCS is for kids who want to intensely study one thing. They offer eight areas: literature, art, music composition, math, physics, biology, chem/biochem and...computer science, I think? What CCS lets you do is take a <em>crapload</em> of very in-depth, accelerated courses in whatever area you wish to study. From what I can tell, they have a very good science department...their literature seems somewhat less strong, which is somewhat sad because that's what I applied for. In any case, at CCS you can take many many more course in your chosen area of study, and have the option of taking them both within CCS or taking courses from L&S. I think CCS is about 350 people...could be wrong. There are graduate aspects to the college, for instance, you have the option of switching to pass/fail (or visa versa), dropping the class, or taking the course for variable units pretty much until the very last day of class, which gives you a lot of flexibility. You are also given graduate library privilages (which, given how...extensive...the ucsb library is, would be a big help). The sort of people that are in it vary--I think that a lot of the literature people can be very unfocused and are probably lit majors because they aren't spectacular at anything else (there are, of course, some very good ones too). The science and math people are, I think, very bright and very motivated people. As UCSB is not generally thought to be the best of the UCs, I was very surprised that such smart science-y people would go there, but apparenty they get a lot of people from the CCS program into very good graduate schools and careers. There are two sides to CCS: one is that if you're sure of what you want to do this can be an amazing program, and you'll have some very good opportunities. The other is that if you're not so sure of what you want to study, or if you want to do something that isn't included in the College, then you might be ****ed. For instance, I have a friend that loves the idea/philosophy behind CCS, but really wants to go into engineering, and that's not a program they have. Are you thinking of applying? I think acceptances for CCS are being sent out in a day or two.</p>
<p>I actually applied to the CCS Physics department and have been waiting eagerly for an acceptance hopefully (not sure if i dodged the round of rejections that recently went out 3 days ago... i live in San Diego). I've heard from just about anyone familliar with the program that it is very good, although there is little information out there (A class Vale went to UCSB over Caltech a few years ago and no one knew why... though i kinda know now heh much cheaper but still solid).</p>
<p>Right now though I have two passions that I really want to follow. Physics or Aero Engineering (though I've done a lot more work in physics so I'm much more familiar with it). I just wanted to hear from what a student had to say about the program (I already have seen and love the school/campus). </p>
<p>Thanks for the response! I appreciate it.</p>
<p>PS Do you know roughly what the workload is like? Im just curious, but i imagine its similiar to other high science schools.</p>
<p>Feck, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to come off as a student--I've only applied for lit, and have also thusfar avoided the rejection letters. My information is second hand; I know what I've heard from kids at my high school who went on to CCS and from doing an extensive visit to the college (talking with students there, visiting some classes). From what I know of you (I found your stats on another post where you'd been rejected from a college, I apologize for the stalkerism) you actually sound like a good fit for CCS. Since you have dual interests in physics and aero engineering, what you could do is major in Physics within CCS and, virtue of being a CCS student, be allowed to take the upper division courses in Aero Engineering and whatnot from S&L. </p>
<p>I can't say definitively what the workload is like, but for a physics student I think you'd have a fairly similar workload to other science schools as far as <em>how much</em> work you'd be dealing with. What CCS would offer you as a physics student, however, would be a lot more time in labs doing practical...physics-esque things. In short, yeah, I think you'd be doing a lot of work, but if you're as passionate about science as you seem to be, then I imagine you've already signed on for that. Here's hoping we get in! I think we've got around...what, two or three days till we know?</p>
<p>Ya, Ive been thinking if I can make it through tomorrow without the little envelope Ill be in the clear (only took 2 days for Caltech decision to reach me so Im starting to feel better). Hopefully youll make it through too. And ya, I love physics, but I've just never managed to get lab experience with professors (lack of knowledge lack of network bleh). The biggest attraction though as you said, was the amount of upperdivision things you get to participate in, and the fact youll be going straight into research (working with what, 3 or 4 nobels in physics at least?). </p>
<p>But ya the tension is definitely building, I'd love to be able to stay in Cali weather. But ya, lets just keep our fingers crossed for the time being :). Thanks for all the info.</p>
<p>Well just got the acceptance letter in the mail today :), so perhaps the mailbox worry time is over. Best of luck!</p>
<p>Me too! We are...amazing CCS officionados or something. Good luck with the rest of your colleges, but if you end up going to CCS...leave a message, ne? That'd be neat.</p>
<p>do you guys know what about is the percentage acceptance rate for ccs freshmen?</p>
<p>Well theres really no data as to the CCS admit rate... but here are some numbers theyve just released according to the 2005-06 student data that could give you an idea as to its competitiveness</p>
<p>% degrees given by CCS: 111/5641 or 2.0%</p>
<p>GPA
CCS: 3.86 (HS) 3.71(Transfer)</p>
<p>UCSB (Engi): 3.68(HS) 3.32(Transfer
UCSB (L&S): 3.77(HS) 3.19(Transfer)</p>
<p>SAT CCS UCSB (Engi) UCSB(L&S)
OLD
VERB 670 571 590
Math 705 655 607
Total 1375 1226 1197</p>
<p>Here is what UCB has for their SAT Req (mid 50%)
SAT Reasoning Math: 620 - 740
SAT Reasoning Verbal: 580 - 710
SAT I Score: 1359
ACT Composite Score: 28
High School GPA: 4.17 </p>
<p>SAT Wise its comparable to berekely, though GPA wise it might seem lower. However keep in mind CCS looks at more than just statistics. A large portion of the admissions (I'd imagine) are your 2 letters of rec, statement of intent, and evidence of talent. Its a lot less stat based than what UC's generally are. Just show them that you love something, your passion for it, and your desire to excel.</p>
<p>Keep in mind, it wouldnt be wise to go for say art if you really want to do physics JUST to get into CCS (if you want to sterotype art people as less stat oriented). You'd need evidence of talent (works of art/music/acting/etc) so its not something you can really sneak into. I also dont think you can really apply undeclared...well you COULD but I imagine that you'd have to state elsewhere that you have two passions (shown in work) in like math and physics.</p>
<p>PS Jabber Im still pretty amazed, its kind of caught me off guard after being rejected from MIT and Caltech, but the more I think about the more the joy is setting in. Its an excellent program, and TBH I'm really happy to get in.</p>
<p>I've been rejected from two colleges too, and one was UCLA..the more I think about it, I think I probably got into because the ccs faculty really liked my writing samples and thought I'd be a strong literature student, and let that compensate for my depressingly bad gpa. It's funny, earlier this year I wasn't even <em>thinking</em> about ucsb, but the more and more I learn about ccs, the happier I am with it.</p>
<p>Ya, its really an amazing program that values work more than numbers. Its amazing, but its harder to get into for that reason.</p>
<p>IS it hard to get into? i feel like not many people apply and i havent heard of anyone getting rejected...</p>
<p>I don't either, but I also only knew kids who were really good applicants...I wouldn't say it's crazy competitive admissions so much as it isn't really a program for everyone--you really have to know what you want to do with it.</p>
<p>Exactly, its not something for people who are iffy on what they want to do. Furthermore, its not something that will appear on the U.S. Newsweekly top college list. Its a program thats very specific, very small, and very directed in what you can expect to get out of it, which is a pro and con within itself.</p>
<p>I am debating between berkeley and santa barbara (got into both, and into ccs at ucsb). I think Jabberwocky's right--I visited the lit classes and really wasn't very impressed...but I heard physics is amazing. if i go I'll probably double major, lit in CCS and English or psychology in letters and science so that I can cover all my bases.</p>
<p>fyi jabberwocky--I talked to a Lit student, and she told me CCS isn't great for lit people if they want to go to grad school majoring in English because the CCS lit program is considered "loosy-goosy" and doesn't require many lit analysis papers etc.</p>
<p>hm...sorry to bring up the thread after so long, but what if you want to do undergrad major in english and grad in something a bit more concrete? The thing about me is that I'm actually very into lit analysis, much more so than creative writing. I was considering maybe using CCS as a way to get into UCSB's upper division lit courses, take as many as I could, and then get into grad (don't know what I would do for grad, but it probably wouldn't be English...eventually I'm going to need a job or summat)...you seem more familiar with the CCS lit department, does that sound feasible? I've never really respected UCSB, but when I looked at their faculty (both CCS and S&L) for english, they've got some pretty impressive people.</p>
<p>Jabber, I can't specifically say anthing about CCS lit (my son is going in as a math major if he decides to go there) but from listening to the student panel at Spring Insight it sounds like it is really easy to take upper division courses if you are a CCS student, they seem to make a lot of exceptions to the usual rules about what classes you can take.</p>
<p>jabberwocky- I would take lit at CCS, and then double major in a different interest at L&S. It's not too hard to do (except for the bureaucratic red tape stuff) because you meet with the faculty advisor at CCS and design your own curriculum (therefore a lot of your L&S major requirements can fulfill CCS requirements even though you are taking L&S classes, not CCS). You can finish an L&S major and still have the CCS grad benefits (in the library, registering for classes etc.) At least, that was the impression I got from talking to CCS people.</p>