Chance Me EECS

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
1

Hi,

Should I apply to computer science in Engineering or Letters and Science at Berkeley based on my stats below for a better shot? I’d much rather get into Engineering just because you are guaranteed the major you pick, but don’t want to apply to engineering if I am really unlikely to get in. I don’t really have CS extracurriculars (although I am taking an AP class in it). I am an OOS student (Michigan).

GPA unweighted: 4.0
GPA weighted: 4.35 (only weights AP classes)
AP Classes taken: 12 (counting senior year)
-AP Human Geo (5)
-APUSH (5)
-AP Chem (4)
-AP Bio (5)
-AP Econ (5)
-AP English 11 (5)
-AP Stats (5)
-AP Calc BC - senior year
-AP Comp Sci- senior year
-AP English 12- senior year
-AP Physics C- senior year
-AP French- senior year

SAT score: 1570
Sat II: Bio M- 770, Math II- 790

EC:
4 years HOSA (nats qualifier once)
50 hours volunteering
President of FBLA (nats qualifier 3 times)
President of FPS (nats qualifier twice)
Treasurer of KAST (volunteer organization)
10 years learning, diploma test in a month for Indian classical music
Nats winner in TYE (business comp)

State: Michigan
Interest essay is about my (recent) love for comp sci

I am upper middle class, Indian, and my large public school sends maybe 5 kids to ivy’s or equivalent schools (stanford, MIT etc) a year, and about 100 to U of M.

2

your chances for EECS should be really good, but yes, there’s always the odds game that you have to play with Berkeley EECS. If you have other top schools also that you wouldn’t mind going to, then I would say, sure, go for EECS and not L&S.

BTW, the 3.3 gauntlet for L&S CS is not really all that bad. About 50% who try make it through. Though all 3 classes are very tough, my feeling is that if you can’t get 3.3 out of the CS61A/CS61B/CS70 set, you probably aren’t qualified to be a high-achieving CS student anyways.