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<p>A BA is a Bachelor of Arts degree - it applies to two categories: liberal arts degrees and, for lack of better words, “watered down” math/science degrees. A BA in Computer Science is less… involved… or in depth than a BS in Computer Science.
A BS is a Bachelor of Science degree - the standard first degree in most math/science degrees and liberal arts degrees. A BS usually needs more classes on the major to be taken than a BA math/science degree.
Hence why I told you to look at the BS’s. You seem to know you really want to do CompSci (I extrapolated that from your 2 summer Intro to CompSci and Intro to C++ classes, and how well you did).
Of course, taking a BS in CompSci doesn’t mean you’re stuck with it. If you find something else you like better, you can always switch and still make it within four years, as long as you don’t switch too late.</p>
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<p>Your first request in the above quote is ambiguous - I’m not sure if you mean what UC’s there are, or what colleges within UCSB. I think you already know what UC’s there are, so I’m going to assume the latter.
The different colleges within UCSB (for undergraduates):
College of Letters and Science
College of Engineering
College of Creative Studies</p>
<p>College of Letters and Science - like most similarly named segments within other universities - encompasses the majority of the majors offered at UCSB (haha… majority… majors; I should be an English major…). What was it… 60% of the students are within that college? The BA in Computer Science is offered there - but that’s for non-hardcore people. Don’t worry about that, unless you want more information about it.</p>
<p>College of Engineering covers all of the engineering majors offered at UCSB, as well as Computer Science (since it’s so related to engineering, anyway). The BS degree in CompSci offered at the College of Engineering is more specialized (technical/in-depth, you can say) and is the standard degree for most undergraduates wishing to major in Computer Science.</p>
<p>The College of Creative Studies is a college that’s unique to UCSB, and, is the smallest of the three undergraduate colleges. If I have my facts straight, only around 350 undergraduates go to the College of Creative studies - that’s because there are only *eight[/] majors offered within that college. Those in the College of Creative Studies are said to be given more opportunities than standard students, which can be seen on the [Wikipedia</a> page](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_of_Creative_Studies"]Wikipedia”>College of Creative Studies - Wikipedia) about it. It’s incredibly interesting, and makes me wish I had signed up for that right off the bat. The good part about it is that the CCS accepts admissions into it throughout the year, so if you decide that you suddenly want to be a little bit more special in the middle of Winter quarter, you can apply for the Spring quarter, I believe.</p>
<p>And, yes, you select which kind of degree you want on your UC application, when you apply.</p>
<p>And, hey, don’t worry about apologizing. We were all clueless at one point. Since I’m an incoming freshman this year, I don’t know a lot - all of this is from research I’ve done in the past. I’m glad to be of any service to future undergrads, no matter where you end up. =]
Oh, and always shoot higher than you expect. You never know what might happen… Lotta jackass friends of mine who didn’t deserve to get into certain schools got into certain schools. Hopefully, you’ll be one of them. x]</p>