Should I enroll at Chico State as a freshman or go to community college for two years and TAG to UC Davis? Any thoughts? Computer Science major btw. Cost isn’t an issue. I think Chico has a pretty solid CS Program with an alright rep but UC Davis is a top CS school. Anyone with an opinion please give me some advice.
@ucbalumnus and @Gumbymom maybe able to help you more than most on these questions.
@epicstyle . . . I’m not either person, but here is some info for those entering UCD as CS majors in 2018 from community college…
Applicants/Acceptances/Enrolled, let’s call this a slash line (of students) like baseball: 1,102/257/84 or,
Acceptance Rate/Matriculation Rate: 23%/33%
25th/75th (Edit:) Percentile of Accepted; 25th/75th of Enrolled: 3.69/3.94; 3.59/3.87 (Oops, lost my concentration)
I’d class it as very, very competitive. Here’s the [url=<a href=“https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/transfers-major%5Dlink%5B/url”>https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/transfers-major]link[/url] to the above stats. I guess you should TAG, but I don’t think it’ll have play in your entering Davis for CS. The other two persons might be able to answer better as stated.
Edit: There’s also Computer Science & Engineering…as you can see in link.
I am assuming your are already accepted at Chico State and supposedly you have enrolled there since the SIR date was May 1?
I believe Chico state is a good option if you do not want to go the CC to UC transfer route. CS continues to get more competitive each year and several schools have changed their GPA requirements for TAG or have eliminated CS as a TAG major (UCI/UCSB).
Here is the current criteria for UCD TAG in CS:
Computer Science
Requirements in addition to general admission requirements and TAG requirements:
Complete the following courses and maintain a 3.40 GPA in each of the following two series:
Mathematics 21A/B/C
Engineering Computer Science 20, 50, 36A/C
Applicants for fall 2021 and later must achieve a minimum 3.1 GPA in overall UC-transferable coursework.
Additional Recommendations:
Engineering Computer Science 36B
ENG CS(ECS) 36A/B/C is a new series as of fall 2018 and has replaced ENG CS/ECS 30/40/60 courses. Courses offered at CCCs with existing articulation to ENG CS/ECS 30, 40 and 60 will be honored for the next three academic years (2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21).
https://www.ucdavis.edu/admissions/undergraduate/transfer/transfer-admission-guarantee/criteria/
I am a big believer that if you take advantage of all resources and opportunities available to you at any given school, you will be able to succeed in your desired major. Chico State’s CS program is ABET accredited so that should give you some reassurance of their program.
**ABET accreditation is proof that a collegiate program has met standards essential to produce graduates ready to enter the critical fields of STEM education. Graduates from an ABET-accredited program have a solid educational foundation and are capable of leading the way in innovation, emerging technologies, and in anticipating the welfare and safety needs of the public.
@Gumbymom im actually a senior in HS and im just planning ahead. There’s no way im getting into CS at UCD as a freshman, but I know that I can get into chico. Thanks for the info!
@epicstyle . . . just keep in mind though that the supposedly easier pathway of entry to Chico’s CS program will undoubtedly mean extreme bumps in the road towards the major: weed-out courses placed as intro to programming at the University, that take a great amount of time in the lab. These will undoubtedly test your ability to code in an extremely detailed manner. I don’t know much about programming – rather, I know effectively nothing, but I do like to occasionally mess around with hexadecimal and binary numbers, cause it’s kind of cool to do mathematical operations like subtraction with them. I don’t know how low you will go, but you’ll have to know how a computer thinks.
The inverse relationship of “easy” admissions to a weeding out process of the CS major at Chico doesn’t apply to UCD (edit) in the opposite: Davis will also have extremely tough intro CS courses also. However, the dynamic of taking a couple lower division CS courses at cc seems to change things; whether they would be weed-outs at a two-year or not would be the question; I imagine they would be, but not as tough as at University, or certainly not as competitive. This is undoubtedly one of the reasons why Davis has such a high floor of grades needed at cc.
In either pathway, good luck.
Wrt Davis, the inverse of the inverse relationship…
@Coloradomama . . . if you wouldn’t mind, could I elicit your response in this thread, when you have the chance? I also have a few questions, if you wouldn’t mind.
- What laptop would you recommend to connect to the university server for someone like the OP?
- I feel similar to Mark Cuban who's apparently trying to pick up on machine learning. I'd like to read a book on it -- something elementary -- and also would like to do some exercises. Is the second part possible?
- How many universities teach machine language or do most just teach a low-level assembly? I saw it in [CS 33](https://catalog.registrar.ucla.edu/ucla-catalog18-19-557.html) at UCLA but not Program in Computing through the math department; I don't think the latter would need it. It's apparent that the 33 course is UCLA's weed-out, five units, a lot of time outside of class and in the lab.
@epicstyle: If you are a Freshman applicant, then apply to variety of schools, see where you are accepted and then consider attending a 4 year university or doing the transfer route.
Both are terrific schools and both are well regarded in Silicon Valley. Getting jobs offers after your degree should be equally easy, especially if Sacramento or the Bay Area are your target search areas.
It might be easier to get involved in research if you spend 4 years at Chico vs 2 at UCD. So maybe take that into consideration if research is an interest of yours or if you think that you might want to go straight to grad school.
CS is not currently considered an impacted major at CSU Chico (last I looked) but don’t be surprised to see that change. Having the CC/UC pathway as a desired option is a healthy way to approach your school search.
(@firmament2x - you should start your own thread as your questions don’t relate directly to OP’s. You’ll get better responses that way. thx)
@Otterma . . . I’m not doing it solely for my benefit; it’s an open forum, which might help those who want to major in CS or those (students) who might want to learn the rudiments of AI; whether they’re about to enter CS or not. I’m asking questions in lieu of the OP who might not yet have the foundation to ask these questions. But then again, he/she might have been programming since she/he was 10. Coloradomama is one of the most versed in E on this board, and I just asked my question a short while ago, not days ago.
I didn’t see machine language in CS at Davis, because I couldn’t find the course listing off of a cursory glance, though there is certainly assembly. I didn’t see it at Chico either, thus my question to her. As a continuation of my prior post, machine language, apparently is used to simulate a high-level language – I have to be careful of how I tread because I’m not versed on the subject – and is often taught to students to instruct them on the character-by-character reading as a computer would do to process data. (If you’re in CS, correct me if I’m wrong.) The same can undoubtedly be done in assembly, but machine might give a CS aspirant a deeper understanding because it’s how a computer would “think.”
You’re probably a moderator; if you want me to stand down, I will.
@firmament2x Many universities offer good specs on their websites, for laptops for CS majors.
I think Lenovo, Dell, HP or Apple, with the right processor, graphics and memory,
will work fine, its more of a personal preference, gaming is better on Dell, than Apple models,
or was, in 2016, when I last bought a laptop for a CS major… (Gaming is purely a leisure activity
and may not be important to every user, but many CS students may prefer the high end graphics, for
their leisure! )
Apple used to be more resistant to hacking, but probably not anymore. Apple uses a different operating system
than all the other PC /Microsoft machines, but by now hackers can get into Apple laptops too.
I chose an Apple for years,
for a business I ran that was not computing intensive, but needed a lot of power to read patents with detailed figures.
MIT offers good suggestions here for Dell, Lenovo or Apple models-
https://ist.mit.edu/hardware/laptops
RPI lays out modern specs here for CS or engineering majors, for various acceptable Lenovo models here-
https://info.rpi.edu/mobile-computing-program/laptop-choices
Look carefully at the website for the university you will attend, for hints, but most are going to be similar
to this spec. A few universities actually sell computers to students, so watch for that, then the student can replace
the computer once in the four years. It may work out to be a good deal, but the upfront costs for a university laptop will be higher than if you configure and buy a laptop on line.
I will ask my son about textbooks on AI/Machine learning. There are many. My field is materials science, and semiconductor process, not CS, so your question is challenging me!
Thanks, @Coloradomama . . . great info as usual, but I was (past tense) a social-science major so I was asking some questions those interested in CS might ask. And I wouldn’t think there would be much of anything too challenging for you, thanks again. 
But I’ll keep the chem, materials science, semiconductor things in mind in the future.
Not a moderator. I just thought your question might get more responses with its own thread.
@firmament2x I think you got terminology slightly mixed up. Machine learning is what I think you are looking for, not machine language. It’s a very hot field.
Machine language is old school, it’s still being taught, but nowadays almost everything embedded is using a high level language like Java. So not much need for pure machine language programming.
@ProfessorPlum168 . . . actually I meant them as two separate questions.
I realize that machine language is not needed because there are high-level languages which will make things extremely convenient, as you stated, Java, but in UCLA’s CS 33 course, per link above – it’s evident that it’s probably the toughest of the make-or-break of the classes for CS majors there, five units – they teach it to give these students a hex/binary-based simulated-language (or have the student make up a language) to teach students how a computer “thinks,” with each part of a hex number giving instructions, holding data, whatever.
I would think (not aver) that jumping into a high-level language would be like studying calc and not understanding the underlying theory – and for non-math majors that’d be okay. And I realize that the next level up would probably be assembly language, but it doesn’t have the hex/binary breakdown as machine L would, and it probably codes it for you. Studying theory of calc, limits => infinity, etc. – in my opinion – leads to greater understanding of differential and integral equations, and would probably be important for math-based majors as they proceed to upper division. (I only took calc for math majors (as opposed to calc for poets)).
The second part of my question was indeed machine learning or AI. I’d like to read up on it more as apparently Mark Cuban would, though I’d like to do some exercises in it.
I hope this could be informational to those who want to major in CS. My gist is that CS at Chico will not be easy; there will be weed-out classes there.
@Otterma . . . gotcha. Hope no hard feelings.
@Otterma . . . additionally, this is the summer, and things on this board are slow. Again, no hard feelings, and my apologies to OP if he/she is offended by my questions…
Edit: Btw, all hex is is base 16, binary, base 2.
@firmament2x: Please stay on target for this discussion or I will close it. OP asked for advice on which might be a better program and pathway to get to their eventual goal for CS not on specific laptops, other university programs or book recommendations. If you want more specifics on these topics, please send a PM to @Coloradomama.
@Otterma thanks for the advice
@Gumbymom . . . understood.
Apply as a freshman to several schools and see where you get in. A B+ student can probably get into Chico, Sac, SF, East Bay, and maybe CPP, UNR is another one worth an ap. Apply to a bunch and see where you get in then follow your heart. It is too early to be planning on a CC. It will be an option if you need it.
good luck