Is there any other school, (private or public) that has direct admission to CS major like U of Washington from high school? We live in California. It seems that in the UC system, you do not declare any major as freshmen. Is it very competitive to get in the CS program after freshmen?
I would think that most schools offer direct admission into CS. The exceptions would be at the top privates and publics, or at schools like San Jose State that are located in the middle of tech clusters.
Many if not most schools offer direct admit to CS. The UC system and other top schools often have the secondary admit programs due to impaction and competitiveness. For some of the UC’s and other schools, it can be a pretty substantial concern about if you can get into the major. If you perform well in introductory courses, you will fine though. @ucbalumnus can help with specifics, as it does vary by UC and other schools.
A lot of top CS schools offer direct admit, and how hard it is to get accepted varies by reputation.
If CS is in the School of Engineering, then the UC’s direct admit into CS if you meet their competitive criteria. Even schools like UCSC and UCSD which admit into the University first and then into the major, will direct admit into CS.
Some schools such as UCB/UCD also offer a CS degree through the College of Letters and Sciences, where you have to take specific course requirements and maintain a specific GPA before being accepted into the CS major.
Cal States admit by major so you can get a direct admit into the CS major although some impacted CSU’s will place you in a Pre-Major with a minimum GPA for pre-req courses to get into the upper division classes (e.g. SDSU with a 2.0 GPA minimum).
The confusion comes into play when an applicant is not admitted into their 1st choice major CS but into an alternate major or undeclared. Then trying to change majors becomes almost impossible at some schools.
The kids I know including my D were admitted to pre-CS and engineering at UW. Perhaps I’m misinformed, but I don’t think it’s common to get a direct admit. D applied to Santa Clara University and was directly admitted. Cal Poly SLO also admitted D directly. The COE in the UCs is usually a direct admit too. Students from our HS also attend Oregon State and were directly admitted.
Actually, many UCs offer direct admission to CS as frosh, as do CSUs.
There are some variations:
UCB: You can apply to EECS (direct admission) or L&S (not direct admission, need 3.3 in prerequisites to get into CS later).
some UCs including UCSD: You can apply to CS for direct admission, but the campus may choose to admit you undeclared, so that you have to compete for admission later (note: this is similar to Washington).
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19854939/#Comment_19854939 lists some criteria to get into the CS major if you do not have direct admission. Note that getting direct admission is not an issue at schools where the CS major is open or non-selective for students enrolled at the school.
GPA and SAT/ACT please…