I was accepted into UCLA’s engineering school in Computer Science with a Regents scholar award. While the financial aid is inconsequential toward my decision, I receive other benefits like priority housing and registration.
On the other hand, I was also accepted into UC Berkeley’s College of Letters and Sciences. In order to declare my CS major in the college, I must maintain a 3.3 average GPA in three classes during my first year at Berkeley, which hopefully will not be an issue due to my background with programming. In addition, the degree I would receive would be a Bachelor of Arts as opposed to a Bachelor of Science at UCLA. However, the potential job and internship opportunities due to the school’s prestige in the realm of computer science along with its location may outweigh the risks.
^^^ Agree. UCLA all the way. The perks of Regent scholar negates any struggles and wondering if you are getting in etc. What if you get mono (or some other thing out of your control) and tank a semester? At UCLA you are in CS. And it’s pretty darn nice down there. I think the BA v. BS matters in CS.
pb; UCLA only offers one path to Comp Sci and that is thru its Engineering School. (The Eng school also offers Comp Sci+Eng, and CS-E).
Cal offers two Comp Sci degrees: 1) an EECS double major thru the Eng school; 2) a CS (only) major thru L&S (arts & sciences school). The EECS double is the only CS degree offered thru Cal Engineering.
@bluebayou I am an instate student from SoCal (pretty near UCLA), and I do not mind being close to home. In addition, both campuses seem to be a good fit, so it is not a huge factor for me.
If you want to study CS, go to UCLA. I think that should be obvious. There is no real difference in prestige these days, since UCLA has made a reputation for itself in CS that equals that of UCB.
@firmament2x I currently don’t know much about hardware, which was the reason I applied for the Berkeley L&S CS major. However, I don’t have a huge amount of expertise in hardware and don’t know if it’s something I would be interested in.
The BS in CS at UCLA and the BA in CS at Cal appear to have the same coursework, though as you said, @brendanbenner , Cal makes you jump through hoops before you can enter the major.
I don’t see anywhere where it would say that Cal has more hardware in its L&S CS major or that you’d have access to it being in L&S. E generally connotes maybe denotes “getting one’s hands dirty,” so CS is probably not truly an E, which is possibly why Berk put it in L&S. But since you’d be in the Engineering department at UCLA, you could probably take some hardware classes probably more easily if not necessarily attach a co-major since you were admitted to straight CS instead of a co-title with E.
There’s also a capstone project in CS at UCLA as well as with the other “E” majors, in which you work closely with a professor and with a team – it appears that all the E Department majors have collaborative projects.
I can see why you’re conflicted between the two, or more that you could see yourself happy at either even if they’re like night and day. You seem to be malleable to any situation which is a good thing, which should ensure you do well at either. “Which should I choose?” It’d be tough, because there are no hints at either, really, except for scholarship at one and the rep of the other. You’re you and you will do well at either, and your attitude will help when you seek employment.