<p>Hi, in the discussion of CS in L&S vs EECS, several people say that L&S is easier to get into. Does anyone know the statistics to back that up?</p>
<p>thanks!</p>
<p>For freshman admissions, the [Hout</a> report<a href=“tables%20on%20pages%2022%20and%2028”>/url</a> indicates that EECS had a higher threshold than L&S *, and [url=<a href=“http://statfinder.ucop.edu%5DUniversity”>http://statfinder.ucop.edu]University</a> of California: StatFinder](<a href=“http://academic-senate.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/committees/aepe/hout_report_0.pdf]Hout”>http://academic-senate.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/committees/aepe/hout_report_0.pdf) indicates that engineering intended majors had lower admit percentages than those intending L&S majors. However, the data contained therein is a few years old (the statfinder has not been updated since 2008-2009), so things may have changed.</p>
<ul>
<li>Note that engineering overall was more difficult than L&S as shown in the table on page 22, but the by-major table on page 28 indicates that some engineering majors were actually easier than L&S to get admitted to the year that the Hout report was evaluating.</li>
</ul>
<p>Thanks, but as you say, both are out of date (Hout is from 2005) and statfinder is not convincing, so why does everyone believe this?
(Also, is there any similar information about UCLA, UCSD or UCSB?)</p>
<p>Statfinder is probably the best available source for the various UCs in general, although the categorization of intended major does not necessarily match up with which majors have different levels of selectivity at each campus, and it has not been updated recently.</p>
<p>Thanks again ucbalumnus. </p>
<p>What’s odd is that according to statfinder the average sat for a newly admitted CS major is significantly higher than for an eecs major, which makes it sound harder!</p>
<p>Bump…</p>
<p>I still haven’t found any stats that show that EECS is harder to get into than CS, even though everyone seems to believe it. Is it really true?</p>
<p>Does it matter? If you’re interested in electrical engineering, put EECS. If you’re only interested in the software side of things, put CS. The difference in admit rate between the two majors is minimal, and a 1-2% difference isn’t going to kill you.</p>
<p>Honestly, this isn’t something you should be stressing about your senior year. Instead of worrying about some tiny detail on your college app, you should be hanging out with your friends, and trying new things in high school one last time before graduation.</p>
<p>thanks – if the difference is small then you’re right, it doesn’t matter, but lots of people say it’s big, and if that’s true then it does! :)</p>
<p>It would be helpful to put down your stats/EC’s. If you’re a strong candidate then it shouldn’t matter either way. But if you feel you’re on the border, L&S would be easier though only marginally.</p>
<p>You should not completely discount the Hout report simply because it is 7 years old, given there is no data to show that the opposite is true - that EECS is equally competitive as L&S. The Hout report does seem to show that it is not insignificantly harder to get into EECS than L&S.</p>
<p>I would also agree with this from personal experience - a close friend of mine was admitted to Berkeley L&S but rejected from CMU SCS, whereas another close friend of mine was admitted to CMU SCS and rejected from Berkeley EECS (a lot of my friends where techy types). Now, this is just an anecdote and is no substitute for data, so tkae it with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>thanks terenc – anecdotal evidence is good – I was hoping there would be lots of it!</p>