I have been accepted to UCSD as a undeclared major. I applied for a CS major and CSE major as the alternated choice. Unfortunately, I did not get accept to neither. Many people have told that it is hard to declare a cs major. Plus, they now change the selecting process as a lottery thing. Thus, I don’t think it is rational for me to insist on doing a CSE major.
I have been considering a ECE major because the requirement for a ECE major seems pretty reasonable. My ap credit also can cover almost half of the screening classes. I am pretty good at Math&Science and have some level of programming skill, so I think I will do well in these classes. Yet, ECE capped major website only says they will accept whoever has the highest GPA until the class is filled. They did not mention the accepting rate.
Anyone @ UCSD can tell me more about the process? Or provide an insight about the difficult level of declaring a ECE major?
Thanks =)
http://www.ece.ucsd.edu/undergraduate/capped-major-status
Try asking the department what the historical threshold GPAs have been.
Or choose a school where you are admitted to your desired major or where getting into your desired major is not a problem.
I would ask the department like mentioned above - ask how many are and are not accepted with whatever stellar gpa. I know when we visited admissions a few years back before even applying, they told us if not directly admitted to the engineering major (don’t remember if it was EE or CS at the time, been awhile) that students should strongly consider another school. I am not telling you that is what they say today - but trying to make the point that they are likely to be honest with you if you ask how hard it is to get in xyz major coming in undeclared. They don’t need to “up sell” you - they have enough kids applying these days - I think they will be straight up with you. Much more reliable than us posters. You or your folks should call engineering admissions on Monday.
@ucbalumnus @CADREAMIN
Thanks! Definitely will call them after eastern break!
@Shelly9909 What other schools did you get into CS/CE directly? Remember more UD kids, if they come, might be thinking about the same thing due to the CS lottery, so the ECE route can become harder too :(.
@Just4Years There are many other schools, but I have narrowed the list down to RPI and UCSD. RPI is more convenient location wise(for me), but I am really tried of east coast. Plus, RPI is soooo cold in winter. I also think UCSD has a better reputation or more well-known than RPI. However, I am in a private high school where our class only have 25 people so that I am used to having small classes and keeping close relationships/friendships with my classmates and teachers. The biggest class I ever had was like 20 people, and it drove me crazy. I think I just like smaller schools in general.
What would you do if you were me?
Thanks =)
Well I don’t know enough of RPI other than it’s a reputable engineering school, and it’s a private so class should be smaller. Weather is shitty though. UCSD is totally the other way around, no kidding. But at RPI you don’t have that undeclared crap right? Cost is close as you are out of state unless you get money from RPI. Well only you know. Good luck.
Not have to worry about getting into the major you want, or having to compete with fellow students for a spot, takes a big load off of your shoulders. For that reason alone I’d be inclined to pick RPI. Being in a smaller school can also be an advantage as the community is smaller. (My D is an Eng. student at RPI and like you, picked it because she prefers smaller schools over huge ones, and is happy with her choice.)
Yes, the weather in upstate NY cannot compare with SoCal. You do have beautiful nature though.
In terms of engineering job prospects, I wouldn’t say that a UCSD degree gives you any tangible advantage over RPI, as while UCSD is ranked higher on USNews, RPI has a very good reputation with the industry in terms of engineering, and a very high placement rate at good companies and high average salaries. https://www.rpi.edu/dept/cdc/Annual%20Report%202015.pdf
@insanedreamer Thanks for your advice!
UCSD ECE is going to be nearly impossible to get into. You’ll have to do extraordinarily well in the screening courses, which are some of the hardest lower divisions on campus (ECE 35 and ECE 45). They’re really competitive courses and I don’t think you should risk not getting the major you want at SD when you have other excellent options.
@DoctorP But my friend told me it was easy for him. (He just changed major this year)
Thanks for the advice though!
“I think I just like smaller schools in general.” Have you visited the UCSD campus? It is a huge campus in a busy, densely populated area. La Jolla is a gorgeous setting for a school and the campus is beautiful. It is set right across from the beach and the glider port. It is right up the hill from La Jolla Village and La Jolla Cove. It is not too far from downtown San Diego and there is a lot of hiking, bike riding, and water sport activity year round. The weather is pretty close to perfect. However, the school is very large and class size-especially GE classes can be huge. Lectures can be 200-300 people, however many have break-out type sessions that are led by TA’s and are much smaller. The University is broken into 6 colleges so it doesn’t seem quite as big, but it is still a very large school. You would get a great education and the area is without a doubt beautiful, but it sounds like it is a questionable fit for you given your statement about liking smaller schools.
@Shelly9909 What GPA did your friend have from screening courses to get in? He/she must have a better idea than us here about that important detail. I know what you want by now. A smaller school in sunny CA where you can be in a good CS program directly. Hmm. Not too many of them in CA really. Stanford, HMC, or maybe Cal Poly that’s about it. Also ECE needs to take more HW/EE courses, do you like those? BTW, exactly how cold is RPI area in winter anyway?
@Just4Years LOL honestly your description is quite accurate, but i understand we can’t always get exactly what we want. I didn’t ask him about his GPA(it is awkward to ask someone about her/his GPA, I think), but i plan to ask him after reading ur post. EE is probably okay for me. I have done something with Arduino and I like it. I am fine with all science&math subjects except for chemistry.
RPI is in upstate New York, near Canada. It is extremely cold in winter, sometimes under 20F.
@takeitallin That’s another problem that I have w/ ucsd. I honestly don’t know how to choose…
@Just4Years Just texted him and he told me that he had a 3.8 GPA. He also claimed that these classes were easy, but I don’t know if we have the same definition for “easy”.
I think he’s trying to lure you in :). If it’s that easy he’d get 4.0. But at least it does not need 4.0 like that crazy CS used to be. Two EE courses are main hurdle. Was AP Physics C easy for you? If it is you probably can do it. Note that A- is 3.7 so be warned. In any case if you do come have a backup plan out of CSE/ECE. USCD has enough distressed UD kids. That’s probably why they changed the CS thing to lottery tbh.
@Just4Years I didn’t take AP Physics because our physics teacher is terrible at teaching anything. SAT II physics was fine for me, but still it is not the same as ap. He also told me that not many people applied for EE because everyone is going after CS/CSE. I think if I do choose to go to ucsd, I may declare a cog science major first and try to transfer to CSE/ECE. If I fail, I will probably do math-cs as a backup major since math has always been easy for me.
I would just do cs in RPI. There is nothing terrible about the school except for food and weather.
It is a really tough choice.
@Shelly9909 I would do yourself a favor and go to RPI. It’s not worth the stress of competing for a CS major here and math-cs is impacted (the GPA to get in is expected to go up). Keep in mind that cog sci is NOT a CS major. All the advising staff recommends you choose major over school (this includes the CSE, Cog Sci, and Math)
Even physics just declared they were capped starting next year.
That may be true that EE is less competitive, but I was at the CSE town hall meeting and they expect the number of people applying to get into the lottery to double because people under the current system were self-selecting out cause they knew their GPA was too low. So what’s going to happen? People are going to aim for CE in ECE or math-CS making it more competitive than it already is. (Cog Sci has already saw their numbers double in the past year from 500 to over 1000)
@Shelly9909 If you don’t much about what major you end up getting into, then go to UCSD. If you are sure you want to study ECE, CS or another Eng. major, go to RPI.