UCSD admits into the University first and then into the CS major. If not accepted into CS directly, then it is a lottery to change majors later so something to consider.
UCSB’s Engineering Department is small and CS again is highly selective so unless you get a direct admit, changing majors is very difficult.
If you do get admitted into the major at UCSB and UCSD, you will get your classes. The students that complain that they cannot get their classes are the ones whom refuse to be flexible with class times and professors.
Thank you. So Caltech has between 900-1,000 undergrads, so ~ 400 who are currently majoring in CS. If they take 3 CS classes, per quarter – I was surprised to read that they were on the quarter system, and that number might be a bit high – then that’s 1,200 attendees for all CS classes. There aren’t that many lower division CS classes compared to upperdivision, so let’s say that the average class size would be ~ 60. That would take a good 20 classes to average 60 students in class. There’s no real point for this exercise, but it does show the logistical problems for those medium to large colleges w/ large nos. of CS majors, like Georgia Tech with 2,500 CS majors.
I’m not edragonfly, but here are some IPEDS stats from about USC:
Computer and Information Sciences and Support Services
BS
MS
PhD
Artificial Intelligence
-
11
-
Computer and Information Sciences, Other
-
-
-
Computer and Information Systems Security/Auditing/Information Assurance
-
25
-
Computer Science
247
996
30
Computer Systems Networking and Telecommunications
-
1
-
Data Modeling/Warehousing and Database Administration
-
51
-
Informatics
0
135
-
Modeling, Virtual Environments and Simulation
27
21
-
Category total
274
1,240
30
So they have a decent number of undergrad CS majors, but Viterbi has always had a lot more grad students. I’m sure their class sizes wouldn’t be so bad, but if you’re interested in them, you ought to post on USC’s board, because I’m sure there would be more CS majors available to help.
Caltech has extensive STEM core courses so freshmen probably only take 1-2 CS courses at most. 350 is probably the right number of CS majors. Otherwise, your numbers are likely right on target.
Additionally, I’m sure there are other CS type majors in combination with other perusals. Let me edit add: These are of course degrees conferred in 2018 or 2019, so this would mean in the entire CS department, there are a good 1,000 majoring in it.
UCLA has similar numbers, but again, there are various forms of CS-type majors. The Math Department has CS classes as does Stats, as does PIC, as I mentioned earlier. I’m sure the same applies to USC. I believe Berkeley graduates ~ 600 CS majors a year and it’s actually ascending.
LOL, I saw on a sub reddit thread that all CS classes at UIUC’s are weed-out courses…probably an exaggeration. For most of their core required classes, they don’t accept transfer credits, so everyone has to take them, so it can be pretty daunting for less experienced CS kids to be in the same class with the CS gurus.
UCSD admits some directly to CSE, but others must earn a 3.3 GPA in the prerequisite CSE courses and enter a lottery to get into the CSE major: Computer Science and Engineering
They are probably considered “weed-out” by anyone not directly admitted to CS or a desired X/CS or CS+X major, because earning top-end grades is necessary to have a chance in the competitive admission processes for these majors (e.g. the CS major requires a 3.75 college GPA just to apply, and is competitive beyond that).
As firmament2X suggested, you would get more info. on the USC forum. Here’s my quick take:
I’ve heard admit rate to USC Viterbi School of Engineering is in the low teens, but as with most private schools, students do have an easier time switching majors. USC encourages double majors, doesn’t frown on switching majors and is generally not worried about getting students out the door in four years, unlike some public institutions. They have a defined process for someone who wants to switch to CS, even after one semester, and when you sign up for Pre-Engineering you would get an advisor who would guide you through the requisite courses where you need to meet minimum GPA before they approve your switch or addition.
USC is known for its research strength, top-notch alum network, rapid rise in rankings and game design and development. It also has generous merit awards from partial to full tuition scholarships for top students as long as you apply before Dec. 1, so it’s a magnate for highly qualified applicants all over the world. CS graduates are well represented in many major tech companies including in Silicon Valley.
The cons are the rough neighborhood, uneven CS curriculum (can read more about in Quora if you search for USC CS curriculum compared with other schools e.g. U of Washington, Berkeley, UCLA, etc.) and outdated facilities for CS, although the school announced a big donation last year that will go towards a brand new CS Dept building/complex, but completion probably won’t be a few years down the road.
UCSD admits some directly to CSE, but others must earn a 3.3 GPA in the prerequisite CSE courses and enter a lottery to get into the CSE major: Computer Science and Engineering
Either way, UCLA’s wasting a lot people who want to attend by discarding a good 90-92% of their engineering/CS applications. If they enroll about 1,000, let’s say 900 in HSSEAS a year, with a yield in the low 30%s, let’s say 32%, that means they accept ~ 2,800 into SEAS. That means they have ~ 35,000 who apply to its E school / year. This current year they had 108,000 apps, so roughly 32% applied to E. Therefore, they discard of ~ 32,000 extremely high-quality apps without so much as a second look, alternate major or whatever.
This is why they need to either have them state an alternate, or admit some with the intent to major in E/CS, say, pre-CS or pre-E, and if they maintain a 3.3 in pre-courses, calc, physics, then they’d be admitted. I realize UCLA’s trying to be fair to those from less advantaged background, but they’re just not harvesting their potential students very well. Now, especially with a lack of board scores, they need to have a pre-major. Edit: And this is why a lot of people are majoring in things like Applied Math, because they want to attend UCLA, but they’re scared of the rates of acceptance to HSSEAS.
Thanks for bailing me out @edragonfly . Any thoughts of how grad oriented Viterbi is?
For UCLA Engr if you are taking a class as a part of the four year plan to graduate, you are guaranteed the class. You may not get the professor or time you want but you will get it. This policy is true across all UCLA Engr Majors.
We admit by major for engineering. Meaning if you are in L&S you need a certain GPA for two consecutive quarters before switching. Very tough to do but possible. Uncommon though. Ask for CS it takes at least 1 year because one must complete CS 31-33 while keeping a specific gpa all three quarters. And only engineering or engineering prep courses count towards that gpa.
Thanks 10s. Then the administration needs to get the word out that it isn’t impossible to come in undeclared and take the prereqs towards E/CS and also include what gpa students need to be admitted to HSSEAS. UCLA’s woefully behind the other UCs in this side of STEM; it’s the king as far as producing MDs, DDSs, etc., but it can still be a leader in these as well as producing more than its fair share of entertainment attorneys, business persons, etc., but it needs to boost HSSEAS. That’s what the $100m gift was for from Dr. Samueli in 2019 wasn’t it? But the discarding of 32,000 E apps without so much as a second look is also not very wise.
The new CS lab (I guess it’s now considered “old”) floored me!
It’s a glass building with every security measure in place and looks like a small corporate world at Stark industries, requiring secure code ID to enter.
https://www.seasoasa.ucla.edu/change-of-major/ says that the minimum GPA to apply to change into an engineering major is 3.0 (MSE or CivE), 3.4 (EE), or 3.5 (all others including CS), depending on the major. However, the admission to major process is competitive, so meeting the minimum GPA does not assure admission.
If the engineering departments want to offer a less competitive entry to the majors for currently enrolled students, then they need to make space by reducing the number of students directly admitted through frosh admission.
Really, what you want is for them to increase departmental capacity to allow for larger numbers of students in high demand majors. Note that this may also require increasing departmental capacity in some other departments like math and physics for some prerequisite courses.
Sorry, I have not done any research on CS grad programs but did come across this website that ranks graduate CS programs based on faculty publications, I believe. The default setting on the wesbite when you first visit is for time period 2011 - 2021 and below is their top ten:
CMU
UIUC
MIT
Stanford
UCSD
Cal
Cornell
U of Michigan
U of Washington
U. of Maryland - College Park
USC is tied with UCLA at 20th.
You will get different ranked results if you toggle for different time periods.
What is interesting is on the left side you can check and uncheck sub specialties under Systems, AI, Theory, Interdisciplinary to get different ranked lists. For example, USC climbs to #5 if you check the Robotics and Computation and Economics boxes under Interdisciplinary. You can also drill down to the faculty publication bibliography, background, affiliation and their department size including number of grad students under them.
CSRanings are based on total CS conference publications (not including publications in journals). It isn’t normalized by the number of faculty in the CS department. As a result, it’s primarily a function of the size of a college’s CS department (e.g. CMU has the largest CS department and it’s also ranked #1).
For graduate students, the most important factor is her/his potential advisor in an area s/he is most interested in. That advisor’s reputation (and publications) is a much more useful measure (rather than a department’s total output). Another factor is the number of graduate students and post-graduates who work for that advisor. An advisor who has 30 people working for her/him would have more production/publications than one who has only 5. Proper scaling is absolutely necessary but CSRankings does none of it.