I’ll likely be entering UC Davis this fall as a premed with a Computer Science (not CSE) major.
One of the major complaints people point out about computer science in general is that it’s a GPA killer and will probably undercut my plans for medical school. For computer science majors at Davis, or people who have taken computer science classes there, to what extent is this true? Is it extremely difficult to get As in CS classes at Davis, and maintain a 3.75-8 plus GPA?
I’m really asking about Davis specifically because from what I’ve seen it’s pretty well established that Berkeley or UCLA (considering these schools as well) computer science is not realistic for a premed given the grade deflation. Just hoping Davis is different.
If you’re pre med, it’ll be hard to complete all of the pre reqs for med school and also complete all of the courses needed to graduate while also having to maintain a decent GPA.
If you want stay in engineering and also be able to complete the med school pre reqs, you could try looking into changing your major to ChemE or BME.
As for the level of difficulty for CS classes, it’s not too difficult if you have coding experience prior to entering, it’s just the workload that’ll kill you. As with most other classes, it depends on your professor. Some are easy and some(like Sean Davis) will make you stay up until 1 AM most days with his projects.
But it’s not just the CS classes that’ll kill you if you’re an engineering major, lel. It’s the weeder calculus, physics, chemistry(was alright) and linear algebra courses during your first two years that’ll kill your GPA. Here’s a sample schedule: http://engineering.ucdavis.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/ECOM_1516.pdf
If you can manage your time well, study and cut down on games, you can probably do fine, but getting a 3.8 as a CSE major is near impossible if you’re just an average guy.
This only applies to the lower division courses. Just wait until the theory classes (ECS 120, 122AB) and come back to tell me that it’s not too difficult if you just have coding experience. You won’t be writing a single line of code for those classes unless you go out of your way to do it on your own time. Actually for 120 I can’t see how you’d figure in coding to begin with, but for 122AB it makes sense to see how the algorithms actually work.
That and by the time you’re getting to ECS 60, let alone upper division classes that have decent programming components, everyone’s on approximately the same playing field. You’ll only be at an advantage with prior coding experience for 30 and 40. Maybe 60 if for some reason your class is really behind, though I haven’t heard of that happening to the point where it’s notable.
I’m not saying this to call you out specifically, just to point out that anyone thinking that coming in with coding experience will make the entire major easier is mistaken. It’ll only help for a couple classes, though it is very helpful for those classes (coming from someone with no access or exposure to CS before college). And likewise, anyone who falls into the trap of “CS is just coding!” will be in for a very rude awakening once they get to the upper division classes.