<p>Hi,</p>
<p>I have seen a multitude of threads about this issue, so I thought it would save a lot of time to clear this common question up.</p>
<p>The Computer Science major of the L&S college, despite being a capped major, has the same admission rates/chances as any other letters and science major. No one is admitted at the freshmen level with a major in the L&S. Everyone must first take the prerequisites required for a major AND THEN apply for the major. Your high school GPA and SAT scores DO NOT affect your application to Computer Science, or any other capped major. Only work done in Berkeley counts toward that admission process.</p>
<p>The Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Major is offered by the College of Engineering, which has a separate admissions pool for applicants entering as a freshmen. Applying with this major on your UC application would lower your admission chances, because the amount of students the college of engineering accepts is LESS THAN the amount of students that the College of Letters and Sciences accepts. Also, please note that Berkeley DOES NOT use alternate majors, meaning if you are rejected as an applicant for the College of Engineering for any major, you are not considered for admission under any other college for your same application.</p>
<p>In addition, the computer science L&S major and the EECS major have nearly identical software training, as they take the same software programming/CS classes. The biggest difference between the two is that the EECS majors are also trained in several electrical engineering classes, while the computer science major does not have those within the curriculum.</p>
<p>It is not possible to double major as a Computer Science major and an EECS major.</p>
<p>Hope this helps,
Jweinst1</p>
<p>so if you have no interest in electrical engineering and only in computer science (like me), there would be no difference in quality of education if I applied to L&S?</p>
<p>The two majors share the same CS classes, so there would be no difference on that end. Both CS and EECS majors from Berkeley are employed by many fortune 500 tech companies like Google, Apple, Facebook etc.</p>
<p>So if I get into L&S and don’t do well in the prerequisites, is there a possibility that I won’t be able to major computer science?</p>
<p>Directly from the CS department admissions:</p>
<p>The Admissions Policy
The CS 61 series and CS 70 (Discrete Math & Probability) are the courses most seriously considered for admission
Students need to have a GPA of 3.0 for admission to the major
Transfer students are required to complete their technical prerequisites and declare the major at the end of their first or second semester at UC Berkeley
The admissions committee looks favorably on students who challenge themselves
In general, the committee expects students to assess their own abilities, establish high goals for themselves, and plan their schedule accordingly
How well students do in all courses at Berkeley – not just technical requirements – carries positive weight with the admissions committee. The CS faculty has made it clear that they are looking for students with strong communication skills. Evidence for this comes in large part from grades in humanities courses
Repeating courses to get high grades is strongly discouraged.
-________________________________________________________</p>
<p>So if you don’t get a 3.0 GPA at cal up until you apply for the CS major, that would mean you won’t be able to major in it. I don’t know what you yourself consider doing well and not well.</p>
<p>Cheers,
Jweinst1</p>
<p>Ok thank you.
But are there majors that allow GPA lower than 3.0? I haven’t read admission policies, but don’t students need 3.0 GPA for most of the majors?</p>
<p>Most non-capped majors only require a 2.0 GPA in the prerequisites for a specific major.</p>
<p>But lets be honest here, there are a lot more things you won’t be able to do if you don’t have a 3.0 GPA. Most tech companies really like to see a higher GPA than that for hiring employees.</p>
<p>Just wondering, what happens to students with <2.0 GPA? or is that very rare?</p>
<p>I do not know how rare it is, but if you fall below a cumulative 2.0 GPA, you will be placed on academic probation. Basically what this means is that, if in the following semester your cumulative GPA is not back up to 2.0, you will be dismissed from the university. Dismissal is almost always permanent, and the student is encouraged to pursue their education at other institutions.</p>
<p><a href=“http://ls-probation.berkeley.edu/definition.html”>http://ls-probation.berkeley.edu/definition.html</a></p>
<p>Berkeley’s graduation rates are shown here: <a href=“http://opa.berkeley.edu/undergraduate-graduation-rates”>http://opa.berkeley.edu/undergraduate-graduation-rates</a></p>
<p>As you can see, only about 9% to 10% of undergraduates who enter do not graduate at all. This is the upper bound of the percentage of students who are dismissed for academic reasons (although the actual percentage can be lower, due to non-graduation for other reasons like transfer to another school, running out of money, offered very attractive employment, etc.).</p>
<p>Note that while some courses may have that high a percentage of D and F grades, being academically dismissed means getting more than just an occasional D or F grade.</p>
<p>Still, it is better to have a higher GPA, since many employers use a GPA cut-off (probably most commonly at 3.0) to screen new graduate or internship applicants.</p>
<p>One characteristics of computer software development in particular is that productivity between the best and worst can vary by an order of magnitude. If you find yourself struggling or taking much longer than everyone else on programming assignments in several CS courses, you may want to consider whether a computer software development career is right for you (although someone who is just ok at computer software development may find some CS-related career paths that they would be good at).</p>
<p>Another thing to note is that CS from the Col L&S awards a B.A. and EECS awards a B.S. Also, EECS has more science and math classes (especially physics) while L&S has more humanities (like geography). </p>
<p>@aigusta </p>
<p>The additional math and physics are lower division courses required for EECs would have no impact on Computer Science classes, they are only required for EE classes. There is no discrimination between a B.S and B.A in the tech industry usually.</p>
<p>Do you have to choose a major for L&S while applying to UG? If so is it difficult to get within L&S CS compared to other majors like bio.</p>
<p>For frosh application to L&S, you can indicate a major, but it does not really matter, since all frosh are admitted undeclared (although consistency of your essays with your indicated major may affect holistic evaluations).</p>
<p>For transfer application to L&S, you must indicate a major, since your prior college record will be evaluated in part based on having taken the prerequisites for your indicated major. Admitted transfers must complete remaining prerequisites and then declare their majors as soon as possible.</p>
<p>@sm577501 </p>
<p>You do not have to chose a major for the College of Letters and Science, you can apply as an undeclared applicant.</p>
<p>All applicants that are accepted to the L&S begin their academic venture at Berkeley as undeclared. This implies that, you must complete the required prerequisites for a particular major and then declare the major with the respective department. Because of this rule, the Undergraduate Admission office does not admit based on your indicated major.</p>