Is Georgia Tech's CS program on par with that of UC Berkeley EECS?

I called the sophomore I know at Berkeley and she confirmed at Berkeley does ask all freshman to take 3 classes to start and she says that CS is so hard that she often takes 3.5 classes a semester to pass. There is a big discussion on class loads at Berkeley on Reddit for anyone who wants to understand this feature at Berkeley. They basically do really push most freshman in any STEM field to start with three classes. This may be bad for some students who actually could handle more as they waste a lot of time, my friend at Berkeley says. She was the very top student in a top ranked Los Angeles high school and she cannot get As at Berkeley. Its much tougher than other programs including GaTech where students routinely take six classes a semester and can still get mostly As.

I agree with @Greymeer in post #132. At this point most of the comparisons are splitting hairs. You will do fine at either school. Visit both and see which you overall like better. It will not be absolute- you’ll like some features of one or the other. And don’t decide until you feel the same way about your decision 3 days in a row. That helps reduce any 20/20 hindsight that could occur.

I’m not familiar enough with the two schools to compare them, so my comments are about what an advanced student should consider when selecting schools for a CS major in general (I only focus on the academic sides for this post).

  1. Take a deep look at course selections. Ignore the intro courses (every school has them and you don’t really care about them since you can either skip them or at least easily survive without interacting with the professors) and focus on specialized courses you’re interested in. Who teaches them? How bid are those classes? How hard is it to register for these classes?

  2. Take a deep look at the faculty in the areas you’re interested in. What types of research are they doing? Do they work with undergraduates? How many undergraduates are currently in their research groups? What do these undergraduates actually do?

  3. Take a look at the math department. Math is VERY important to CS (and physics if you’re into quantum computation). What professors in those departments are working on CS-related problems? What interactions are there between the departments?

  4. What types of CS students do the schools attract? How good are they? An how motivated and competitive are they? Competition is not necessarily a bad thing. Having some pressure from your peers will motivate you.

Good luck and you may have more options coming next month.

An undergrad degree at Tech requires 122 credit hours. http://catalog.gatech.edu/rules/13/ To be a full time student one has to take a minimum of 12 credit hours a semester to be considered a full time student, and a student has to request permission to take over the maximum # of credit hours

A 3.0 gets you on the Deans list, and to graduate with honors/high honors/highest honors requires a 3.15, 3.35 or 3.55 GPA http://catalog.gatech.edu/rules/13/
Here is how classes are scheduled:
https://registrar.gatech.edu/academic-scheduling/scheduling-fall-and-spring
Saying students routinely take 6 classes ( even if a mix of lecture classes and labs) and get “mostly A’s” is not consistent with what they report.

I can’t comment directly about GT or CAL, but my kid was an engineering major, double major biology
and the kid did take 6 classes per term
SOME terms
not all. However, if there were six classes
one was orchestra, and a second was a core course humanities type of course which my kid liked to have to balance her science and math required courses.

My kid never took a “half course”
whatever that is.

And for the record, if the kid had not picked up the second major, the kid would never have needed to take an overage on courses.

Do GT or CAL charge additional fees for courses over a certain number of credits?

GT students do NOT get all As. Not all of them. Neither do CAL students. Neither did my kid.

Neither do MIT students.

@1NJParent - great rules of thumb for advanced students

Earlier post equated UT Austin to Cal. I don’t believe that, and I’m a UT EE alum
UT good, but sorry, Cal is in a different league.

Like @thumper1, one of my 2 engineering s’s was a double major, so even with the AP credits they both had, DS#2 did take a semester or so with a very heavy course load (IIRC, maybe 18 credits at his school? but this is from memory, and he took a summer physics class at Tech while doing a summer internship) but that heavy courseload is not common for an engineering student, and unlikely for a CS student one would think.

Since @Gator88NE bought it up, how hard do you think it is to register for CS courses at UC Berkeley and GaTech? Also, someone earlier mentioned that even upper division CS courses are big at UC Berkeley. Is that true? Is that true for GaTech as well?

What is actually written on the UCB CoE advising web pages suggests otherwise:
https://engineering.berkeley.edu/academics/undergraduate-guide/degree-requirements/major-programs
Click on a major, then click on “2017 Freshman Undergraduate Program in [major]” to see that first semester frosh are recommended to take full loads of 15+ credit units, usually 4 full size (usually 4 credit units) courses (or more courses if some are “small” ones of 1-2 credit units).

Hi @coolGuy2000 my daughter graduated from GA tech last year. (Not a CS major)
I have no input on the comparison with Berkley -but I can possibly answer questions about student life if you have any.
She enjoyed her time there and has no regrets

However, read Reddit by searching Berkeley class load and notice that everyone talks about
what I am saying there. I did call a current Berkeley undergrad in CS to confirm this.
because I want to advise people about whats actually happening
today on the ground there, and not something that happened five years ago. Today, at Berkeley, most students
are taking three classes to start, its just that hard in CS, EE and anything chemistry related. Berkeley is ranked 1 in CS and in chemistry and chemical engineering. Those are the three very difficult departments along with physics. Anyone signing up for Berkeley in those fields is signing up to work hard. There are no short cuts at Berkeley. GaTech on the other hand, I know for a fact, as I have my son’s schedule, and know his class sizes in CS, can be a more enjoyable experience, because its just not as hard to get an A. So depends on what a student wants. Berkeley, there are no short cuts. Its going to be the hardest curriculum in the world, in those fields I mentioned. No short cuts at all at Berkeley. GaTech? You can study computer media and really have a good time. Depends on what you want.

“As at Berkeley. Its much tougher than other programs including GaTech where students routinely take six classes a semester and can still get mostly As.”

Average GPA at GT is 3.25, according to gradeinflation.com
Average GPA at Berkeley is 3.29

So more Bs than As given out at Georgia Tech. And introductory classes in math, physics, chemistry will have pretty strict curves at most engineering schools. If GT routinely gives out As it loses its place as a serious engineering school.

@veruca - the Ga Tech GPA grade distribution information requires a tech account to access. http://www.irp.gatech.edu/grade-distribution. Can your daughter still access this? It would be helpful for this discussion. Thanks!

Post #150
Yikes
that’s not a compelling argument for GT is it?

“UC Berkeley EECS has an acceptance rate of 6%”

Exactly, it’s about as tough to get into EECS as it is into Stanford, figure that the average stats to be 3.9 uw gpa/1500 SATs/34 ACT. Many students there will have 4.0/1550.

There is a difference between taking 3 courses vs 3 technical courses per semester, which is what some of the Reddit posts seem to be discussing.

Implying that it’s easy, especially in STEM, to get As at Tech is , IMO, a misrepresentation.

The UCB college of engineering has a 12 credit minimum unit requirements, which is also the federal requirement to be considered a full time student. Three classes would work if each was a 4 credit course, and a lot of the intro classes are 4 credits (Calculus, CS61A and B, etc.).

The “recommended” Fall/Spring classes for CS:
FALL/Spring
COMPSCI 10 4 credits/ COMPSCI 61A 4 credits
MATH 1A 4 credits /MATH 1B 4 credits
Reading & Composition A 4 credits /Reading & Composition B 4 credits
L&S Breadth 3 credits / L&S Breadth 3 credits
15 credits for Fall and Spring.

Of course, AP credits and such would allow you to switch out the reading/comp classes for something else, or allow you to take only 12 credits but stay on track to graduate.

Edit: The above is likely the same case at GT.

For EECS, they recommend CS 61A in the fall and CS 61B in the Spring. These are the introductory CS courses there. However, at Gatech you can get out of CS 1301 (introductory CS - equivalent of CS 61A) using AP credits.

In the past, many instate UGA and GT students were losing their HOPE scholarships as they couldn’t maintain the GPA requirement. So some started taking fewer classes and dragging out their academic experiences in order to try to maintain the required GPA. The state made some changes in the length of time and/or number of credits they would cover with the HOPE (and now also the Zell Miller) to maintain eligibility
https://www.finaid.gatech.edu/hope-scholarship-zell-miller-scholarship-overview

https://www.gafutures.org/hope-state-aid-programs/hope-zell-miller-scholarships/hope-scholarship/maintaining-eligibility-for-the-hope-scholarship/

https://www.gafutures.org/hope-state-aid-programs/hope-zell-miller-scholarships/zell-miller-scholarship/maintaining-eligibility-for-the-zell-miller-scholarship/

So to take 6 classes, especially as a STEM student, could be financially risky as it is not a walk in the park to maintain a 3.0 or 3.3 GPA at Tech.

“Anyone signing up for Berkeley in those fields is signing up to work hard. There are no short cuts at Berkeley. GaTech on the other hand, I know for a fact, as I have my son’s schedule, and know his class sizes in CS, can be a more enjoyable experience, because its just not as hard to get an A. So depends on what a student wants. Berkeley, there are no short cuts. Its going to be the hardest curriculum in the world, in those fields I mentioned. No short cuts at all at Berkeley. GaTech? You can study computer media and really have a good time. Depends on what you want.”

I don’t know how to break this to you, but colleges expect their students to work hard to learn. Your posts imply that you can coast through GT, get As and dupe employers into thinking they know their stuff.

Do you really want a civil engineer to take short cuts to learn how to build safe bridges or a computer science major to take short cuts on how to build software that can’t be hacked? Or a pre-med to take short cuts in figuring out how chemicals react with the body. As rivet2000 says, your posts argue against GT for someone who want to be a serious student.