<p>Following a record number of applications this spring, the computer science major in the College of Letters and Science will implement a minimum GPA requirement that will take effect in either spring or fall of 2014.</p>
<p>Enrollment in the major will be limited to students with a 3.0 or higher GPA in the seven prerequisite classes, as approved by the college’s executive committee in May. Last semester, more than 150 UC Berkeley students applied to the major — an all time high and about 70 applicants more than in the previous semester.</p>
<p>Good for keeping classes smaller, but it might make the environment of lower divs more competitive (the average gpa in almost every lower div is a 2.9-3.15).</p>
<p>I’ll be laughing when the tech bubble bursts, when all the wannabe engineers will be crying all the way home wishing that they had pursued a business degree rather than a CS one.</p>
Why wouldn’t it be? Listen, I was interested in CS before it became popular. But some people today just come into CS with the intent of making money. What’s the different between these people and prostitutes? These prostitutes are going to make CS impacted and harder for everyone, including the ones who are interested in just learning.</p>
<p>I only see GPA cap and not the limit of the number of people they will admit, but does it also mean that the major is also impacted.
If not, can anyone explain the difference.
If i’m applying as a junior transfer student do i need to choose an alternative major because of the GPA cap?</p>
<p>The 3.0 GPA minimum is intended to keep CS major enrollment (in upper division courses) to within the capacity of the department.</p>
<p>Note that CS 61A enrollment has expanded to the point of needing Wheeler for the lecture, indicating the popularity of the major among incoming frosh.</p>
<p>Does this mean that if you have >= 3.0 gpa, you are in?</p>
<p>Or is 3.0 just the minimum to be eligible to apply? Just like UC admission, there is a 3.0 gpa requirement, but everyone knows that you need above that (or way above that) to actually get in.</p>
<p>Thanks for the response.
What about transfer student? Most transfer student have high GPA for the pre-requisite.
I mean, i know that the average gpa is around 3, but how much impact will the gpa cap have on the admission rate for transfer student.</p>
<p>And i see impacted major like economics have a cap on the number of student admitted, but for cs, they only cap the gpa. So does this mean that cs is still not a impacted major, instead, they just raise the requirement to declare cs as major.</p>
<p>It is likely that the many of the students struggling for C-, C, or C+ grades in lower division CS courses decided on their own to not go for the CS major even when the minimum GPA was 2.0. So it is likely fewer than half of the people completing all of the prerequisites with intention of declaring the CS major would be screened out by the 3.0 GPA requirement.</p>