any current philosophy major on this trend, i am trying to make a decision between those 2 school predicated solely on the fact that which school allow me to double major
if u are currently in the program or double majoring pls share; anything relavant would be helpful
For sure you could double major in Philosophy at Berkeley. I know people who double in Philosophy and CS, and Philosophy and Cog Sci. But those students are 4 year students. With transfers, you get 5 semesters not including summers to finish your double major, which might be a bit more challenging.
@ProfessorPlum168 If that were the case, then is it possible for me to declare a new major with in the letter and science department in which I happen to have all the pre-requisite done as well?
@DUZK1999 I think so. I’m not sure how it works with transfers, but I assume you go in as undeclared and you declare for something in your first semester. If that is the case you probably should be fine with whatever you wish to actually major in, as long as you are done with the prerequisites.
Berkeley Philosophy grad here – you’ll definitely be able to double major at Berkeley. Since your second major will also be in the College of Letters and Sciences, it won’t be a problem to add a second major (unless it’s something impacted, like Computer Science – that might be a little difficult, I’m not sure.) I’m sure you can double major at UCLA too. I don’t really think this is a problem unless you want to double in something really impacted, like CS or Business. If you have any doubts, you should contact each school to ask whether you can double major – but rest assured, many transfer students double major.
For what it’s worth, the philosophy major at Cal has only 12 courses you need to complete (3 lower-div prereqs, 9 upper-divs), whereas the philosophy major at UCLA has something like 15 courses (I believe – not totally sure about this.) But UCLA is on the quarter system, so terms go by much more quickly, whereas Cal is on the semester system. Personally, I find the semester system to be better for doing philosophy.
UCLA is very strong in moral philosophy, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, and legal philosophy. Cal is very strong in moral philosophy, language, mind, metaphysics, and formal logic. We have a strong focus on the history of philosophy, so our undergraduate curriculum will give you a pretty strong grasp of the history of Western philosophy (omitting some continental stuff, unless you want to take courses in continental phil – we have a professor doing Chinese philosophy too.)
Aside from what topics you might be into, you should think about where you would like to live. Are you an LA person or a Bay person? Do you want to live somewhere different from wherever you currently live? This is something you should really take seriously – some people come to Berkeley but find that it’s really not for them (and the same for UCLA). While both Cal and UCLA will give you an excellent education in philosophy, wherever you are happiest is where you will do the best work.
Do you have any more questions about what it’s like at Cal, worries/concerns, or anything like that? Let me know if you’d like to hear more about my experiences! I’m really happy that I chose Cal.
Double majoring is actually not too bad in terms of scheduling. The key in your case is to minimize the number of lower division classes needed to be taken. CS requires 8 lower division and 7 upper division, but the lower division could be realistically reduced by half if there was enough planning. For Data Science, it’s 7 lower division and 8 upper division, and you can easily get 5 of the 7 done for lower division before stepping foot in Berkeley. Those are the 2 majors I’m most familiar with.