<p>I am an out of state student from New York and I finally got to visit both schools this past weekend. I was accepted into the College of Letters and Science to study computer science at Berkeley and the college of engineering to study computer science at UCLA. I am really in a bind to decide which to attend this fall.</p>
<p>Both campuses were very nice but I felt that UCLA was a better fit for me. I would not feel uncomfortable going to Cal by any means though and would enjoy the college experience just at much. If UCLA had the reputation that Berkeley has for computer science then I would go there in a heartbeat. Right now I am trying to decide if Berkeley's prestigious comp sci program should over weigh the better vibe I got at UCLA. </p>
<p>I also would appreciate if anyone could give me any insight into the differing degree of difficulty of each program. Would UCLA's program actually be more work since I am in the school of engineering while at Berkeley I am getting a B.A. at the college of L&S? I am also worried about job opportunities as I plan to go into industry right after I get my undergrad degree. Do you think Berkeley will provide me with employment options that I could not get at UCLA? </p>
<p>Also I feel that both universities provide the students with good social lives (parties, clubs, sports etc) right?</p>
<p>They’re both great universities so you can’t go wrong. But as far as your last question, I personally think Berkeley students CAN have a great balance of partying/socializing and succeeding in academics. That is not to say that other schools don’t though. But people here are not as wild on frat row and stuff or at least not in my experience, so you can find a pretty good group to go out with usually. Most people do their homework and studying in the day and then out at night so it works out well. But if you lose the balance, your grades will drop so just be in control.</p>
<p>Berkeley is more convenient than UCLA from the point of view of recruiters at “Silicon Valley” computer companies. However, UCLA is a relatively easy trip compared to eastern schools, so the advantage that Berkeley has with respect to “Silicon Valley” recruiters is not as large as it would be over some eastern school.</p>
<p>EECS (engineering) and CS (L&S) at Berkeley take the same courses and effectively have the same workload. Other than the fact that you don’t have the option of hardcore EE upper divisions when doing L&S CS, it basically distills down to:</p>
<p>L&S CS: must take seven breadth courses, six of which are humanities; no using AP tests to get out of these
EECS: must take EE20N, EE40, and Physics 7B; two upper-division humanity requirements (much more flexible than /w L&S CS), two more which you can AP out</p>
<p>Long story short: same workload between Berkeley EECS and L&S CS. I haven’t taken courses at UCLA, so no comparison there.</p>
<p>It’s a running joke some of us Berkeley CS people have because a lot of the UCLA CS core classes all use Microsoft Visual Studio C++. Here at Berkeley, languages change with each class.</p>
<p>L&S CS must take either EE 42 or EE 40. EE 42 is a “light” version that does not require Physics 7B as a prerequisite.</p>
<p>Actually, two of the L&S 7-course breadth requirement are physical science (which CS 61C fulfills) and biological science (which can be fulfilled by easy non-major courses). The rest are normally humanities and social studies, but historical studies can be fulfilled by a math course (History of Mathematics), as can philosophy and values (math courses in logic); other categories are art and literature and international studies, and none can be fulfilled by AP credit. The L&S R&C requirement (which is separate from the 7-course breadth) can be fulfilled by AP English (4 on either for first half, 5 on Literature for both halves).</p>
<p>The Berkeley Engineering humanities and social studies requirement requires six courses, two of which must be R&C (a 4 on either AP English fulfills the first half), two of which must be upper division, and one of the upper division must be in the same department as one of the others. AP credit can fulfill at most two courses.</p>
<p>But UCLA Engineering may have different requirements, though probably more similar to Berkeley Engineering than L&S.</p>
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<p>That is a good thing. A good CS student or software developer should have experience in several computer languages and be able to pick up new ones quickly.</p>
<p>JBeak: I guess the two lower division CS programming courses sometimes use Visual Studio (I transferred in so I wouldn’t know). None of the upper division classes do though, from my experience. And as for the person saying it’s a good thing to use a bunch of different languages…trust me, you do at UCLA too. CS 131 over here uses like 8 different programming languages.</p>
<p>OP: I also made the tough decision between Berkeley and UCLA computer science, but ultimately chose UCLA. I don’t think there’s any doubt that Berkeley has the more “prestigious” program, and likely maybe even somewhat “better”. For me it came down to liking UCLA significantly better. With that said, I’m not so convinced the opportunities are significantly better up at Berkeley rather than at UCLA. All the best recruiters come to UCLA (and Berkeley of course). Within my first few weeks here I had already scored a research position at the medical center (as a programmer) and a summer internship with a top notch company. I doubt I would have been in any better position had I chosen Berkeley.</p>
<p>However, some points in favor of Berkeley CS that I considered:
Reputation
Access to more famous faculty (helps with grad school letters of recommendation I reckon)
Location next to Silicon Valley
The fact that the CS program allows more freedom in schedule. I don’t like being in the engineering college at UCLA because I’m really not interested in all the hard science requirements.</p>
<p>Feel free to ask me any questions about UCLA’s program, or why I chose it over Berkeley.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the responses guys, its really helpful. </p>
<p>@Arcadefire, I did like the vibe and environment better at UCLA but I’m just debating if Berkeley’s prestige should hold more water. What is your workload like at UCLA, do you have a normal social life? Also, don’t you have to take like Chemistry, Biochem and 4 Physics courses at UCLA as requirements? That kind of seems like a *****. Any insight in your decision would be helpful.</p>
<p>tom:
You say you’re curious about how Berkeley’s prestige might change things, but what exactly do you mean? Grad school? Employment? I’m not so convinced that anything would be different employment wise, considering that all the best software companies (Google, etc.) recruit at both schools. I feel like it may be easier to get into the best grad schools since your letters of rec would be coming from better known professors, but the difference would probably be small. Trust me, you won’t be hurt trying to get any position from UCLA (I even know some CS majors who have went off to investment banks and the like, so I don’t think prestige should be a concern).</p>
<p>My workload’s not too bad…I don’t know, it’s all relative. Really just depends on your course load that quarter. I took it kind of light this quarter. I don’t think there would be a difference in workload between Berkeley and LA, so I wouldn’t choose based on that. Wherever you go will be challenging. They’ll wind up doing more epic projects in the Berkeley courses, but that’s because semesters are much longer than quarters.</p>
<p>My decision was basically: I really wanted to go to UCLA. I went to UCLA. haha. Not much more than that. With that said, Berkeley definitely IS more prestigious in computer science than LA. So…how much do you care? What do you want “prestige” to do for you? Impress some random dude you meet? If so…they’ll be impressed by UCLA too, don’t worry. If you really like UCLA better, then I think you should go to UCLA. I haven’t regretted my choice. With that said, I would LOVE to go to Berkeley for grad school (wish me luck!).</p>
<p>As for the Chem, Biochem, Physics stuff, you only have to take one quarter of Chem and three quarters of Physics. I wouldn’t let those four courses sway your decision.</p>
<p>I am just worried that the prestige from Berkeley may land me a better job than UCLA can. Right now I am not planning on going to grad school, I want to go right into the industry. </p>
<p>Berkeley also seems like its more focused on computer science and requires less technical breadth type courses than UCLA does. </p>
<p>I really felt like UCLA was the place for me when I went but also that going to Berkeley would be a unique experience. You say your workload isn’t too bad but what do you do in your spare time. I would like to play club lacrosse and occasionally party and the like. Do you think that is doable?</p>
<p>Berkeley would give you more access to Silicon Valley companies. As in, there will obviously be more recruiting there since it’s so near by. However, there are no jobs that you would be able to get from Berkeley that you couldn’t from UCLA. No employer in the world is going to say “Berkeley, that’s awesome! UCLA…that’s not good enough for our company.” Rather, your school name is never going to be a deciding factor, at least not between two schools like UCLA and Berkeley. </p>
<p>I already have a great internship this summer. I have two friends interning for Google…trust me you can get a good job. Getting a job in the software industry depends so much more on your skill set than the school you’re coming from (not that UCLA is a bad school or anything).</p>
<p>Yep, you could make time to play club lacrosse and party. My first quarter here I balanced: theater (I was in a play), school, partying, working out, etc.</p>
<p>However, I’m sure you could do all that same stuff at Berkeley as well.</p>