Daughter has been Accepted into CS .OOS from Dallas, TX. Just went through the portal trying to understand next steps. It appears the only thing we can do right now is sign up for online open house. Out of the different options I saw some specific major related open houses but none for CS.
Will there be one?
When we accept the admission offer and apply to housing, is there a specific dorm that is preferred?
She is not a CHP by invite but plans to apply later.
I know there will be a student parent orientation, which probably will be online as well. We won’t get to tour the campus with all that’s going on.
UCI just became a reality for us yesterday. She has been accepted to UTD with full tuition and Texas A&M honors as well but is leaning towards UCI.
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I’ll take a stab at some of these as I have a sophomore at UCI now:
- Don't know about the open house, but I wouldn't count on any on campus activities this summer.
- When my child accepted, housing was more about complex (Mesa Court vs Middle Earth) and room type (double/triple/quad). I suggest looking at the campus map, proposed courses, and location of those courses to help with choosing. The two complexes are on opposite sides of the campus, which is designed around a circular park. My child choose the complex closest to their major classes. The "tower" dorms are newer, but the older dorms are smaller and have fewer students per RA. There are floor plans online for most, if not all of the dorms - subject of course to some querkyness (door locations, for example) on the older dorms.
I hope this is helpful to you. Please feel free to ask more questions as they arise.
Thank you so much. Another question is my daughter indicated CS as first choice and data science as second choice and she got acceptance but no indication as to which major she got. We checked everywhere on portal. No indication of major she is accepted for. Is this one of those schools where major is not guaranteed and it’s assigned based on first year performance and availability?
I have told her to try their admissions chat feature and ask tomorrow.
UCI admits into the university first and then into the major. She could be admitted into CS, Data Science or Undeclared so definitely contact the school to confirm the admitted major.
Thanks. It’s really important for us know as she probably won’t commit if she can’t get her major of choice given the distance and OOS tuition. We will check with admissions office. Is there information anywhere on how they admit students to CS major?
@Sushrao: CS is a direct admit as a Freshman. If she gets into Data Science or Undeclared, below is what she needs to do to change majors.
https://www.ics.uci.edu/ugrad/policies/Change_of_Major.php
@Gumbymom
Thanks! She just checked and it’s updated as undeclared. How easy or difficult is it to get CS major realistically? I did read and understood the requirements. In other words, I am not sure if this should deter us from choosing UCI since she has guaranteed major in other school.
This is my first and only one so I’m clueless:(
As a non-CS major, trying to get the required pre-req courses to submit a change of major will be the tough part. From what I have been reading, some CS lower division courses have huge waitlists and could add extra quarters to change the major. Something to consider when deciding on a school. I always advocate to take the direct admit since it is much easier to switch out of the major vs. switching into the major.
Sorry I didn’t understand the last sentence. When you say direct admit that is admission into the school (Bren?).
UCI admits first into the University and then will admit into the major. If an applicant does not meet UCI’s threshold for the CS major, then the applicant is considered for the alternate major and again if the applicant does not meet the alternate major threshold, they will still accept a strong applicant as Undeclared.
If your daughter has a direct admit into the CS major at another school(s), then I would recommend she attend one of those schools. There is no guarantee if she attends UCI that she will be able to change into CS later.
CS is in the Bren school of Information and Computer sciences. There are only 2 ways to be admitted into the CS major as Freshman. Either you are admitted into the CS major at time of admission or you try to change majors by following the change of major plan.
Thanks for that explanation. It sounds like CS is an impossible major if you are coming in undeclared.
@Sushrao My DS got direct admit to CS. But I have read that changing major to CS is not bad. You can check the CS class schedule (ICS). I can see that there is always 1 or 2 spots available:
https://www.reg.uci.edu/perl/WebSoc
The key is being able to enroll in the CS classes!
I am a current UCI Freshman, and I know a few students who are also trying to switch to CS. Form the UCI change of major website, to change to CS, you need A minimum GPA of 3.0 and no grade less than a C in ALL courses taken from those listed below. Completion of the following:
ICS 31 and ICS 32, or
ICS 32A and ICS 33, and
One or more of Math 2A, Math 2B, ICS 6B, ICS 6D, ICS 6N.
For the first four classes listed, students in the CS major have priority enrollment. I’m not sure how hard it is to get it if you are undeclared. that’s something you’d want to ask the admissions office. Here is more info. https://changeofmajor.uci.edu/school-of-information-and-computer-sciences/
Now for the housing question, there are two freshman housing communities: Middle Earth and Mesa Court. All communities have singles, doubles, triples, and quads. Both communities are seperated into the what are called the towers and the classics. The towers are generally more popular. They are newer than the classics. The classics in both communities are roughly 30-40 years old, whereas the Mesa Court towers were completed in 2016 and the Middle Earth towers were completed in 2019. The towers are also generally thought of as more social than the classics. One thing to keep in mind is that the Mesa Courts towers only have quads. The Middle Earth towers are primary triples, but I believe they have doubles and quads as well. I lived in the Mesa Court towers freshman year, so you can DM me any questions about my experience that you have. There’s also information on the housing website.
Did your daughter join UCI for Cs major ?
This discussion thread is 3 years old and OP never came back to update. I suggest you PM the OP directly if they are still active.
Closing this discussion thread.
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