Parents wisdom on college choices: UCLA vs UC Berkeley

Parents Forum
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<p>doughmom-I can’t explain it…Berkeley just has this great feeling to it that the other UCs just lack. It’s the only college i truly wish I could have afforded to attend as it just makes me smile to think about it</p>

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<p>^^ But it’s all subjective - one of my kids liked the ‘feeling’ at UCLA better and another liked the ‘feeling’ at UCSD better. If I had a 3rd kid they’d probably like the feeling at UCB better (or someplace else).</p>

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<p>Um, enrollment is one of the perks … so clearly ability to get classes WOULD be one of the advantages. In fact it’s the MAIN advantage.</p>

<p>It isn’t true that there’s a CS major in L&S (there’s a Math Major where you take 3 CS upper divs, but it’s still predominantly Math), so if you really wanted to do CS you’d have to switch into HSSEAS and then you’d lose the Regents Scholarship (barring a cross college double major).</p>

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<p>^^ I think the OP meant that there’s a CS major in the college of L&S at UCB - not UCLA. UCB has a Bachelor of Arts CS major (yes - a BACS rather than the more usual BSCS) in the Math&Physical Sciences department of the college of L&S that’s different that the EECS major that’s in the College of Engineering.
<a href=“http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/Programs/two_ways.html[/url]”>Undergraduate Admissions & Programs | EECS at UC Berkeley;
<a href=“http://ls-major.berkeley.edu/compsci.html[/url]”>http://ls-major.berkeley.edu/compsci.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>OP - you might be interested in this that I randomly found on UCB’s website regarding enrollment in EECS classes -
[Enrollment</a> Guidelines](<a href=“http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/Policies/enrollment.shtml]Enrollment”>Getting Into Computer Science Classes - Google Docs)</p>

<p>I noticed that UCSD also has a BACS that’s different than the BSCS they also offer.</p>

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<p>Ah, I see that now - read it wrong.</p>

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<p>If he’s still really interested in CS as a minor or as a second major, I’d still get the details from each school as to whether that is likely to be allowed. I see from the link that ucla<em>ucsd</em>dad posted that Berkeley’s EECS courses seem to have very similar limitations to those that UCLA had. Regents Scholarship winners may have preferential enrollment, but at the college my daughter attends, where she has preferential enrollment, that does not in any way waive any of the prerequisites or “open only to majors” or “open only to students in the college of XX” limitations that may be embedded in the schedule. Priority enrollment means she gets first crack at classes, but she still has to meet the university’s standards for enrolling in them or have previously obtained an electronic waiver allowing her to enroll in a specific class for which she did not have the prerequisite.</p>

<p>Students often seem to be under the impression that, once enrolled, they have access to all of the classes offered at the university, and nothing could be further from the truth. Major matters. College of enrollment within the university matters.</p>

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<p>If you’re in L&S at UCLA, you can take PIC 10ABC, which is Intro to Advanced C++ and satisfies some lower divs if you end up switching to SEAS. PIC 10A is one of the hardest classes to get on campus, and PIC 10B isn’t far behind. When it comes to those classes, priority is a godsend. There’s also Principles of Java and a class on Internet programming, so you can see if you like the subject (the workload will be slightly lighter though, for better or worse) - you’re just not going to be able major in it without switching.</p>

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<p>PIC 10ABC are fundamentally programming classes - intro, intermediate, and PIC 10C finally getting into some data structures. They cover a lot, lot less than the material in CS 31, 32, 33 and 35L. The PIC classes are fine if what you’re really trying to get is some exposure to programming, but it is a little like the relationship of geometry to mathematics as a whole: important, but certainly not the whole enchilada.</p>

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<p>ucsd<em>ucla</em>dad, ThisCouldBeHeavn, arabrab,
Thank you so much for all the info/opinion.</p>

<p>At UCB, he can take several intro classes, Econ 1, BA 10, CS 61A, GE classes all in the College of L&S the first year and get a better feel of what he likes. Then he can decide the second year which one or two to pursue further.</p>

<p>Even though he feels UCLA is a better fit, he doesn’t have that flexibility to choose majors.</p>

<p>Life is not perfect, welcome to the real world, son.</p>

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<p>Some friends of mine are going with their son who is applying at UCLA. They are low on funds and I am trying to help them find a reasonable and convenient place to stay, So far I have found the [University</a> of California Los Angeles Hotels - Find hotels around University of California Los Angeles(UCLA) CA!](<a href=“http://ucla.universityhotelnetwork.com/]University”>http://ucla.universityhotelnetwork.com/)<br>
Is this site OK? It seems to get good reviews. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.
Matt</p>

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<p>UCLA has a guest house on campus. I suggest you call the UCLA Guest House and find out their rates. We stayed there - great location, has parking, excellent breakfast, very clean, no pool. Otherwise, I suggest that you try Priceline.com for hotels in Westwood.
You will get a lower price on Priceline.</p>

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<p>Between UCLA and Cal Berkeley, I would attend UCLA. The only reason I could think that Cal Berkeley might have an advantage for your son is its proximity to Silicon Valley tech companies (and this depends upon if your son thinks he wants to work in tech and live in the expensive Silicon Valley). My son was offered admission to UCLA Engineering and turned it down for USC.</p>

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<p>Below is a controversial thread, but it may help with the decision process. </p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-los-angeles/770864-deterioration-ucla.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-los-angeles/770864-deterioration-ucla.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>My son also had to choose between Berkeley and UCLA. He eventually choose Berkeley because it has an excellent computer science department. He loves, loves Cal. He loves academics and is also extremely outgoing and social—and he has met many others like himself. They volunteer for the community and 3rd-world countries. He is most satisfied with his decision.</p>

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<p>Both of my kids had the choice as well and turned down UCB for their respective colleges (UCSD, UCLA) which also have excellent Computer Science departments. One wasn’t better than the other - they just decided on theirs for a variety of reasons and no matter which one they chose it would have been fine. They were both satisfied with their decisions. I would have been fine with them choosing any of these 3.</p>