I sir’ed to cal poly, but got off the waitlist from uc davis. i like the davis campus and demographics more than cal poly (mainly cause i have more asian friends at davis), but i like the small class sizes at cal poly. one other things is that i dont like labs and i know that cal poly engineering basically revolves around labs, and i just cant stand 2 or 3 hour labs… they bore me. i wanna switch from electrcial engineering to computer science with a minor in statistics with intent of becoming an actuary so im hoping for people to give me advice.
here are my main pros and cons for both schools;
UC DAVIS:
pros:
great campus
has fellow asians
prestige
cons
big class sizes
TA’s grade the work
CAL POLY
pros:
small classes
has actuarial science minor
cons:
not really a fan of the demographics
not really a beach person
hate labs
Will you be able to switch from EE to CS at Davis? CS is an impacted major at most of the UCs.
I’m surprised that class sizes are small at Cal Poly. Which campus?
i dont know… i thought it wasnt hard… thats what people said on the facebook group.
also, cal poly SLO is known to have small class sizes
Davis is impacted in all STEM majors.
So I can’t switch? The tour hide said it’s easy to switch majors within engineering.
I suggest you PM @PhantomVirgo, a frequent poster on UC Davis threads and a CS major. They could answer your questions.
You can switch your major at Davis. UC Davis has a path with required courses and grades that any student can take to get into the College of Engineering. And each major within the college spells out the requirements for changing to that major.
http://www.cs.ucdavis.edu/undergraduate/cse-major/change-of-major/
I’m surprised you are finding this a difficult choice because when I look at your list of pros and cons for each school, I see you leaning much more toward Davis. Especially when you say you hate labs - https://ceng.calpoly.edu/about/facilities/
The actuarial science minor at Cal Poly is nice, but unecessary to enter that field. You can get good preparation with a CSE from Davis.
You will have labs at UCD too.
yeah but cal poly has labs all 4 years and stresses importance on their labs
Hmm, when I switched to CS they didn’t require prereqs to be fulfilled, beyond taking one lower division CS class. Apparently that’s changed as of this quarter. @Yomama12 already linked to the CSE change of major page, so here’s the CS change of major page: http://www.cs.ucdavis.edu/undergraduate/cs-major/change-of-major/
Once you meet the prereqs for whichever one you decide on, you just go in and get the forms signed. I believe you can do it online now, even. Your major will be changed as soon as the dean’s office processes it, and you’re done. There are currently no enrollment caps for either major.
Before you ask (and even if you weren’t going to ask, I figure I’ll mention it because it’s a common question): The difference between CS and CSE is that CS focuses primarily on software, while CSE has more hardware requirements. CSE also has more requirements overall due to being in the College of Engineering, so if you want more flexibility go for CS. Other than course requirements, there aren’t any significant differences between the two majors as far as job prospects and workload for each of your classes go. Feel free to PM me if you want to know about more specific differences between the two.
Regarding labs: The only classes I’ve had to do actual labs for were the gen chem series. My project-based CS classes have had time-consuming projects, but no actual labs where we had to go in at a designated time to work on stuff. Even for the one lower div EE class I took, there were scheduled “lab” times but we didn’t have to go in. They were basically just TA office hours, though I have no idea how other EE classes are run. I’m not sure how Cal Poly handles it, so I can’t really compare.
Of course, I’m biased and say to come to UCD 
Regardless, good luck with your decision, and good luck at whichever school you decide on!
thanks for the info. i accepted my position at davis right before i read this!!! thanks for the reply!