My D actually thinks those schools would be fun, although she is intimidated by them too. I was at Chicago ages ago when fun really was dying, and I actually think the changes over the years seemed to make student life more humane. But then I see the article @tsbna44 shared, and think that could’ve been written back in my day. 
I think we all took some pride in surviving what we understood would be a rigorous undertaking, but I’d hoped kids there would have more balanced lives today. I do think Chicago, MIT and HMC are all making efforts to help with that, but it does take time to shift an institution’s culture.
For the right student, all of those can be great. The ones that end up not liking them are generally students that used rankings only to vet their choices.
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[edit to tag @CateCAParent ] Hmm, I think you helped make suggestions for her list earlier. 
Btw I count the UC’s as one application since it’s the single app and it’s all one giant crapshoot these days! Of course, they don’t count as single applications when paying the app fees 
Thank you so much for sharing about Mudd. It’s one of the few schools we were able to visit in person, and although it was over summer and no one else was there, I really thought I could see my D there except the courseload was so intimidating. The tour guides were so happy and fun, and nonchalant about taking 5 classes per semester. I realize guides are not necessarily typical kids, but we were all impressed and intimidated at the same time!
I was optimistic reading about recent changes to the core and workload, I thought that was a good sign admin was trying to support the kids. And it did seem from what I read that the kids really hang in there together and support each other. Your description sounds like what I was hoping for! She just needs to get in(!) and be certain she can handle the work because even an HMC Lite would be incredibly challenging.
Wow, he sounds like a great kid! 
Can I ask what other schools your son is applying to? Not planning to stalk him but it’s nice to know other kids are looking for the same things, and I’m wondering what he “narrowed” his list down to. 
Thanks again!
So interesting, I didn’t realize that. Would we find that kind of specific info about each major in the “declaring a major” section of each school? I’ve read a lot of posts by you and Gumbysmom, and have tried to find all the reference guides online, but it’s all still a confusing mystery to me (and my D). Thank you for explaining things over and over to all of us on this forum!
Haha, you are so kind, thank you! But the only clinic I could teach would be “How to Drive Your Kid & Yourself Crazy ‘Helping’ With Their College Applications!” No wonder my D does not want to commute to college next year! 
Seriously, I do feel this urge to help more with research than I’d planned since we can’t visit much and these last couple years are especially unpredictable. So glad you were able to help your D and she’s happy!! Yay that’s our goal as parents!!! 
Yes, we are looking at newspapers too to get a sense of what the big issues are to the kids and for a general sense of the vibe at the school. Thank you so much!
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This needs to be looked up for each specific college and major, along with whether one can apply for direct admission in frosh admission. Note that this is not unique to UCs; other colleges may have capacity limits for some majors that are lower than student interest in those majors.
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Yes, the UC housing issues weigh heavily on our minds. I didn’t know UCLA and UCSB had such good housing guarantees before, too bad they can’t anymore. 
I know some private schools had struggles this year too, but not as bad as the UCs seem to be since there are just so many more students. As they said, it’s been a perfect storm 
: California college students live in vans and hotels as campus housing plans spark backlash
Oh wow, didn’t know UCSB classes could get so huge. I understand for all the schools with large classes they break down into study groups etc, and I hear that helps a lot. I think for the state schools, we were worried D would get lost and feel like a number, and find it hard to get the time to develop relationships with profs, etc. I know she’d just have to work harder to make it happen if she’s in one of the bigger schools. It just might be hard for her to do it at 8am! 
Thanks for the info!
Thank you. This is what she was going to do, but I didn’t realize how much variation there might be between majors even within a college. She’s going to need another spreadsheet! 
It hasn’t been apparent to us that any of the private schools on her list had similar capacity limits – if so, she will likely want to cut them on that basis as it would be hard to justify paying private school tuition then find she can’t study what interests her (as we fear will happen at the UC/CSU’s).
Thank you!
That’s why we found Cal Poly to be such an interesting combination. They have massive engineering facilities, over half a million square feet, typically only associated with the schools with big lectures. The biggest lecture hall on campus only holds 200 though and it’s in the business school. Our son’s first year Physics lectures had 42 students. His Calculus class had 32. These aren’t discussions, but the lecture. That said, you know the drawbacks. You really have to have a solid idea what you want to study and be patient if you want to change.
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It looks like most of the private schools on your list are the richer ones that are not that big, so they are less likely to have issues with capacity limits. But there are some where capacity limits significantly affect changing major (for example, at CMU, changing to CS can be very difficult if not directly admitted to the School of Computer Science).
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I think UCLA will get back to housing guarantees for freshmen next year. This year the problem was uncertainty about whether they could put students in triples and how much quarantine housing might be needed. There’s lots of new housing in development at the moment, you just need to be prepared to be really packed in like sardines: With two new residence halls, UCLA comes closer to fulfilling a promise | UCLA
Because of that a lot of students move into apartments in junior year despite the availability of housing, even though it’s more expensive (typically $2500-$3000 + utilities for a shared 1 bedroom close to campus, so ~$1400 per month plus food).
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I can’t figure out how to DM you, otherwise I would give you all the deets.
Kiddo doesn’t approve of me hanging out on CC, so while I completely ignore his lack of approval 
, I still try to honor his wish of keeping his info private. I come perilously close to oversharing all the time!
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Go to your own profile, click on messages, then send new message and fill out the bar for “new user.” My kids also want privacy.
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Thank you!
Oh good, that’s what we were hoping for, thank you. And she just cut Carnegie Mellon from her list, so hopefully the remaining offer the flexibility she wants. 
Thank you!
Wow, that is great UCLA has been able to build and might be able to guarantee 4 yrs! I think moving off campus junior year is great for development, so I’m just hoping for 2 yrs guarantee wherever she goes, unless she’s in a city where there are no affordable apts off campus.
I really hope the pandemic dies down so kids can return to “normal” sardine life soon! :). Thanks!
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Well, D surprised me and now has Computer Science at the top of her interest list!
Engineering has fallen towards the bottom (maybe off the list), but Neuroscience, Astronomy, Physics and others are still on.
So now she plans to apply to Computer Science for the UC/CSU’s (except maybe General Engineering for SLO), since she knows she’d unlikely be able to transfer into the major later. And I’m freaking out because we know applying to Comp Sci will significantly drop her admissions chances at these schools. 
She’s still trying to cut her current list, but I’d like her to re-look at some schools in hopes she’ll have more options if the UC/CSU’s are a complete flop. We realize she’s missed some deadlines for Honors Colleges or Early Action, but I’m thinking she should reconsider:
Santa Clara University
Oregon State
Reed College
University of Colorado, Boulder
Western Washington
University of Pittsburgh
UMass
We only did a cursory look at these schools earlier, so they still might not be good fits for various reasons. And I assume these schools would also be more difficult admits for Computer Science. If she does get in, how hard would it be for her to explore other disciplines (especially taking classes between Engineering and Liberal Arts/Sciences divisions), change majors, etc?
Also, for CSU’s, she’s applying to SLO, Pomona, San Jose, Sacramento, San Diego, Long Beach. Since she’s now planning to apply to the competitive Computer Science major, what other CSU’s should she add?
For reference, her current list:
Most Enthusiastic
MIT (applied EA)
Yale
UChicago (applied EA)
Pomona College
Case Western (applied EA)
Very Enthusiastic
Stanford
UCLA
Brown
Harvey Mudd
Tufts
UC San Diego
University of Rochester
UC Santa Cruz
Enthusiastic
Barnard
UC Berkeley
Occidental
Scripps
UC Santa Barbara
Cal Poly SLO
WPI (applied EA)
Less Enthusiastic
Boston University
UC Irvine
UC Davis
UC Riverside
Cal Poly Pomona
CSU’s (San Diego, Long Beach, San Jose, Sacramento)
Thank you!
Engineering-based CS majors will have more non-CS requirements than liberal-arts-based CS majors, so that will affect how much elective / exploration space the student will have. However, for a student interested in physics or astronomy, such added non-CS requirements in engineering-based CS majors will be mostly math and physics anyway, which align with the prerequisites for the physics and astronomy majors. Neuroscience may have more different requirements like biology and chemistry, although an introductory psychology course would fulfill a general education requirement for a CS, physics, or astronomy major.
In terms of changing majors, physics and astronomy are less likely to be “full” majors. You can check colleges of interest to see if there are any limitations (e.g. high GPA) to change into those majors.
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Pitt was the school that surprised us the most when we visited the city and the school. It was not on my son’s list but applied after visiting. He got into his ED school if not Pitt might have been where he ended up. They have a separate recently created undergraduate School of Computing and Information, which I believe you must apply directly.
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I agree a Pitt app makes sense. OP, I would get the Pitt app in ASAP. If your D didn’t like the school of Computing and Information, changing schools/programs is typically allowed, but check the website for details. Honors app is due Dec 1.
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