<p>"It's really an argument of to each his own, but one thing that really turns me off to Berkeley is having to go in with an intended major."</p>
<p>Well, no, you actually don't have to go in declaring your major. Certain colleges, like engineering, you can be admitted directly into. But Berkeley is a UC, not a CSU, so you don't have to declare your major upon admission. You say you want to pursue comp sci, and that you might change your major to art history. From the college of L&S:</p>
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[quote]
You must declare a major by the end of your sophomore year
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</p>
<p>
[quote]
You may change your major in 113 Campbell Hall by submitting a new Petition to Declare a Major signed by a major adviser from the new department. The computer will automatically drop you from the first major.
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</p>
<p><a href="http://ls-major.berkeley.edu/declare.html%5B/url%5D">http://ls-major.berkeley.edu/declare.html</a></p>
<p>On the disadvantages of double majoring:</p>
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[quote]
Elective courses, as part of an undergraduate program, represent the last best chance during your college career for you to exercise total freedom and control over the selection of a very significant portion of your curriculum. Graduate and professional schools will not encourage this type of exploration. The decision to reduce the amount of elective course work in an undergraduate program can have serious, long-term effects by encouraging premature academic specialization and a general narrowing of intellectual interests.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>As such, you can see that 1) you have 2 years to declare your major, 2) you can switch majors (and yours would be pretty easy), and 3) Berkeley stresses academic exploration before deciding on your major. And it's not as though Berkeley's weak in either of those majors -- it's usually ranked the same as Stanford in comp sci, and the NRC ranking of art history goes:</p>
<p>3 Cal Berkeley 4.67
...
14 Stanford 3.49</p>
<p>'Course, that's a grad school ranking, but you see the quality.</p>
<p>I know you probably still aren't fond of Berkeley; I'm simply clarifying a few misconceptions about it relative to Stanford. =)</p>