<p>I applied for L&S this year, but my true interest is in EECS. Since I am applying from China, applying directly to EECS would be an automatic rejection - since Cal accepts 0-2 Chinese applicants each year to EECS.</p>
<p>But is it at all do-able to transfer to EECS? I read from the website that it can be very difficult to transfer from L&S to EECS.
Have anybody here done it or have seen other people do it?
Cal is my favorite school, but it would be a HUGE disappointment if I cannot get into EECS.</p>
<p>It isn’t easy, but it is possible. I have seen an engineering physics major successfuly transfer to EECS, but as these are both in the engineering college, it shouldn’t be so bad. As you are in L&S I will not make a guarantee, but I do know of someone who was an L&S CS major who trasnferred to EECS. </p>
<p>Admission to the COE would probably be much more feasible if you demonstrated great performance in courses at Berkeley, especially in EECS material. I anticipate if you get admission to Berkeley as an international in the first place that you’re quite a strong academic student, and that this might be more feasible by far than for the average Berkeley admit. Do keep in mind that what makes things sticky to transfer is that the COE is notoriously tougher to get into than L&S.</p>
<p>You basically have to re-apply to transfer from L&S to CoE. So they will reject it most likely, especially if you lied on your 1st application’s personal statement about your area of interest.</p>
<p>Also, L&S students cannot sign up for the vast majority of engineering classes on Tele-bears. They would need to be added manually with an entry code from the professor, which I assume would not given out to L&S students if the class is impacted at all, which most EECS classes are.</p>
<p>^I wouldn’t go that far to say it’s “lying about my area of interest”. I applied for Computer Science in L&S. And people do change, especially in college.
But what if I am in CS major in L&S, will I be able to share classes with EECS - since I assume these two majors share a lot in common.</p>
<p>Most of the lower div EECS classes do not discriminate. If you really want to get into one, you’ll get in. Theoretically, you could apply as an L&S (which is easier to get into) CS major and just take EECS classes (they share the same core CS and most of the math classes anyways) to transfer into COE.</p>
<p>Also, I heard a good GPA to maintain if you want to transfer would be a 3.5 in the important classes (math,physics,cs).</p>
<p>Lying or not, what you are suggesting is still a backdoor into a major or college that you would not have gotten in as a HS senior. You are not changing your mind. You never wanted to major in regular CS to begin with. I also seriously doubt you are the only person trying this. As for whether or not admissions will allow this backdoor to exist, it’s obviously not something that could be reliably predicted, given that Berkeley is undergoing a lot of changes as a result of the fiscal crisis, and the divide between CoE and L&S is only deepening as a consequence.</p>
<p>@Chairman Meow:
A 3.5 - so that’s mainly mostly As, and occasionally Bs in harder classes. But I heard the average GPA at Berkeley is something like 3.0. If that’s the case, getting most As would be close to a miracle. </p>
<p>Not really, not everyone at Berkeley is a terrifically good student. You can probably make A’s fairly reliably, though not 100% of the time necessarily, if you’re handling the material very well, which requires consistent effort.</p>
<p>Further, to the Supdawg “lying” criticism, I actually think the way Berkeley’s admissions is set up, at times it is the system, not an individual’s abilities and potential, that stand in the way. Same with many other schools. Getting past the system may not be so easy because people are on the lookout. But this does not change the fact that it’s simply easier to go to certain colleges within the school than others, and so doing a CS major in another college might be a good approach, especially if classes with EECS can be shared. </p>
<p>Further, note that one of the greatest barriers any college has in admitting students to superselective positions (e.g. international spots) is a lack of adequate measure as to potential – high school tells which are some strong students, but not necessarily in engineering. It makes sense for those who get into Berkeley to try to distinguish themselves there itself, i.e. showing they can handle EECS material once there, much more so as an admissions criterion than anything they likely could have provided as a high school senior.</p>
<p>And did anybody ask about getting into EECS classes? No. Learn to read and be relevant.</p>
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<p>Getting into a major and doing well in it are different matters. Plenty of EECS admits cannot handle the EECS workload and of course, there are those who did not apply for EECS but can still handle it.</p>
<p>And admissions has already allowed this backdoor to exist for quite some time, at least since Fall 2006 when my roommate transferred from L&S CS to COE EECS. I know quite a few who transferred from L&S to COE after a semester or two. These are people who never intended to stay in L&S but applied there since it’s an easier way to get into Berkeley. Nonetheless, they got 3.7+ in their pre-reqs and got in without any inquisition into their original applications.</p>
<p>@tastybeef: thank you. I suppose then I will just have to follow the CS track and aim for a 3.7+ </p>
<p>@mathboy98:That’s certainly reassuring, and makes a lot of sense, too. We don’t really have a lot of education in HS on engineering - so nothing can be more convincing than my first semester GPA in some of the important classes in the EECS track.
Thank you.</p>