<p>I’ve decided to ask two completely unrelated questions in one post in order not to crowd the forum with an additional thread. </p>
<p>My first question is:</p>
<p>I really want to get into Berkeley’s engineering school, but due to the competitiveness I feel I may have a better chance getting in undeclared. Will it be much harder to go after a Computer Science/Software Design major if I initially go in undeclared? </p>
<p>Also, which UCs have the most competitive engineering schools, and which are not as competitive?</p>
<p>My second question:</p>
<p>Do I wait until I get my SAT 2 scores and send them in with my SAT 1 scores, or do I send in my SAT scores to the universities now and then send in the SAT 2 scores when they come in?</p>
<p>Cal-Eng is the most competitive. Note, it is extremely difficult to transfer from Letters & Sciences undeclared into the Engineering school after you matriculate to Cal into L&S. (The transfers spots are “reserved” for juco transfers.) I dunno much about transferring within the Eng school.</p>
<p>You can wait to send all scores together, or send them separately. UC won’t care.</p>
<p>To the OP, if you mean to pursue computer science in the college of L&S then that is completely doable. For UC Berkeley all students in L&S come in undeclared technically because you don’t declare your major until you completed the pre-requisites. So, all you have to do is complete the pre-requisites for computer science and then you will be in the major.</p>
<p>Last I checked (maybe about a year ago), Cal L&S Computer Science is an impacted major. All Cal L&S freshman applicants are considered undeclare regardless of your intended major. Cal L&S is easier to get into then College of Engineering. For L&S non-impacted majors, all you have to do is complete the pre-requisites and declare. For impacted majors, some will not be accepted into the major.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies guys I’m learning a lot here. Now what exactly is an impacted major? And if you can still go in undeclared and get the same degree, then why even bother with the competitivness of getting into the engineering school?</p>
<p>Comp Sci is one of the few majors at Cal that is offered in two places. Chemistry is another one, as it is offered by the College of Chemistry & L&S. If you wish to earn a BA and take a few more humanities courses, L&S is the place for you.</p>
<p>This is not the case at all. If you want to transfer into COE, then you must attend a workshop offered by the COE. At the workshop, you’re told to start taking the pre-reqs for the engineering major that you want to transfer into. You won’t be able to apply for transfer right then and there, there is a gap period of 1 to 2 semesters where you must take the pre-req classes and your transfer admission is based on that. The gap period is 2 semesters for EECS, BioE, and MechE whereas it’s only 1 semester for IEOR, CE, and MSE. If you can hold a certain GPA in the pre-req classes, usually 3.3 or 3.5, then your admission chance into the COE is very very strong (this is what the workshop director had said to me).</p>
<p>Of course, you also have a to write an essay for why you want to transfer into COE and get the appropriate signatures from L&S, but these are just minor paperwork hindrances.</p>
<p>And if you want to major in ChemE, which is offered in COC, you would be happy to know that transferring into the major is guaranteed. All you have to do is fill out some forms and you’re in. Why? Not many people can handle ChemE. Most people transfer out a semester after transferring in.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>CS was announced to become un-impacted almost 3 years ago in CS61B. It’s hardly a recent development.</p>
<p>Uh, sure, and if you hold a “certain GPA” you can transfer into MIT or Stanford. But the simple fact is that MOST kids do NOT earn a B+ or better average in the Frosh Eng courses. The curve is not that high. Thus, it IS hard to transfer into CoE bcos its hard to earn A’s & B+'s. Any applicant trying to backdoor his way into Engineering would be fooling himself if he thinks he’ll show up and just start pulling down those types of grades. </p>
<p>Take a look at the Cal specific thread. A couple of kids who had extremely strong HS transcripts and were accepted at Ivies (Princeton and Penn-Wharton) but stayed home to attend Cal are struggling with their low B/high C in Calc even tho both took AP in HS and did well on the AP test.</p>
<p>LOL Are you seriously comparing COE change to transferring schools entirely?</p>
<p>Stanford has a 2% transfer acceptance rate while MIT’s isn’t much better (~5%). To transfer into these two schools you need a strong hook and a high GPA.</p>
<p>However, transferring into COE requires just a high GPA and the acceptance rate is significantly higher than 5%. These are completely different things. In fact, COE officially posted an acceptance rate of ~60%.</p>
<p>Of course, there is some degree of self-selection, as there is with any sort of admission process, but if one can finish pre-reqs with a somewhat decent GPA (3.3-3.5), one has a 60% of getting in. And since many of those courses give out around 25-35% A’s of some sort (at least a 3.7), that’s hardly a Herculean task. These may not be extremely high curves, but they’re certainly not low. Look up Physics 7A/B, Math 1A/B, Chem 1A, CS61A/B/C on Berkeley courserank if you’re unconvinced.</p>
<p>Or you can just continue asserting your own unsubstantiated opinions and convince yourself.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the info guys. Im still confused about one thing:</p>
<p>from what I understand (please correct me if Im wrong) you can do comp engineering or science in L&S OR CoE, But if I get into L&S I have to take humanities and lit in addition the the pre reqs for engineering. </p>
<p>If this is the case, then I think it suits me because had I not wanted to go into software design and engineering, I would have wanted to study humanities. </p>
<p>tastybeef,
LOL, 3 years ago. I think I am just getting old. I heard that when one gets old, time becomes a blur.</p>
<p>WalkInFront,
You can check out the Cal web site on the course requirements for L&S CS and COE EECS. As other posters pointed out, L&S CS is sofeware only with more humanities GE. With COE EECS, there are different options. You can focus more on computer hardware, software or both and there are more engineering type of GE.
Didn’t see an answer for this question, an impacted major is one that has a lot of demand so enrollment is capped and therefore harder to get into.</p>
<p>“And if you can still go in undeclared and get the same degree, then why even bother with the competitivness of getting into the engineering school?”</p>