I’m transferring Fall 2019. Here are my stats:
Major: Statistics and Data Science if accepted to program
CCC Transfer : Santa Rosa Junior College
Major GPA: 4.0
General GPA: 4.0
Gender: Male
IGETC and all Pre-reqs all finished
Associates Degrees:
- Computer Science, Deans Highest Honors, 4.0
- Mathematics, Deans Highest Honors, 4.0
- Economics, Deans Highest Honors, 4.0
Extra Curriculars:
- President of SRJC Data Science Club and Math Club
- Member of SRJC Computer science and Economics Club
- Principal Second of New York Youth Symphony - played in Carnegie Hall 3 times
- Concert Master of NYC Public Theater for the Odyssey in Central Park
- Concertmaster of Santa Rosa Youth Symphony
- Concertmaster of Young Peoples Chamber Orchestra
Awards/Honors:
- Meadowmount Chamber Music Winner
- Etude Competition Winner - Senior Strings, Senior Piano
- SFCM Piano Competition Winner
Educational volunteer work:
- Teaching Assistant/Grader
- Mathematics tutor
- Economics tutor
- Computer Science tutor
- Accounting Tutur
Volunteer Work:
- Simply Strings - I mentored under-privileged children through intensive ensemble instruction after school
- Harmony Program - I mentored under-privileged children through music throughout communities in New York City
- Music for fire victims - I went to shelters around Sonoma County to play music for fire victims.
Jobs:
- Section violinist Ukiah Symphony
- Section violinist Echo Chamber Orchestra
- Section violinist Symphony of the Redwoods
- Organist/Choir Accompanist
- Violin Teacher - Beginner to semi professional
Essays:
Spent all summer and fall working on these essays. I think they are quite strong. Most of them are of my hardship of switching from music to a new career path in statistics and data science.
Schools: All UC’s
Is anyone else applying for their data science program?
By this time next year, I predict DS will be in the Top 5, maybe Top 3 as far as most popular declared major at UCB.
My kid will major in DS and hopefully CS as well. So if you have any questions about the major, ask away since I know quite a bit about the program too.
@ProfessorPlum168 How do you think I will fair in getting accepted to the DS major?
Would you mind posting the stats of your kid? I’d like to see the stats of other people who are wanting to do the DS major.
Is your kid transferring?
@duranceau951 my kid is already at Berkeley as a freshman. You can’t declare for DS until the semester in which you finish all your Lower Division requirements, which for him will be Spring. I’m not sure how that would work for transfers though since transfers are supposed to declare soon after they are admitted.
@ProfessorPlum168 How is your kid liking it? What classes is your kid taking?
Yeah, so I’m going is as a statistics major in the fall and then during that fall I will be applying to the data science program.
How is your kid finding the quality of students there? Are they joining a fraternity or Sorority?
Data 8 is a very easy class. To put into context, AP Comp Sci A in HS was probably a harder class. That said, CS61A is a major weeder class, the class isn’t heavy load but it’s going to be waaaaaay harder than any computer class any new student will have ever taken. Data 100 will be a lot more workload than Data 8 but still nowhere as hard as CS61A.
@ProfessorPlum168 If you can, can you direct me to the classes I have to take as a transfer student? Which programming language is CS61A based on? I have experience in Java and C++
What classes is your kid currently taking?
Would I have to take CS61A as a transfer you think?
Once I transfer, will I just be doing the upper division requirements?
Just looked at the requirements to declare and found that I have to. It’s interesting though, since I’ll have cs61B done but there is no course articulated for CS61A
A few CCC do offer CS61A, like Berkeley CC, not many. Yes, Data Structures is taught at almost all CCC, though Berkeley usually requires either a C++ course to go along with it, or in more cases, you would still need to take a Data Structures bridge class to augment your CC Data Structures class.
I’ll assume you’ve taken all the requisite Math classes, which would then just leave you with Data 8 and CS61A and maybe a bridge Data Structures class to finish your Lower Division requirements. The Data 8x class that you took won’t count but will certainly make your Data 8 class very easy IMO. You should be able to take these classes in your first semester at Berkeley. Get ready for an 1,800 student lecture for CS61A and 1,500 for Data 8.
Oh, one other thing, you will need to choose a Domain Emphasis as part of your declaration, of which one of the 3 classes in the domain will be a lower division class. But that class does not have to be completed before you declare. For CC students, many DS students may have already taken a lower division requisite class already. For example let’s say you choose Applied Mathematics and Modeling as your domain emphasis. Well, the lower division class required is Multivariate Calculus which you probably would have taken already. So you would only need 2 classes instead of 3.
For CS61A I believe that Python, Java and a language called Scheme is used. Plus a bit of basic SQL at the very end. Previous knowledge helps a little bit (and is expected), but the vast majority of the class is focused on concepts. For example, a topic that kills everyone is recursion. My kid was cocky and thought to himself, “heck I can easily code the Towers of Hanoi problem, I’ve got this licked.” Nope. Goes way deeper than that.
https://cs61a.org can let you preview CS 61A.
There’s a Data Science Panel Symposium on Nov 27 at 6:30pm at the Pauley Ballroom Pavillion in the Student Center. This is aimed for current and prospective students interested in Data Science. This was supposed to be on Nov 18 but it got postponed due to the fires up north.
https://events.berkeley.edu/?event_ID=121502&date=2018-11-18&tab=academic
Awesome! My friend just told me about that as well. Looks really interesting!
What are you guys doing for your domain emphasis? I’m looking at either the Applied Mathematics and Modeling or Economics
My kid probably is headed towards Cognition, but still open towards Computational Biology.
@ProfessorPlum168
That sounds great! All of the domains look really interesting. How good is your kid in programming? I’m a little nervous because I’m relatively new to it. Although, I’ve had some experience in C++ and Java. How many programming classes do you think we’ll need to take?
Data 8 will have a lot of programming in it, so that’s a good class to really pick up your programming acumen since it’s not a difficult course. Mostly Python and some Java. CS 61A will have a lot of programming but thats secondary to the concepts. I think later on, a lot of the classes will be C++ or Java. But I think you’ll find that the course material itself is what is challenging, as opposed to the programming.
If there’s a good Python class online, that probably would help. UCB has programming classes but I wouldn’t recommend taking it at Berkeley since you can find programming classes for a lot cheaper at CCC or online.