Can anybody guide me on relative merits and demerits between the following Undergraduate majors in UC Davis :-
“Computer Science” which is under College of Letters and Science versus “Computer Science and Engineering” which is under College of Engineering.
I have been to UC Davis with my D. I saw lots of crowd for Computer Science but not for CSE. Being a Software Engineer, I was shocked too. After talking few people, they mentioned that both majors get same job opportunities but CSE has more engineering subjects, lots of work…depends on your preference
@WashDad2, From your feedback, I can infer that CS major will be better than CSE major in UC Davis (with less workload in CS, one can avail same opportunity as that of CSE).
If you are still curious, they vary pretty wildly in terms of requirements. CSE follows the college of engineering requirements so you have to do the entire physics 9 series, the entire calculus 21 and 22 series, and engineering ethics. In addition, you are required to take some EE classes like circuits and embedded systems.
L&S CS has different requirements on the number of math/science classes you have to take and there is no EE required if I remember correctly. Because of that people tend to do L&S CS if they want to double major or free up space to do more upper division CS electives.
Both majors take the same CS classes, the other classes are the main difference.
One minor point however is unit caps, engineering students aren’t restricted in the number of units they can have before the university stops letting them register for classes, students from L&S become restricted once they get past 200-ish units. I forget the exact number.
Are the CS and CSE majors overcrowded at UC-Davis? What are class sizes like?
CS and CSE majors take the same classes. The requirements for which classes they HAVE to take are basically the only difference.
CS classes all 4 years are going to be pretty big. My intro to CS classes were probably around 150 people, but that was like 5 years ago and enrollment has grown since then. The last upper division CS class I took my senior year probably also had around 150 people. Some upper division elective classes are smaller, but it is still on the order of 50-ish people.
Thanks! Did the big classes bother you at all…or is it fine? Were you happy with the program? 
Honestly, you kind of get used to them. It does feel strange to go from high school where classes were like 30-40 people and you knew everyone in the class to being in basically an auditorium with a couple hundred other people and maybe knowing 3 people in the class. Discussion sections do kind of balance it out where it is about 30-40 students and 1 TA and they review what the professor covered in the lecture, go through problems, give homework hints, and stuff like that. It kind of becomes part of the adjustment you make when you get to college.
The quarter system was a bigger change for me than large class sizes. It is basically always midterm season until it is finals week and then the process repeats for 4 years.
I was actually a Computer Engineering major, but I had a lot of friends who were CS/CSE majors and they seemed to enjoy the program.
Does anyone know whether it is easy to put in a BS major (like ECON or MATH) and trying to switch into CSE because thats what I really want to do because my GPA is around a 3.2-3.5 when I’m finished with the required classes to switch into which is (ECS 30, MAT 21ABC, PHY 9A, and CHE 2A(provided by website).