What does UC San Diego’s capped majors mean? I heard that as computer science is a popular program and you will need a 3.3 gpa at UCSD to be even considered for cs, and then you need to go through a lottery to be selected in the program. How likely am I going to get in the program. How about computer science with a specialization in bioinformatics, another capped major??
“Capped major” means capacity-limited, so that not all students who want the major will get into it. How difficult it will be depends on how much over-capacity the student demand is.
If you want to major in CS, and have direct admission to CS elsewhere, or admission elsewhere where CS is not capacity-limited, but have undeclared admission to UCSD, you should strongly consider whether assurance into CS is worth more than whatever you prefer about UCSD.
https://cse.ucsd.edu/undergraduate/cse-capped-major-status has more information about CS at UCSD.
Capped majors are impacted majors as @ucbalumnus stated there is limited capacity so there are more qualified applicants vs. spots available. I also agree that if you have a direct admit into CS at another school definitely consider attending that school, unless you would be happy with another major at UCSD.
Holy cow, 3.3 AND a lottery? Am I reading that right? I can understand the GPA cutoff, that’s getting to be more common at a lot of places, but the lottery you have no control over so why would anyone want to take that chance if their heart was set on CS?
Re: #3
Perhaps that is the point, to discourage frosh without direct admission from enrolling when the likelihood of getting into CS is small. Note that the previous method was ranking by prerequisite GPA, with resulting threshold of 4.0 (and probably lots of grade grubbing and cutthroat behavior).
@ProfessorPlum168 The policy changed in 2017. Details are here: http://cse.ucsd.edu/sites/cse.ucsd.edu/files/undergraduate/NewMajorAdmissionsPolicyRationale.pdf
I don’t see how a lottery helps anything because that’s a variable that not controllable. Yeah, it might be the fairest way for the university but not fair at all for the hard-working student who didn’t make it in the lottery. This is not the same as having a lottery for say student housing because students can find alternate housing and be reasonably ok. You’re talking about potentially millions of dollars at stake here with CS versus a non-CS degree.
To me the most fair way if you’re going to not have GPA limitations is to just do direct admit, don’t allow transfers into the CS program, and be done with it. At least you’re not giving out false expectations.
Last year for the Class of 2022, I went to Triton Day open house to tour the campus and check things out. While there I attended a computer science information session for students interested in, or those students who had been accepted into, the UCSD computer sciences major.
We were told at the very beginning of this information session by the UCSD administrator that if you were not directly admitted into UCSD’s computer science program, and if your heart is set on that major, then it would be prudent to attend another university. I remember being a little surprised, and admittedly pleased, about how honest and direct they were about prospective students choosing another school if they were not direct admits into UCSD’s CS program.