I got into UCLA and Cal and I was wondering which one to chose: CSE at UCLA and CS at the College of Letters and Science at Berkeley. If you made the decision, why did you pick UCLA and are you satisfied with your decision? Thanks!
If you’re set on pursing a CS major, go for CSE at UCLA. CS L&S at Berkeley isn’t guaranteed and you’d need a 3.3 GPA in 3 intro CS courses (not an easy task!) to petition for the major.
I think that the advantages of Cal’s program outweigh the risks. Berkeley’s program is one of the best in the country, and that shows in internship and research opportunities, in hackathons and tech talks, in student organizations, and in the general campus environment around the CS program. Employability is also great - there’s constant on-campus recruiting, with big-four companies holding events almost monthly.
As a TA for intro CS at Berkeley, I’d say that achieving the 3.3 cutoff in CS 61A/61B/70 isn’t as hard as people think. We give a B+ or higher to about half the class in each of those courses, and there are plenty of ways to improve your grades in them, such as taking CS 8 or CS 10 before 61A, taking the three courses in separate semesters so you can focus on each one individually, and getting peer advising through groups such as CSM: http://csmberkeley.github.io.
Is enrollment impacted for those courses at Berkeley?
I’m having the same dilemma.
And it doesn’t really help to think about how this is probably one of the most important decisions we will ever have to make in our lives.
Someone please… help us!!!
same here. UCLA CS vs Berkeley CS L&S + Regent. Help
Both schools are great. It comes to your personal preferences. My kid is considering UCLA CSE higher then UCB CS L&S with Regents due to the fact that CSE is a direct admit to a major and also she likes UCLA more. But again, no wrong choices here.