How much did you look into CCS prior to applying? They pretty much treat you like a grad student from the start and expect you’ll be going on to get a PhD. That said, they also expect you to be strongly motivated, so if this isn’t how you’d describe yourself than you might not be happy in the program. They are very welcoming of questions and happy to meet with students who can visit campus; even though time is short you ought to talk it over with them to see if this is really going to be a fit for you.
@pmast25 thanks for posting this! I think a lot of kids are going to find it helpful.
Read over the last page of posts about Manzi – it’s by far the least social hall but probably marginally the nicest.
I really enjoy the dining halls, though not all people do. Again, reread the last page of posts for more info.
Not sure about your CCS question – the college is very small, and I don’t know much about it. I do know that CCS CS do their own lower division CS classes in place of the CoE CS lower division classes, and these have small class sizes.
I got extremely tired of walking within two weeks and bought a skateboard. Plenty of people walk, plenty of people skateboard, and plenty of people bike. Bike type is up to your preference.
I’m sure you’ve got your results by now, so congratulations if you were accepted or sorry if you weren’t ( haha ) but I just wanted to ring in and say no you are not overqualified for UCSB. I know people with stats better than yours who were rejected for L&S, and MechE is much more selective than that, so seriously, good luck. Also, UCSD has lower entrance GPAs and is less selective than UCSB.
Really disappointed man, I asked literally every official I saw at the Chancellor’s Reception if the invitation meant we got our first choice major and they all said yes then I see I’ve been rejected for my first choice and accepted for a major I have no interest in career-wise. I was super hyped on UCSB but idk if I’ll be able to go anymore.
Any ideas on what I should do to get in for comp sci, they seriously went on and on about how competitive the engineering school was and how lucky we were to be admitted because it’d be hard to transfer into it. I could find the names and positions of some the people who told me I got my first choice major, should I contact them or the admissions office?
@IneffableMind I suggest you go to another school where you got into their computer science program. UCSB has a highly impacted COE and while it is NOT impossible to transfer in, it is certainly very hard, especially after this year. In previous years as long as you get mostly A and a couple B in some lower divison CS classes, you will be able to switch majors. But now I assume you have to get A throughout all your lower divison CS and Math classes. In general, it is very hard to get, hence not safe coming if you didnt originally get the major.
Bikes are not necessary, but are very useful. You’ll want to go to IV often to go to class (IV theater, Embarcadero Hall), and buy food and general goods. It’s far to walk, and a bit burdensome to board there, especially with the frequency you will be going there. There are quite a few beach cruisers, but everybody hates them because they’re generally slow, wide on the bike trail so it’s more difficult to pass, and have wide handlebars. The wide handlebars are especially annoying when trying to lock your bike next to a beach cruiser, because the handlebars intersect.
It couldn’t hurt to reach out to some of the officials you saw, as well as people from the CS department to try and get your major. I would say that your chances of getting into CS before successfully petitioning in (and completing all the necessary classes) are very low, but this isn’t a situation I’ve heard of before. Worth a shot!
@pmast25 Thanks so much for writing all of that out, it was really helpful! I was just wondering if you could elaborate on the differences between CS and CE (what is taught, rigor, job prospects, admissions, etc.).
edit: Also how did your lack of previous coding experience affect your time at UCSB, were you able to learn quickly and not fall behind?
I’d say, at the very least, half of CS majors come in without any programming experience. There are a couple intro programming classes which are mandatory for CS majors, and everyone who takes the classes and wants to learn will be able to learn. The classes are very, very slow (this is why I regret not doing CCS and would recommend doing it). Keep in mind, Computer Science is not Software Engineering – programming is probably a significantly smaller part of Computer Science than you think, I’d recommend looking at google for more specifics on that.
See https://engineering.ucsb.edu/current_undergraduates/pdf/GEAR-15-16.pdf for the differences between CS and CE. Look at pages 48 through 51 and reference the course names in pages 27-37. The main difference is that the CE degree requires a minimum of 32 units from the ECE department, while the CS degree requires CS classes in place of those ECE units. CE is a blend of EE and CS.
CS and CE are fairly similar and I’m not totally sure of all the differences. I tried to figure it out earlier this year and really had a hard time doing so, but I know certainly that CS is best given my interests (software engineering/machine learning/other things that don’t have a focus on hardware). Do you know what your interests are, or what kind of career you might want?
Hi! Thank you for all the great information. I am an incoming CS major freshman. However, after seeing your post, I start to wonder if I can transfer from College of Engineering into College of Creative Study? I really want to get the best possible education here, so I would like to take more challenging and interesting classes.
Also, I would like to graduate earlier. So how much help will summer courses give to me for early graduation? I think I will do the FSSP program, but I just want to know what about the summer courses after freshman year. Thank you :-*
@R3Paul you can petition to transfer after winter quarter if you get good enough grades and they have open spots, But there’s probably not much benefit to trying to transfer once you’ve already matriculated because you’ll have to wait at least two quarters. I’d call or email CCS officials ASAP if I were you to discuss whether there’s anything you can do to get in now.
If you’re looking to graduate early, summer classes can definitely help. That being said, they can’t help that much, since the vast majority of CS courses are not offered over summer at UCSB. The courses that you could take to get ahead would be math, statistics, and GEs.
@pmast25
Hey, I got admitted into ucsb for this upcoming fall. Ucsb is my dream college. But recently I wanted to change my major from college of letters and science to college of engineering for computer science. I’ve contacted the admissions office, and they said it’s really hard to change majors and get into computer science. And now im really discouraged and don’t know what to do bc I really want to go to ucsb. Is there any chance of me being able to switch my major once.I get there or during the summer? I’ve also taken the ap calc ab exam and passed that. In may I’ll be taking the ap calc bc exam, and im determined to also pass that. But I really need help on deciding what to do. Any advice will be really helpful!!
There’s definitely a chance to transfer in. I think it’s actually considerably easier than they make it out to be as long as you’re really willing to work for it and possibly take a summer course or two if need be (as some UCSB CS classes that you’ll need to get to transfer will be very difficult to enroll in due to seat availability). A friend of mine came in as a math major and took CS8/math4a in the summer, CS16/math4b in fall, CS24/CS40 in winter, and he was able to transfer in after that. If you’re persistent and do well in the classes, it seems to be almost certain that you’ll get in.
That being said, it’s still definitely not guaranteed, and it’s best to really weigh your options, especially if you really want to study CS in college, and are concerned you won’t be up to the fairly difficult task of transferring into CS at UCSB.
pmast25, thank you for this post! I found it to be incredibly informative in my decision-making process (I’ve listed all the schools I’ve gotten into in a previous post). I have a 33 ACT, 3.7 UW/4.05 W GPA, and I was invited to UCSB’s chancellor reception and accepted into my first choice CS major in the Engineering dept. UCSB is definitely one of my top choices as of now, simply because I love the people/friendliness I encountered when I visited, and their engineering school is considered to be highly regarded.
I have a few questions I’d like to ask.
Have you tried to take part in any research opportunities? Is research typically very competitive or limited in supply?
How many engineering students study abroad and is it difficult to do so?
What is the internship situation like in SB? Is there any difficulty for CS students to find internships?
How is your overall experience with CS at SB? Are you ever overwhelmed by the high student population in your classes? Stressed by the engineering reqs?
What are typical engineering students like at SB? Super nerds, hardcore partiers, or in between?
