I just found out that there are two “computing” related major in UCSB, one in College of Engineering, the other in College of Creative Studies. What’s the difference between the two? Is CCS pretty much a “honors college”? How about admission rate, course rigor, and intern/job prospectives?
To get into UCSB’s CCS, you have to be admitted to both UCSB and then to the CCS program. CCS admission is some fraction of the UCSB admission, but I don’t know how selective. I don’t see the CCS application deadlines on the website, but last year they were in January (but different for different majors).
CCS courses (I’m more familiar with physics) move fast and expect you to be a self-directed learner. The goal is to get you into advanced courses and research quickly. CCS bills itself as “A Graduate School for Undergraduates” – so if your plan is to get a BS and a job right away, CCS may not be right for you. They want you to be considering grad school, as 75% of CCS graduates do. I also wouldn’t suggest being in CCS classes without prior programming experience (probably well beyond the AP CS level).
If you are able to visit Santa Barbara, you can contact CCS in advance about sitting in on one of the freshman CCS Computing classes. (At least, my son did that for Physics. He found that helpful.)
The revised CCS website seems to be missing some of the information the website had last year. It is much more like an honors college than the honors program UCSB has in the Arts&Sciences college. There is optional CCS housing, CCS activities, etc. Also, CCS students have priority registration and a lot of advising perks. I would email them to ask about those features of CCS.