UCSD alternative major or undeclared Worth?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - San Diego
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Is anyone else admitted under their preferred major at UCI or some other school, and as an alternative or declared at UCSD?

I really want to go to UCSD for its academics and city/location, but I only got in for math; hence my decision leaning towards UCI for CS.

If you are in the same situation, why are you choosing UCSD over UCI, or vice versa? I can’t help but feel like I will be missing an opportunity at UCSD, but I also don’t want to be stuck with a math:cs degree instead of a pure cs degree.

Thoughts, questions, insights?

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I am in the same boat cc2uc… (hope you don’t mind me tagging along here)

I was admitted to UCSB and UCI straight into the CS major @ Junior level.

UCSD has offered me admission in the sixth school as Undeclared.

I have no idea what to do, I am pretty sure UCI is better then SB, but don’t know how to figure out what will happen to me at UCSD. I would love to go there but feel like its a big risk.

Other schools that I am waitlisted for are: UCLA, UCD ( & waiting on USC and the other UCs – Except UCB :frowning: :frowning: )

I am wondering the same questions. Why choose UCSD with an impacted major?
On top of that question… is the added factor of being sent to sixth school as a transfer student even worse?
I say that because they require 4 ( ish? ) classes and it doesn’t seem to fit well with someone trying to get into the CSE programs.

I feel like UCSD’s selectiveness may outweigh UCI even if I end up having to major in some math field with emphasis on CS. I could always try to go for a masters straight out of undergrad in the CS field.

I don’t really know much about how UCSD and UCI stack up against each other, and if my throwing UCSB out over UCI is justifiable.

Like the OP said… Questions, comments, and insights would be appreciated.

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I’m really glad I’m not alone in this, so I definitely do not mind you joining this thread!

From my personal view, I still feel a pure cs degree would be much more employable than a math:cs degree alone at UCSD based on amount of CS courses taken, but I really would not know entirely. Correct me if I’m wrong, but would UCSD’s math major be better than UCI’s cs major when it comes to employment and opportunities? If so, I’m heading straight for UCSD.

I’ve also heard that switching into CS at UCSD from the nonengineering college is possible, but extremely difficult. Somewhere on this site someone said that to be competitive to make a successful switch, one would need all A’s in 4 cs classes. Does anyone know if it really is that difficult, or even with those grades would it still be hard to get in due to limited seats?

To the above as well: I would PROBABLY take that cs opportunity from UCSB because their CoE majors are super impacted as well, but UCSB by far has the prettiest campus and active students living in a college community. I would love to live there. That’s just me though. I got accepted into SB’s math program, but of course I’m looking to do cs.

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I think there are a lot of us in this position…

I blame UCSD doing TAG agreements and letting in subpar students (no offense to those who TAG’d in - but the requirements were, to my understanding, pretty easy) :stuck_out_tongue: - not to rant or anything :-"

I feel like UCI is well on its way to becoming a well known university but I don’t think it compares to the prestige / employability that would come with a UCSD degree. Meaning that I do somewhat think a UCSD Math major would be more employable then the UCI CS, in general at least. Someone else would really have to chime in on that as that is just my (and & sibling’s) thoughts on it.

I think it will be very hard to transfer into CSE based on the number of students that will be going for it.

Interesting about UCSB’s CoE being impacted, didn’t know that :stuck_out_tongue: . Does that mean its good though? Most of the rankings I have seen show it to be worse then Irvine. Would you just go there because its C.S. + the community there, or do you really think the C.S. would be on par, or better then UCI’s? I would love to party at UCSB but my education / opportunities are most important… lol.

By the way I am a transfer student. You are one as well, correct?

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@cccsurvivor: UCSD hasn’t offerred TAG for several years so not a valid reason.

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UCSD offered TAG through Fall 2014 at my California community college. I would have TAG’d but was a year late.

I really meant that playfully though anyways… I don’t mean to offend anyone.

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I was accepted as undeclared as well, sixth college. I sent admissions a few questions, and they couldn’t bother responding to all of my concerns regarding this matter, very little insight was given to me. All they said it was ultimately the engineering school’s decision.

I wanted to be admitted as a CS major, so from what I understand: I’d have to start from the very bottom, as if I was a freshman, then apply to see if maybe i can be admitted as a CS major.

I already started from the very bottom at my CC with mathematics (attended a horrible high school growing up - and had taken a break to begin with after high school). Now I’m expected to do so for CS? No thanks. I don’t like it at all. I can’t appreciate a school who can’t appreciate me for my current capabilities and potential. I’m a lot more valuable than skewed subjective measured rankings.

Considering all engineering is impacted at UCSD, the chances of being admitted don’t seem very high, especially as a transfer.

Heck, I’d be open to it if other engineering related majors were realistically attainable, but all of them are impacted. All of them.

In all honesty, I think they only simply admitted us so we can “fill in” the rest of their non-engineering majors.

So unless you’re into something non-engineering related, it doesn’t look good for us. This would have been an amazing opportunity to me if I was 18 or something, but not so much now. Especially now that I’m more aware and less ignorant of how the school system works. You can get burned very easily, at any level.

So be careful on your decision. Personally I’d stick with UCI. It is a good school, and you’ll be working on subject you are actually interested and I assume have a passion for. Why settle for less? What, for prestige? No one is gonna care where you graduated from after your first job out of college.

Personally, I decided I am going to Davis, where I actually was admitted as a CS major. Plus, most of my CS courses transfer without issue, whereas with UCSD, they found issues with some of my courses.

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@cc2ucCSandMATH I know a girl who went to UCLA and majored in Math AND Economics. She is currently working at T-Mobile… as a sales representative. Yes, you read that right. No I am not joking. She is working there as she finishes her graduate study at UCI for Computer Science. I met her at my CC (she was taking the same classes for CS, as she was preparing for grad school at UCI). Very beautiful bright girl (regret not asking her out), and very motivated. Had done internships and all that jazz at startups and so forth.

A pure CS degree at UCI would be more valuable than the Math/CS combo they offer at UCSD, in my opinion. Especially considering it is purely math, hardly any CS in that double major degree, if you actually look into that major/program offered at UCSD (very deceiving).

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@WTFScreenName Hey bro, first of all, thanks for the well thought-out response!

Yeah, you pretty much got it spot on on how I feel about this situation. UCSD is a great school and it’s exactly the type of environment I want to be in, surrounded by research and students focused on their work, but I probably won’t get as much employment opportunities as I would coming out of UCI. This has been buzzing around in my head for at least the past month now.

I’m going to be visiting both cities on the 21st this month, so hopefully that helps me with my decision. What do you think about UCSD possibly serving as a major for undergrad? Would it be looked good upon to do math:cs for undergrad, and then CS for grad(masters or PHD)? I want to look at the positives in going to SD if I turn out to like it a ton over there.

Do you think undergrad at UCI is enough or definitely go for a masters right after? From what I’m speculating:

UCI cs —> job industry OR grad school
UCSD math:cs —> most likely grad school

What do you think?

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I think you go it right.

If you are planning on grad school, and are ok with a mostly pure math degree, then perhaps UCSD wouldn’t be a bad choice, in your shoes. If you are planning to get a good job after graduation, then UCI wouldn’t be bad either. Though, if you wanted to go to grad school after UCI, it wouldn’t be a bad choice either. UCI has an entire college dedicated to CS (no other UC can claim that), so.

So if you are really into math, and want to do CS for grad, then UCSD will be a perfect fit for you, I would say. Otherwise I would suggest UCI.

If I wasn’t burned out with math already, I’d consider UCSD too, and I’m still debating whether I want to do grad school myself as well. So I don’t feel as comfortable taking the chance at UCSD.

And I would say only go to grad school if you’re passionate about the field you want to do research in. Going to grad school doesn’t necessarily increase your chances of getting a better job afterward (and you would likely be in more debt at that point). Weigh the positive and negatives. Usually employers want people with experience, rather than a higher degree.

Having that said, CS is a good field to go into grad school for. But again, have realistic expectations and assess what you really want from it. It isn’t the magic ticket to all your desires and outcomes.

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Or grad school if you want to teach at some point, at a higher level, obviously.

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Hey guys, a bit late to the party but I am also in the same boat. @cc2ucCSandMATH what did you end up choosing?

From what I can see for math - CS, their upper division classes most certainly are not “purely math” as some have mentioned on this thread. They offer CSE alternative classes, and even the Mathematics courses are CS driven in that they study algorithms and logic, hand in hand with programming.