UCSD vs UCB

Hello,
I was informed today that I got off the waitlist for Berkeley for the College of Letters and Science, Computer Science major. I originally planned to attend UCSD for Mathematics/Computer Science (primarily a math major), which I have been excited to attend. For reasons such as name value and overall prestige, Berkeley is the obvious choice, but I would appreciate any input between the two choices, as I am not too sure of the pros and cons between the two. Thank you.

Berkeley is better because you got into CS major. But I’ve heard from my daughter that the professor at Berkeley complained to her professor at UCSD that the Intro to CS classes are huge, like 1000 plus students. The room can only take 700-800, so they are hoping students would drop. Plus they video the lecture ahead in hoping some students will not attend it. So beware.

I see. But class size is large for in most cases for UCs, so I am prepared for that.

I believe that you can’t declare your major until end of Sophmore year at Cal. So at Cal you are not “officially” a CS major until you apply and have the GPA. The only way you would be guaranteed a CS major as an incoming freshmen is if you applied to EECS which is in the college of engineering. Also yes the CS lectures are huge 1200 plus, but my son didn’t mind at all watching the lectures on his laptop and you will get CS discussions/labs that are very small. I hope that helps. You have 2 amazing choices!

from http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/csugrad/index.shtml

I would go with Math-CS at UCSD, since it’s non-impacted. There’s no telling how your freshman year will shake out. You’d be SOL at Cal if things go less than well. UCSD is closer to a sure thing. Also the weather is nicer.

Post #2, not necessarily. There is large and then there is humongous. I believe so far my daughter has had no classes in CS that are larger then 200. The physical classroom size is the limiting factor. They break into another section.
I forgot that you are not in CS yet at Berkeley. So from the Berkeley forum, about 300 students got accepted from 1000 students. Assume the information was correct them you have about 30% chance and that with 3.0 average. With 3.3 average it’s going to be lower.
Also after googling, I found UCSD is hiring new professors for CSE. I’ve heard about 9 more but not certain. Maybe it will be easier to transfer in when they get more professors.

Stick with UCSD. Berkeley is a great school but it seems like you’ve been excited about UCSD for quite some time. Don’t change that attitude.

Also, I thought all UC’s struggled with large classes/filming lectures/registration issues?

Thank you for all the feedback. However, regarding UCSD, I am worried that the major I have chosen has much more limitation for jobs and related opportunities. Out of the classes required to acquire completion status of the Mathematics-Computer Science major, only about three to four of them are computer science courses, and the rest are all math courses (or math courses that are counted as either math or computer science). I do like math, but I am not sure if I am equipped to take on the level of math that is required. In addition, I feel that such an intensively math major would require me to complete a much higher degree of education before I really look for prospects.

UCBalumnus should have some good answers here. I don’t think UCSD’s program will be so limiting post-grad; it carries weight, you are already in, and there are many who decided to go to other campuses because they did not get into the impacted major. Ideally, Berkeley would probably be superior, but it may be a serious concern whether you can actually progress into CS at Berkeley, and hopefully remain in CS successfully.

Post #8, it’s not an ideal situation. Have you visit Berkeley? See if you get a vibe to tip your decision toward one school vs another.

Math majors with some CS knowledge do sometimes go into CS jobs, though it looks like more common directions for math majors in general are finance, actuarial, teaching, or PhD study.

At UCB, the CS major will likely need a 3.3 GPA to enter, but the math or applied math major is not impacted, and you can do a CS minor along with it. That would probably be similar to the UCSD math-CS major.