<p>After hearing about the recent "purging" that the CS department did this past semester, I am starting to wonder if L&S CS will eventually become impacted. I've heard from a friend who was personally affected by this that they had to purge ~150 people who are already declared in a major out of the waiting list in 61B this coming semester to make room for the incoming freshmen and sophomores wanting to take the class. Those kicked out have 0% chance of taking the class this semester. DeNero's class this year was surprisingly big-- I believe it started around 850 people but dwindled down to ~750 by the end of the semester. Now, the size of DeNero's class could be explained by the fact that Hilfinger taught last year's 61A and many people dropped/avoided him and decided to try again this semester. It could also be that DeNero is a very popular and great professor. I would like to know about other peoples' thoughts on the future of L&S CS-- do you think it will eventually be impacted again? Or is the influx on the amount of CS students just a consequence of people's thinking/experience on Hilfinger and DeNero? Or maybe I'm just totally wrong. I think this topic would be interesting to discuss and I would like to know what you think.</p>
<p>Here are the class sizes during Fall 2012 and thus far in Spring 2013:</p>
<p>Fall '12
DeNero ~750 people
Hilfinger ~315 people
Asankovic ~500 people</p>
<p>Spring '13
Kamil ~500 people
Schewchuck ~500 people
Garcia ~350 people</p>
<p>To make it into an impacted major, the department requires the students take certain pre-req classes to “filter out” the ones who did poorly in those courses. However, the CS 61 series are the pre-req course to be a CS major and there is nothing the CS department can do about it to decrease the enrollment.</p>
<p>You can make CS 10 the new pre-req to take the 61 series, but that would cause CS 10 to have ~850 people again.</p>
<p>I think it makes more sense to offer 2~3 lecture times just like Chem 1A does.</p>
<p>I am not entirely sure about the specifics but my friend told me that Junior/Senior standing students who were declared in a major other than CS/EECS were kicked out of the waiting list.</p>
<p>Edit: They were kicked out in order to make space for the underclassmen who were undeclared and were freshman/sophomore standing.</p>
<p>UpMagic, couldn’t the department raise the minimum GPA to make it an “impacted major?” During the dotcom bubble I think L&S CS minimum GPA for declaring a major was like 3.3.</p>
<p>Anyways I heard rumors they’re going to raise it to 3.0 but I haven’t found any official info to verify.</p>
<p>That actually makes sense, since the students who need the course the most are declared EECS majors and freshmen and sophomore intended L&S CS majors, not juniors and seniors in other majors. Of course, that does indicate that the department is close to maximum capacity, at least in lower division courses. Intended CS minors and applied math majors may want to be sure to take the lower division CS courses early enough to avoid this problem.</p>
<p>Whether the major (or minor) becomes capped probably depends on capacity of upper division courses relative to lower division courses.</p>
<p>Chris, the new advisor, said once on the 61B forum that any changes to the CS major will not be carried out until at least Fall 13. So if you are going to declare the major next spring, or summer, you don’t have to worry. Btw, what XCyoungX said is 90% what’s going to happen, the rumor going around Soda is that the in-major GPA cap will be a 3.0. And they are already offering separate sections of 61A (and possibly B very soon) to allow more students to enroll in these lower-div courses. The students who are not cut for the major (and the 3.0 cap) will soon find out after one, or two classes, so the department doesn’t have to open more seats for classes other than the 61 series.</p>
<p>Sadly, I’ve heard that the department has no plan to open more sections for 61B next semester to accommodate all the kids pouring out from 61A (700, say 650 passed and intended to go on), the kids who were scared of Hilfinger and took 61C before B (around 50), the kids who failed Hilfinger’s 61B and had to retake (say 25), and 25 non-major enthusiasts with E7 background who just wanted a data struct course. That’s approximately 750 kids to fit in 550 seats, so non EECS majors and people not in L&S have to give up their seats. Even with that there are still 90 people on the waitlist. That kinda sucks, but I’m sure they will find a solution to accommodate everyone (hard first midterm like DeNero’s this semester, anyone? :p)</p>
<p>Btw, I can see opening more seats in 61C with Garcia a temporary option, though taking it before B is not recommended for a lot of people. 2050 VLSB has way more seats than just merely ~350, which is the current cap.</p>
<p>It seems like the department has hinted about making the major impacted. However, is there also speculation that this might happen in Fall '13?Ucbalumnus What do you mean that impacting the major is relevant to upper div. and lower div.?</p>
<p>If the upper division courses can accommodate all of the students who pass the lower division courses, there is no reason to make the major impacted. But if the lower division courses pass more students than can be accommodated in the upper division courses, then the major may have to be capped, presumably by using lower division GPA to determine admission to the major.</p>
<p>Note that L&S CS seems to have retained the application process from the time it was capped, even though the current admission standard is just that you have a 2.0 GPA and can complete the major to graduate within the L&S unit limit. If they cap the major, presumably they can just raise the GPA requirement from 2.0 to something higher.</p>
<p>I definitely do not want to declare CS when it is impacted. I will be taking CS 70 and EE 42 next semester, however I will be missing 61C and won’t be able to declare until I take it next year during Fall. My question now is should I take 61C over the summer in order to avoid the possibility that it may be impacted? Or are the chances of CS being impacted starting Fall '13 too small.</p>
<p>@sparkyboy: is the 3.0 GPA based on just the major-prereq required classes, or GPA overall? If it’s based purely on the major pre-reqs then that’s reasonably strict, considering the average grade for these pre-reqs is B- or B, no? </p>
<p>And about Denero’s first midterm: I actually thought the second midterm was harder than the first one, but yeah it was pretty clearly a “are you sure you still want to do this” kind of test haha.</p>
<p>@fl1p: You should wait until next semester and see how it goes. For now, just focus on getting an internship or doing something outside of school for the summer. If the major becomes impacted and changes will be made in Fall13, they would probably send out an announcement over the spring semester. In that case (and in the event that you think your GPA won’t cut the new cap), then drop what you need to do during the summer and take 61C. That class is never impacted and you can always register for it last minute.</p>
<p>@XCyoungX: I’ve heard that it will be in-major GPA, meaning Math1A/B, 54, 61ABC, 70, 42 only. It may end up working exactly like the economics major if you are familiar with that. Quoted below just in case</p>
<p>@sparkyboy: I see. Also, just curious: can you declare during the summer? Because in fl1p’s case, let’s just say for the sake of argument that they do impose a GPA cap for the fall. So if you finish 61C the summer before and you declare in the fall, you would run into the same GPA cap regardless…</p>
<p>@XCyoungX I’ve asked multiple people and they’ve all said yes that you can declare during summer while you’re taking CS61C. I will be scheduling an appointment with Chris the CS adviser to confirm this. </p>
<p>@sparky Thanks for the advice. I actually have an internship this coming semester so that’s why I held off doing 61C with EE42 and CS70. The internship is year round so I have to tell them that I won’t be able to work during summer if I am to take 61CL. I’m worried if it becomes impacted because of the grade I got in Math 54 (long story short, I didn’t like the professor in the class hence I got a bad grade). However, all my other pre-req. grades are fine (B/B+ range for Math 1A,1B,61A,61BL). Despite that, even with the grade with my other pre-reqs., 54 is drastically pulling my major GPA down (2.92). Unless they won’t be counting 54 in calculating your GPA, which is unlikely…</p>
<p>@XCyoungX: yes, you can declare during the summer. The process may take longer but you will be in the major before fall semester starts, and will be given special consideration when it comes to waitlist during the Fall’s adjustment period.</p>
<p>@fl1p: It’s actually normal 61C, with one project omitted (Hadoop MapReduce). (But 3 projects in 8 weeks still takes a ***** ton of time, esp. when 61C is far less trivial than its two predecessors.) 61CL has not been offered for a long time. Yeah, I would say just keep the internship and proceed as you planned, and wait for an announcement to be made, or your grades from EE42 and CS70 this next semester. 10 Evans (the room for Summer’s 61C) has way more seats than just around 100, they can easily expand as long as they can find enough TAs to run the sections.</p>