Good idea to ask admissions.
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Thanks everyone. We can check the hotel and book. They plan to use a shuttle bus from Chicago to get to UIUC, so rental car is not needed. We will see as the admitted students day is on April 12. Teenagers can change their mind and UCSB might make a come back.
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The hotel at the Illini Union is age 18 for check in. Itâs on the main quad so great location. I have no idea what the rooms are like though.
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The conversation was along these lines when S25 was finishing his UC application.
S25: The times I have been to Berkeley, the city did not seem like a good fit. Should I apply to Berkeley? I do not have the stats/ec needed to get in anyway.
Me: If you are not sure, find a unique program there and go for it. In the small chance that you do get in and you can visit again and re-evaluate.
S25: Do you know such a program? I know people at my school applying to MET which is not for me.
Me: EECS. I work with a bunch of graduates from this program and they all have nice things to say.
Fast forward to today. Unexpectedly, he will be evaluating the program(is it EE+CS?) and visiting Berkeley again.
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My S23 is an EECS major at UCB. Feel free to ask questions. 
The EECS major is extremely flexible!! My son loves that.
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Thanks. That is one of the main things he is looking for. A flexible CS degree like CS+X, X= CE or EE but Math or Econ is ok. At UIUC with the CS+X program, it would be hard to double major in EE as it is in a different college. At Purdue where he is admitted to CS, it is not easy to pivot to engineering either. At UCI, CSE is an a combo major between engg and cs and is more in line with what he wants.
EECS is basically âchoose your own adventure.â All EECS majors take a common set of lower division courses. Then the student chooses any upper division courses that they want within EECS. They can do CS, EE, or any combination.
Also, the total number of required units in this major isnât huge. Most students have the freedom to take additional advanced courses, or study something else of interest, or graduate early.
Looking at your first post, your son should get a lot of mileage out of his APs and DE credit, and would have tons of flexibility. My son had fewer AP/DE than yours⊠and he will already be done with all his requirements by the end of next semester (first semester junior) and will be able to study whatever he likes for the next year and a half⊠he could graduate if he wanted, but there is still so much he wants to study!
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Thanks again. Seems like berkeley fits the academics part very well. The second thing he was looking for was good social life with D1 sports (like Duke/Michigan). How do you rate the social life at Berkeley (leaving out the sports part where they are not that good)?
My sense is that UCB is basically a huge school with something for everyone, if you can find your people. Iâm not a student there myself so I canât give you first hand info on that, but Iâve heard no complaints from my son about social life. He is very busy with engineering clubs and music and his campus job, and has made a lot of friends in all of those contexts. I do get the sense that most people he knows are also very busy. But they manage to find time to do things for fun, too. (For example my son often gets super cheap last minute student tickets for SF symphony, to go for an evening out with his girlfriend.)
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Thanks. One last question which I am not sure applies to your son. We live within 50 miles of berkeley and my S25 has some concern about going to school very close to home. Did your son have such concerns, if so is he regretting not going out of state?
I know you asked another poster but let me share my experience with this.
After looking at colleges up and down the East Coast the best fit for my son (academics, social fit, finances) turned out to be a school very close (under a half hour) to home. We actually sat down to discuss how to handle this before he would committ. We (parents) agreed to never pop by campus and to not expect him home other than school vacations. He (S) promised to not use being close to home as a crutch (eg. no bringing laundry home, etc.). It all worked out great and we held to our agreement. He had a wonderfully busy and full life on campus and a fantastic college experience.
If Berkeley is the best fit Iâd absolutely go for it. And congrats.
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We actually live in Berkeley, although we donât live right next to campus. My son originally wanted to go very far away⊠he was thinking the UK or Canada! Now that heâs a college student, heâs happy to be close to home. It seems to be the perfect blend of independence and convenience for him
For his first year he lived in the freshman dorms like everyone else and we made an agreement very much like what @happy1 mentions. For his second year, he rented an apartment with friends near campus. They are happy there and will be staying in the same apartment for next year (theyâve replaced one roommate).
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The UCB EECS major has a core set of lower division requirements listed at EECS Major Lower Division Degree Requirements - EECS at Berkeley . Students then have significant flexibility in choosing courses to fulfill upper division requirements.
Class schedules indicate that most EECS students focus on CS, since the enrollment in upper division EE courses is much smaller than in upper division CS courses.
If it matters (for the patent exam or PE licensing), the EECS major allowed ABET accreditation to lapse recently, and reduced the minimum number of engineering credits required from 45 to 40 (45 was the minimum for one of the criteria of ABET accreditation).
Thanks everyone. We will take a few days to look at the acceptances and shortlist 3-4 schools. He can visit and pick whichever school he feels he can thrive in.
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Safety: UCR(admitted, CS+B), SDSU(admitted, CS), ASU(admitted,CS,$17500)
Target: Santa Clara(admitted, CSE, $30600) , Ohio St(admitted, Pre-CSE, $15500), Penn St(admitted, CS), RPI(admitted, CS ,$40000), Minnesota(admitted,CSE,$15000), Colorado(admitted, CS), NC State(admitted, CS Intent)
Low Reach: UCD(waitlist, CSE), UCI(admitted, CSE, Honors), UIUC(admitted, CS+X), UMD(admitted, LEP-CS, $15000), Purdue(admitted, CS), UW-Madison(admitted, CE), UMass(admitted, CS, $18000), Northeastern(admitted, CS+X, London)
High Reach: UCSD(waitlist, CE), UCLA(waitlist, CE), UCB(admitted, EECS), USC(rejected, Viterbi), UNC(rejected, CS), UT Austin(rejected, ECE), Michigan(waitlist, CE), Georgia Tech(rejected, CE), Duke(rejected, CE)
Final Update:
Admitted to Comp Engg at UCSB. Waitlisted to Comp Engg at UCLA. Rejected to Viterbi at USC. Accepted to EECS at UCB. Waitlisted to Comp Engg at Michigan.
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I donât see a single bad choice on your list. I know you are moving past your safeties - and you have to cut somewhere - but even those are really great.
Now comes the hard part - choosing.
I look forward to hearing after your upcoming midwest and east coast visits.
Every affordable admission (including to major, if applicable) is now a safety (and every rejection is now out of reach).
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Synced up with S25 again on the whole process and what he is looking for, which in a nutshell is only two things.
- Academic Rigor/Placement with ability to study CE/EE in addition to CS.
- Social Life/Fit with emphasis on D1 Football/Basketball in a good conference.
With these it made sense that his original top schools were Duke, UCLA, UMich and USC. But he is happy with the choices he has now and will replace them with 4 schools among his admits and evaluate.
UCB EECS is very flexible in this respect, although the vast majority of EECS majors emphasize CS over EE in their upper division courses, based on enrollments in CS versus EE courses.
Lower division requirements: EECS Major Lower Division Degree Requirements - EECS at Berkeley
Upper division requirements: EECS Major Upper Division Degree Requirements - EECS at Berkeley
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Update on visit to UIUC IlliniFest. S25 visited with three of his friends. No issues with hotel check in as one of the parents decided to go as well. Shuttle bus from Chicago was also fine.
Highlights:
- S25 liked the collegetown and the university. Visited the Grianger CS and ECE buildings and was impressed. Weather was nice past weekend which helped.
- Visited the football stadium and recreation center. Even asked a random student to sponsor as guest and worked out for a couple of hours.
- Had Lunch/Dinner in the area outside campus and said the food options are decent.
Overall they liked the school enough that 2 out of 4 committed while there.
Lowlights:
- As expected, dual degree in EE along with CS+X has a lot of hurdles and is treated like a regular transfer of colleges.
- CS+X in college of science needs a 4th year of Spanish!
S25 will visit Cal day this weekend before deciding.
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