Hey, ucbalumnus! Thanks for responding. I read the handbook more carefully this time, and I’m a bit worried. Have you heard of any high unit juniors or seniors who successfully transferred to UCs?
Regarding cognitive science at UCSC, it’s a relatively new major and doesn’t have a lot of support. My focus in particular (AI/HCI) is notoriously difficult to attain due to its design. You need an upper-division computer science/engineering course to get the AI/HCI concentration for the major, but A) the pre-requisites are extensive for these courses, B) they’re impacted by the school of engineering, and C) the school of engineering and the psychology department don’t have a good relationship and blocked each another’s students from enrolling in certain classes.
Also, there is a lack of undergraduate research labs that specialize in cognitive research. Finally, UCSC doesn’t offer some classes I think are key for cognitive science, such as classes in C++, web development, human-centered design, user interaction, etc. The cognitive electives are usually hard to get into, and the most interesting cognitive science topics are restricted to senior seminars (such as Human-Robotic Interaction).
Hope that clarifies things! Thanks again for replying 