615 Economics
557 L&S CS
479 Molecular and Cell Biology
401 EECS
389 Business Administration
368 Political Science
351 Psychology
300 Integrative Biology
265 English
261 Cognitive Science
248 Sociology
232 Applied Math
230 Media Studies
227 Political Economy
225 Statistics
Considering that L&S CS and EECS are run by the same department, that combination of majors is the largest number under a single department. The small enrollment in upper division EE versus CS courses indicates that nearly all EECS majors concentrate on CS rather than EE.
Back in the mid-2000s, in the wake of the tech bubble crash, L&S CS graduated under 100 students a year, and was not a capped major, so that a 2.0 GPA in the prerequisites was enough to declare the major. Times have changed…
We were over at Cal Day yesterday and went to a presentation on the CS “beginning” courses. The presentation was over at Pimental 1 which was jam packed. There was a question on how many L&S CS intent majors were there as opposed to EECS, and the ratio was something shocking, like 20 to 1 (I was sitting in the back row so this estimation should be relatively accurate.) Even amongst the TAs that were present in the room, there were 7 L&S CS and I think only 1 or 2 EECS.
I’m wondering at some point in the near future if the admissions determinations for CS are going to be changed. It doesn’t make that much sense to me that the EECS admission rate is under 5% now… I personally know 3 students with perfect ACT scores and great qualifications who didn’t get into EECS in the last 2 years while tons of kids go in via the “easier” route through L&S. We counted 15 of my kid’s HS senior friends who were there yesterday at the presentation and every single one of them was L&S. (I’m assuming all were CS intent majors). In fact, one of the TAs went to the same HS two years prior and I was shocked he was L&S, since I knew he was a Regent and had a near perfect SAT score.
Note that L&S CS has a GPA minimum to declare the major. It was 2.0 in the late '00s, then raised to 3.0, then raised again to 3.3 (but based in fewer courses) where it is now.
About half of the students in the three CS courses used for the 3.3 GPA to get into L&S CS earn B+ or higher grades.
what I am talking about is that, from a risk/reward analysis, it makes little sense to apply for EECS when you have a 4x better chance to get into Berkeley’s CS program through L&S. This is way better odds than any ED versus RD rate might offer. I think for most people, getting into a school first supercedes any other barriers especially if you’re dealing with in this case one of the Big 4 of CS schools.
In the absence of stratified or banded admission rates by applicant characteristics, the use of raw admission rates can be misleading.
For transfer students, it looks like L&S CS and EECS are similar for admission selectivity, but L&S CS transfers need to complete the remaining CS prerequisites with a 3.3 GPA after transfer to declare the L&S CS major while EECS majors have direct admission.
Some of these assumptions may be incorrect, but here goes.
EECS admissions is anywhere from 3% to 5%. L&S overall Admissions is somewhere between 15-20%. So that’s roughly 4x to 5x. I’m not sure if L&S breaks down admits by intent majors, but even if it did, surely there are going to be say a French or Philosophy major who invariably tries out for CS - because he or she can.
I think that the 3.3 GPA in actuality weeds out a lot of intent candidates, but I doubt if that barrier really prevents people from trying. Who really is going to get scared off by a 3.3 GPA? After all, almost everyone going in is pretty smart via the fact that they got into UCB in the first place, plus a show of hands at the Pimental presentation showed that virtually 100% of the students had already had computer coursework at the HS level.
What might scare off people is if the university would publish stats as to the percentage of intents who wind up not making the cutoff and/or change intent majors along the way. You can make an educated guess based on the Berkeleytime stats for the 3 weeder classes I suppose. I know for sure that CS Advising always tells the kids to be flexible and to be mindful of their classes just in case they need to switch majors.
Raw admission rates are insufficient to make that conclusion, since the characteristics of the applicant pools may differ. What you really want to know is, for what range/level of applicant qualifications, would a student be significantly less likely to be admitted to EECS versus L&S? But there is insufficient information for outsiders to know the answer.
Most students who go to college do not earn as high grades in college as they do in high school.
Considering that half of the students in CS 61A and 70 do not earn B+ or higher grades, earning the needed 3.3 GPA is not trivial. Somewhat more students in CS 61B do earn B+ or higher grades, but that may be because there is some overlaps with AP CS A that they may have had in high school, and the worst performing students from CS 61A deciding not to continue.
Of course, at some other universities, it is much more difficult to get into the CS major if one attends without direct admission. CMU, UIUC, UCLA, UCSD, and Washington are examples.
I have a very basic question about transfer students such as myself, admitted to the college of L&S. So, let’s say I meet the pre-requirements for two majors in L&S (Cog. Sci and Comp. Sci.) but I’ve applied for Cog. Sci. in the papers. Can I just take the classes I need for Comp. Sci. and then declare Comp. Sci. as my primary major or is this illegal? I’ve just noticed that both majors share upper-level courses and my original idea was to get a minor in Comp. Sci. but I don’t know whether I can switch majors the other way around if I happen like the other courses more thank the ones in Cog. Sci.
Does not look like it is forbidden to declare a different major, but there is the expectation that you will declare a major as soon as possible, possibly noting the major that you listed on the transfer application. In some cases, you may be given registration priority for needed courses for the major you listed on the transfer application, but not other majors.
Thanks for your reply @ucbalumnus I’ll make sure I let the people in orientation know about this in case I decide to declare a different major than the one I’ve listed in the transfer application. I’m getting really anxious because I know registration for Fall 18 classes begin tomorrow and I’m still making appointments for “New Admission Tours” lol. I just hope I can get seats by the time I’m done with my orientation meeting.
http://cogsci.berkeley.edu/transfer-students suggests that you will be expected to complete remaining cognitive science prerequisites and declare the cognitive science major in your first semester.
Probably means that you will have to do that first semester, noting that CS 61A and CS 70 overlap with L&S CS prerequisites. If you have already completed the equivalent of CS 61B prior to transfer, then you could also try to declare L&S CS if you meet the GPA requirements. Otherwise, declaring or changing to L&S CS may need to wait until later. See https://eecs.berkeley.edu/resources/undergrads/cs/transfer-prereqs .
@tondiafra I’ve just read some people commenting in the transfer thread that registration for fall classes begins tomorrow, but if CalCentral says so then it must be right. Thanks for pointing that out.