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.