Please help - direct vs secondary admit CS major, mostly California schools

A typical schedule is 3-4 courses per quarter. It looks like most UCSC courses are 5 credit units, so 3 such courses would make a full load of 15 units per quarter (which would add up to the 180 needed to graduate in 12 quarters (4 academic years)).

Sample first year schedule:



Q1              Q2              Q3
Math 19A*       Math 19B*       CompE 16
CS 12A          CS 12B          other course
CS 12L (2)      CS 12M (2)

<h2>other course+   other course+   other course</h2>

17 units+       17 units+       15 units

<ul>
<li>Math 11A-11B or 20A-20B may be substituted.</li>
<li>Assumes other course is 5 units.


Slower paced introduction to CS if he has little experience:



Q1              Q2              Q3
Math 19A*       Math 19B*       CompE 16
CS 5J           CS 11           CS 12B
                                CS 12M (2)

<h2>other course    other course    other course+</h2>

15    units     15    units     17 units+

<ul>
<li>Math 11A-11B or 20A-20B may be substituted.</li>
<li>Assumes other course is 5 units.


Faster paced introduction to CS if he has more experience:



Q1              Q2              Q3
Math 19A*       Math 19B*       CompE 16
CS 13H          other course    other course
CS 13L (2)      

<h2>other course+   other course    other course</h2>

17 units+       15 units        15 units

<ul>
<li>Math 11A-11B or 20A-20B may be substituted.</li>
<li>Assumes other course is 5 units.


It does look like some of the other possible courses associated with the residential college are 2 or 3 units, so one or two of those would be used to round out a quarter where he needs a 2 unit lab (CS 12L, 12M, or 13L) to make a 15 or 16 unit quarter instead of a 17 unit quarter.

If he earns a high score on the AP calculus AB exam, he may be able to skip Math 19A (see https://ua.soe.ucsc.edu/advanced-placement ), but it is best for him to try the old Math 19A final exams (some linked from https://people.ucsc.edu/~eastman/Math%2019A%20-%20Winter%202017/19AhomeW17.html ) before deciding whether to skip.