Transferring to Berkeley L&S CS after transfer admission to Berkeley as another major?

[SDGoldenBear]

You want to apply as a similar major and attempt to declare the CS major once at Cal?

So essentially…

1. Get admitted under another major like Comperative Lit
2. Take the technical prereqs at Cal
3. Declare CS once all the technical prereqs are completed

Did I understand that correctly?

Since all Berkeley L&S transfers come in “officially” as undeclared students…you could, in theory, apply as a different major and then attempt to declare CS once at Berkeley. A lot of people try this “backdoor” method but find that it is incredibly hard to finish all the remaining technical courses before the start of your senior year where they (essentially) force you to declare a major.

Without the Math 54 equivalent, it will take you a minimum of two semesters to complete the required prerequisites and thus forces you to overload in your four semesters here to even have a chance to declare. Given that so many well prepared applicants don’t meet the GPA cutoff, asking to meet it with an overloaded schedule is tough. Also consider the fact that you will be expected to concurrently take courses towards your admitted major and you will have a schedule that is double to triple that of the average Cal student. That is GPA suicide.

See: https://eecs.berkeley.edu/resources/undergrads/cs/transfer-prereqs

You should assume that your first semester will be spent completing technical requirements that you were unable to take at your community college. In some cases, it will take 2 semesters to do this. Since admissions decisions for this major will be based on the technical prerequisites taken at Berkeley, it is important that you maximize your potential for doing well. We recommend that you take only 2 technical courses a semester. However, since you need to complete lower division requirements as soon as possible, it may be necessary to take 3 technical courses your first semester of enrollment.

Additionally, listing Linear and DiffEQs as planned courses in the summer will not help you. They will not take that into consideration for admissions purposes.