I do hope you visit! My daughter was accepted (English, but planning to also pursue a pre-med track). We are in SoCal and just flew up to visit campus yesterday (morning flight up, evening flight home) and LOVED IT. Granted, it is spring break so it was a quiet campus, but the campus is stunning, the surrounding area is bustling and full of great restaurants and shops, everyone we interacted with was helpful and a great Cal advocate. We are putting our enrollment deposit down today and I am going to be a proud Cal Mom! It’s crazy that this was the 1% chance that she’d stay in CA and that’s what happened, but it’s far away enough that she doesn’t feel like she’s giving up the dream of “going away to college.” Good luck with your process, and congrats. Hope to see you at Cal Day!
Civil Engineering is a small program with <100 freshmen. Please visit the campus, the new engineering building is phenomenal and talk to students at Cal day. While i agree with @Gumbymom that students should listen to their heart i think people sometimes overestimate their preferences and underestimate their adaptability. In this economy, i would go to the program with the best expected outcomes, so recommend you compare student outcomes.
I will echo @ucscuuw’s comment that civil is a smaller program, which can really make a difference in making a big school feel smaller! I don’t know as much about civil specifically, but generally the smaller programs at Cal can be supportive and friendly! My son’s impression is also that the engineering school in general (which is not very large actually) has good access to advising and more feeling of community than L&S.
About the surrounding area, if the concerns come with the busy/urban vibes of the Telegraph area (south of campus) or downtown area (west of campus), I recommend checking out the Northside area (north of campus, of course)! It’s pretty, hilly, and quieter, and still has the amenities a student would want. Northside is also closer to engineering buildings. Lots of engineers live in the Foothill dorm (which also according to my son has a decent dining hall).
I have a 2nd year student in the College of Environmental Design. Berkeley has been everything she’s dreamed of–and more. I suggest visiting! My daughter went on a school day (not Cal Day) and had a departmental tour by students in her major. It absolutely sealed the deal and we haven’t regretted the decision. The campus is large–for sure, but it’s absolutely stunning. Students are passionate, intellectual, and driven. Having an unlimited BART pass has been amazing! My daughter and friends visit SF regularly, enjoy amazing cultural events, and hike/outings nearby. Her college is small as well–about 100 people per graduating class–with fewer being specifically architecture majors.
I shared your concerns when my son was accepted to Berkeley 4 years ago. We were trepidatious. I was worried it was too big, too urban, too “cut throat”. We live close enough that we were able to make several trips and spend time on campus, he reached out to a few students he knew for their feedback and we went to Cal Day.
I’m a Cal convert at this point. The opportunities my son has had, the amazing people he has met, stellar education, really interesting classes (not all in his major) - Berkeley has exceeded our expectations in every way. The stereotypes are just that. He hasn’t experienced anything cut throat, everyone has been helpful and his experience is that students work together and help each other all the time. He has worked incredibly hard, but also had time for fun.
Thanks for sharing the experience. But what was his major?
My son lived in Foothill as a Freshman and it was great. The last 3 years he has lived in a north Berkeley apt with roommates and that has suited them all well. They have fun, but they are not partiers.
Molecular and Cell Biology
Love this! It’s been absolute magic for my kid.
How did your student get a department tour? Just email to ask? My daughter is also unable to attend on Cal Day
most departments will have some sort of a program for prospective students.as an example, eecs has an option for applicants to sit in on an entry level cs class.
My son just signed up for a physics shadow day where the newly admitted students will get to spend the day with current students and visit the classes/labs. We found the info/sign up link through IG. I’ve heard that other majors may have similar opportunities.
S25 is a freshman at Berkeley studying EECS. Last year we had a lot of questions and the nice folks here (@Gumbymom @ucscuuw @ucbalumnus @tamagotchi ) helped us. It is time to give back and if there are any questions from admitted students, I can try my best to answer. They are still the best resource, even though I can answer about some recent changes to the program.
In a nutshell, EECS is a highly flexible major which can be customized to be CS (which was what majority of the people in the last decade or more did) or EE (which has found some renewed interest in the past few years because of industry support and bad CS job market) or both CS and EE if you have a lot of credits(which is the reason S25 picked this program).
I went on to the College of Environmental Design website and signed up there. If you don’t see an opportunity in your child’s intended college, definitely send an email to the department administrator. You can also follow the department on Instagram and DM there.
Anyone get admitted to Haas?
Thanks so much for offering to help. My S26 is mostly committing to EECS.
How hard is it to actually pursue both EE-heavy and CS-heavy coursework within EECS?
I understand the major is flexible, but is doing both at a meaningful depth realistic even with lot of CC credits (30+ credits). Is taking more than 3 technical (EECS/math-heavy) classes doable, or does that typically become too much in terms of workload, GPA, and recruiting? I am assuming you need to take at-least 3+ technical per semester to graduate both in CS and EE in 4 years.
It’s pretty doable. S22 skipped a semester and even with that he is going to end up finishing 14 upper division eecs courses. Of course he came in with max ap credits but your kid is in the same boat.
Keep in mind that after the first 5 upper div eecs courses you can take the rest of them pass/no-pass so the student can focus on learning and not grades.
I would try to build a 4 year plan and you really should focus only on maximizing upper div coverage and the prerequisite rather than every lower div course required for each major.
Realistically it is possible to do one CS track and one EE track for sure. Like for example in the course guide below AI/ML (3 courses most commonly 126/127/189) and computer architecture (2 course 151/152) would be 5 upper division courses.
There will be some core upper division courses like operating systems that the student would do regardless of the CS/EE track.
To answer your other question, 3 technical courses with the right combination of moderate and hard courses is possible.
Thank you for offering to answer questions!
What has been your student’s experience with respect to being able to register for their preferred courses/schedules or being able to join clubs or research projects in their area of interest?
Enrollment in preferred courses has not been an issue. They do expand classes and end up enrolling people in waitlist leading to big class sizes in CS/DS. But I must say the lower division CS courses are extremely well run with very knowledgeable TAs and Tutors. Recently they have shifted to computerized testing for midterm 1 in the CS 61 series and some familiarity with easy leetcode style coding on a computer can be helpful.
As for clubs, as a freshman he applied to ultra competitive consulting clubs and he has been shut out. But that said there are clubs which are less competitive and easy to get in as well. Research is also very competitive and would need upper division courses or equivalent knowledge. At this time he has a research position but not in his major area.