<p>Since you’re primarily interested in SOFTWARE, I would STRONGLY recommend you go the CS in Letters & Science route at Berkeley! Not only is it substantially LESS COMPETITIVE, but as you properly noted you will have to do a ton of “unecessary” pre-reqs (especially in this environment of non-existent class availability)</p>
<p>Besides this, there is virtually no difference between the CS option (option IV) and the CS from L&S (you get to tailor your degree anyways and no one prevents you from taking the specific courses you want)</p>
<p>Only go for EECS if your main interest is in the Electrical Engineering or Computer Hardware side of things. Personally, I went for EECS only because I was primarily going for the EE part of it. If Berkeley had a “purely EE” degree I would’ve applied for that. In fact, I’m choosing option I (which is electronics), and will have to take only a very minimun of CS (software) courses. People choosing option IV in EECS do virtually all CS (software) courses, except for 2 EE courses they must take (EE40 and EE20N).</p>