UC Berkeley vs UCSD for CS

cellobuddy
Tue, 22 Apr 2014 17:46:39 +0000

Hello all!

I know that May 1st is coming up very very soon, and I’ve narrowed my college list down to 2: UC Berkeley and UCSD. I would love your input in deciding! :)

At UCSD, I have Regents, which means that I get priority registration, guaranteed research opportunities from freshman year, and a few other perks. I did not get regents at Berkeley, but I did get EECS.

I visited both campuses, and both have their positives and negatives. I loved the energy that Berkeley had on campus and the kind of pride and spirit they have in being “CAL” (UCSD seems really lethargic in that sense). In contrast, SD’s campus is beautiful and beaches are literally right there, and the even though Berkeley is really awesome, once you leave campus, things get shady really quickly (Telegraph Ave is awesome though).

In terms of academics, I want to do comp sci but also try to pick up a second major or a minor in finance or business administration. At Berkeley, this is impossible (since doing Haas and EECS is literally calling for trouble), while at SD, this becomes rather easy because of the priority registration that comes with Regents).

So, I’m utterly lost. Academically, I think I should choose SD because of having regents, but socially, I feel Berkeley is the better choice here.

Any ideas? All comments are appreciated! Thanks.