<p>You should consider that CS is significantly harder… with a dropout rate of one third. (source: Prof. Smallberg) If your heart is set on CS, it would be wise to consider a less prestigious (read: easier) school. It would suck to arrive at ucla set on doing CS and then realize you’re not one of the top two-thirds and thus can not do CS. Deciding between CS and mechE, well decide soon! CS majors start on CS in their very first quarter. Yes, it is true that MOST engineering majors share pretty much the same first-year classes, but CS majors additionally take cs31,32,33 in their first year (some do 33 in fall of second year) so if you decide you want to be CS halfway through your first-year, you’ll end up wasting significant time.</p>
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In that case, CS is a very bad decision. In something as intense as CS at ucla, you have to be there 100% (or just be brilliant) to succeed.</p>
<p>As for sizes, UCLA is however personal you make it. Making that happen, though, can be challenging if, hypothetically, one is somewhat antisocial. For all other engineering majors, class sizes get smaller later on because of specialization, but for CS, class sizes stay the same big size throughout your undergrad career.</p>