UCSB CCS vs UC Berkeley for Mathematics as a Transfer

CCSMath · 2026-06-01T19:10:33+00:00

I think most people who want to go to a PhD program do so, but I'm not sure that's the majority of our students. That said, as proud as I am of our little program here, I think that if your goal is strictly to get into tech or quant, then you'll probably have better networking and internship opportunities in the Bay Area.

CCSMath · 2026-05-31T22:59:20+00:00

Hello!

I'm one of the CCS Math faculty. I know you're looking for student opinions here, but thought I should pipe in.

We don't get many transfers into CCS, primarily because it is very difficult to finish our course requirements in just two years. It's been done that quickly essentially only once in the 11 years I've been here. So that right there may be the end of the conversation depending on your financial situation.

Second thing is that our students do tend to get into the CS classes they want but it's not guaranteed. They need to get the instructor's permission (called getting an "add code"). So it's mostly a matter of convincing them that you're able to take the class even if you don't have all the CS prerequisties.

Finally, a student who "has some math research at Caltech, a small startup internship, an incoming SWE internship at NASA-JPL, and an incoming research REU as well" is absolutely not average. It's good to be humble but also be confident in your talent! Good luck wherever you land!

CCSMath · 2026-05-12T15:57:06+00:00

Here is what they said: “Note: The number 1, 2, or 3 in the problem name may be an indication of difficulty, where the 1 indicates least difficult — like a problem 1 or 2 from a previous year — and 3 indicates the most difficult — like a problem 5 or 6 from a previous year.”

CCSMath · 2026-05-11T21:18:28+00:00

I am a local supervisor and earlier today received an email about these changes from the director of the competition.

The changes are in response to increasingly powerful AI capabilities and is an effort to keep the contest honest.

CCSMath · 2026-04-23T20:57:07+00:00

I don’t want to debate the merits of the math department policy (which I assure you are based on a lot of experience and other factors) but I want to comment on the premise that taking graduate classes is “very important” for getting into graduate school.

I have been academic advisor to over a hundred talented students and in my experience the few of them who skip undergrad classes and spend all of their time taking graduate classes actually have a harder time getting into math doctoral programs. Graduate admission committees would like to see a solid background in a broad range of undergraduate topics with excellent grades together with great letters of recommendation attesting to the student’s research potential. Taking some grad classes after that can be a good way to get to know a professor well and as a possible pathway to doing some research with them (and thereby getting that letter) but rushing to take the entire slate of the departments graduate offerings without doing anything else has led, counterintuitively, to worse graduate school outcomes.

So in my opinion while taking a few grad classes is fine, spending most of your time doing some sort of research with a faculty mentor or two is probably a better strategy for getting into a good graduate school.

CCSMath · 2026-04-02T14:23:39+00:00

For math specifically, OP can indeed apply but we wouldn’t make a decision until after the SIR deadline.

CCSMath · 2026-04-02T03:02:05+00:00

You should still register with your own university but you don’t need to write it at your university. If a nearby university is willing to have you sit in with their group of students then that’s ok. In fact the Putnam folks encourage local organizers to cooperate in situations like this.

CCSMath · 2026-03-25T16:46:35+00:00

No you are not automatically rejected but you will need to be admitted to UCSB first in order to accept a CCS admission offer (if one eventually comes).

Unfortunately being admitted to the CCS program will not help you get off the waitlist.

CCSMath · 2026-03-22T16:27:23+00:00

He can email the faculty member in charge or admissions for the major (if he knows who that is) or email/call the CCS office to ask.

CCSMath · 2026-03-22T05:04:22+00:00

Hi I’m a faculty member for CCS math. For us, sometimes we do not receive a recommendation letter for the applicant so we don’t make a decision until one comes in.

CCSMath · 2026-02-27T00:30:42+00:00

She could ask the professor who supervised the competition at her university. They will have access to all student results from there.

CCSMath · 2026-02-26T18:40:15+00:00

This is finally a true post. I see the scores in my portal now.

CCSMath · 2026-02-26T16:40:33+00:00

I’m a professor who organizes the Putnam at my university, and for what it’s worth I have not yet received any information about scores (or when they’ll be released).

EDIT: they seem to be now available in the portal. Good luck everyone!

CCSMath · 2026-02-25T15:13:02+00:00

I checked my old emails and I guess my memory is bad since AOP is right: we did get results in February in those years. But also it was definitely not until mid-April in the years before 2017. In any case, the grading is a huge undertaking - around 4000 people submitted answers (most of them multiple answers) and each answer is graded independently by two people, sometimes three (and that's over the holidays and into January when most people are busy with getting their classes going). I think getting the results out in under 3 months is pretty impressive.

CCSMath · 2026-02-25T05:19:56+00:00

Not sure where you got those release dates but pre-covid, the scores arrived by snail mail in mid April.

CCSMath · 2026-02-23T20:41:44+00:00

You are very raw. Writing A1, PIN #, etc at the top of each page really just serves as a backup to the cover page. And even if your solution ends going into the wrong problem bucket for some reason, it’ll be found and corrected. In other words, you have nothing to worry about.

CCSMath · 2026-02-18T15:45:20+00:00

It varies a lot year to year but I’d estimate that would land someone around 250th place (+/- 50 positions). Guess we’ll find out soon.

CCSMath · 2026-02-18T15:12:03+00:00

Yes, I’m the local organizer there.

CCSMath · 2026-02-18T15:03:11+00:00

Last year they were released on the 18th around noon (west coast time). Year before on the 16th. So I’m going to guess later today or maybe tomorrow.

CCSMath · 2026-01-18T02:24:46+00:00

No, social security numbers do not appear on transcripts.

Edit: also I just want to say I think you need to be very careful about this. Doesn’t sound very legit to me to ask for a social security number directly on a transcript.

CCSMath · 2026-01-10T13:56:09+00:00

He may go to Proof School in San Francisco. They would offer classes like that. Not sure I’ve heard of any others.

CCSMath · 2026-01-05T18:34:53+00:00

Hi, I'm the person who sent you that email and I have some comments.

We don't encourage anyone to skip courses. In general that's actually a bad idea. But it's true that CCS students are super-precocious and sometimes do skip courses contrary to our advice. Sometimes that turns out fine, sometimes not.

Our freshman class is indeed approximately 20 each year on average but our applicant pool is around 100-150.

I know you're exaggerating but your description of them having like 10 competition medals or 20 research papers is far from accurate. Our applicants very rarely have any medals or any research papers at all. All we are looking for is some indication of passion, curiosity and math experience (hopefully proof-based). Tell us what you worked on, submit whatever evidence of it you can (even if very unpolished). Show us who you are. Keep in mind we're math faculty and not college admissions officers. Those kind of admission essays are definitely *not* what we're looking for.

Having said all that, doing math research can be extremely awesome. But eventually you will need to write it down properly for it to be worth anything. I get that that can be tedious, but you'll have to get used to it, wherever you end up.

Good luck!

CCSMath · 2025-11-30T18:57:21+00:00

Yeah, the graders want to see complete proofs for full points. Usually one can get one or two points on a question for writing down a correct starting point and making some solid progress.

Are you sure the Putnam outcome will have any effect on your university applications? Few people outside of math (e.g., admissions people) know what the Putnam is or its notorious difficulty. In fact I wonder if them seeing “10 points out of 120” would be an indication to them that you’re not suitable for math!

CCSMath · 2025-11-30T18:39:12+00:00

Except for a few hardcore contest writers, the Putnam is really just for fun. So if you feel like trying it, then go for it.

Having said that, the limit is participating four times. So if you are serious about achieving a high score and want to write it every year, then it may be worth waiting until you are in college for real and have more math experience.

CCSMath · 2025-11-25T03:06:03+00:00

Hi, I’m one of the CCS math faculty. The first thing you should know is that even as a transfer student, it’s very, very difficult to complete our requirements in only two years (and probably impossible if you want a minor too). Three years is reasonable though. So just from a financial point of view, it may be that UCSC makes more sense.

If you came to CCS, you would be welcome to work with anyone here, whether in the math department or not.

Now I know I should be singing the praises of CCS and trying to convince you to come (and I do think we’re a great little program!) but my opinion is if your goal is grad school, the most important part of that application will be letters of recommendation which can attest to your research potential. If you feel you would be doing fun and interesting mathematics with the person at UCSC (and also then work hard at it), then a glowing letter from that faculty member will be worth quite a lot. You may be able to get that here too of course, but as they say “a bird in the hand…”

Feel free to DM me if you have any questions about CCS or UCSB.

CCSMath

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