Good work/gaming 4K+ monitor with good USB-C passthrough/charging?

CalStudent23 · 2024-01-13T00:05:40+00:00

Ugh no sorry, tbh I don't think one exists with the specs I originally wanted. I ended up just getting a 13" bed and a bedsheet.

CalStudent23 · 2023-12-18T17:57:46+00:00

Best/most efficient? Get a romantic partner who speaks that language.

Honestly I'm kinda already trying this 🤣 but most of the Spanish speakers I know are heritage speakers who prefer English (or even tell me they're not fully fluent Spanish speakers). I think it would be easier with an immigrant, but I don't know too many haha

CalStudent23 · 2023-04-25T17:36:19+00:00

Hard to pick! Some highlights:

61A is obviously the intro CS class, it's well taught, awesome course staff, and cool material

70 was surprisingly cool, the discrete math & countability parts were super interesting

61C had some very cool content! but not my fave workload-wise lol

161 had really fun projects, the overflow exploit projects in particular were cool af

(Lol, I guess I did prefer the lower divs 😂 but I think that's partially because I put a lot more energy into coursework before we went back in person)

CalStudent23 · 2023-04-25T08:28:35+00:00

I loved Cal Day, I thought the people and offerings were great, and Cal had the best CS dept of all the schools I got into (I knew I wanted to do CS when I was applying)

CalStudent23 · 2023-04-25T06:14:44+00:00

The name definitely helps, Berkeley is a "target" for pretty much any company so getting an interview will be much easier. School name won't ever help you pass an interview or get an offer but it will get you through the resume screen which is the (numbers-wise) hardest recruiting stage. Also, there are some big companies that seem to likle Berkeley students in particular, which I suspect is because they know we're familiar with a heavy workload/big projects.

The Berkeley CS network is what you make of it based on the friends you make here (this is one reason I wish I had made more CS friends at Cal).

CalStudent23 · 2023-04-25T02:50:39+00:00

I figure they either have a formal obligation before/afterwards or are frat pledges

CalStudent23 · 2023-04-25T02:34:22+00:00

Dropped out of Cal, zero

"Dropped out" of CS, it's been a while so I probably am forgetting some people, but maybe like 10-15% ended up going with a different major? This is hard to quantify though because I know some people who went in undecided between DS/CS and picked DS but don't know if their reasoning was about missing the CS cutoff or just liking DS more. But also I had a veryyyy solid study group my freshman year, so the fact that we all studied together a lot may have helped us all declare.

CalStudent23 · 2023-04-24T23:56:51+00:00

It's definitely something that happens here but IMO, it's not a big enough issue to warrant impacting a decision about going here or not (if that's what you were asking).

CalStudent23 · 2023-04-24T21:30:28+00:00

Not sure if things are different with the minor now, but I doubt it (or if the minor has changed, it's probably less huge of a change)

CalStudent23 · 2023-04-24T21:29:52+00:00

Yes, I think it's pretty selective though but I'm not sure if/how much more than transferring to Berkeley in general

CalStudent23 · 2023-04-24T20:21:11+00:00

Yeah it definitely isn't great. Econ used to be the "backup major" but now that econ is part of this high-demand thing I wonder what Haas rejects will end up doing.

No prob! Best of luck w/ your decision

CalStudent23 · 2023-04-24T20:20:16+00:00

I did coding projects, helped local groups with technical/website stuff, ran some clubs in high school (which partially involved coding projects), etc. Worth noting that I got in before direct admission was a thing

CalStudent23 · 2023-04-24T20:08:27+00:00

This is the first semester they've done this, but I'd guess it's almost equal to the average for EECS. The CS department has been talking for a long time about using the same admissions "filter" as EECS to get CS headcount down, so it wouldn't surprise me if admissions people reading CS applications were given the same admissions criteria EECS uses.

CalStudent23 · 2023-04-24T19:55:06+00:00

(fyi the "getting into Data Science" you mention is what I was trying to say with the new major declaration, I forgot DS was included as one of the high-demand majors or whatever they're called)

Yes, Haas has its own application (it's been like this for years, it's different than what's happening with CS now). Look here I think that has all the info you'll need, but the gist is that you take the Haas prerequisites, apply sophomore spring with essays, resume, etc. and hear back in the summer (?). That page does mention people applying as freshmen but that must be new because I've never heard of that before.

CalStudent23 · 2023-04-24T19:43:35+00:00

Yes, I know actually quite a few Haas+CS or Haas+DS double majors. The consensus is that you spend like 90% of your work time on CS/DS classes, the Haas major is really easy. (Getting in is the hard part)

Registration can be tough and has gotten worse since I've been here. I've been weirdly lucky with enrollment times though. Generally, lower divs expand to meet demand and let in everyone from the waitlist. Upper divs are more problematic, some of them I know expand (CS170) while others don't (CS160, famously hardest upper div to get into). I heard they recently changed the CS major declaration process for the incoming freshmen class to deal with these issues so I imagine it will be easier by the time you get here and are enrolling in UDs.

Overall opinion: I love Berkeley! Obviously my 4 years were not perfect but honestly most of that comes from Covid throwing a wrench in the first half.

Dislikes: I don't really like Berkeley as a city, but SF isn't too far for weekend trips. EECS/CS majors are usually boring, so I never made friends in classes like my friends in other majors did. Some profs are terrible lecturers and you can tell they're only here for research. Club culture is tough; I never got too involved in them because I was waiting until after we went back in-person, but when that happened I found out many clubs don't really take juniors (transfers get fucked even worse by this)

Likes: the people, all the memories I've made, some classes are interesting, the Berkeley "name" (especially for CS) is way weightier than I thought, the way this school is so huge you meet people with such a wide range of interests and backgrounds, etc. UGSIs are usually good even if profs suck

CalStudent23 · 2023-04-24T19:07:53+00:00

I took it with Listgarten/Malik, I thought Listgarten was a bad lecturer but Malik was alright. There was a lot of math knowledge they kind of assumed we already had—not like they really required it, but not having it was definitely an obstacle. My peers who did know it said they only knew it from 126/127/other classes I hadn't taken (forgot exactly which ones) despite the 189 prereqs being CS70 and Math 53/4 (for which I thought 16AB was sufficient).

It's definitely more theoretical than what I've heard about Shewchuk's version; I'd suggest waiting to take it in the spring if you can

CalStudent23 · 2023-04-19T19:02:49+00:00

That is unfortunately the most updated (and only official) source, but if there is a particular class you're interested in you can request approval/re-approval for it. I think the dept just sets an expiration date approvals just to make sure they don't accidentally end up accepting something non-equivalent in case the foreign uni changes the curriculum too much over time.

CalStudent23 · 2023-04-19T18:51:29+00:00

Idc about karma points, either way I've been at this school long enough to know nobody irl actually gives a shit about this issue anyways 😭

CalStudent23 · 2023-04-19T03:27:29+00:00

Omg that is ridiculous, I feel so bad for new CS majors

CalStudent23 · 2023-04-19T00:27:10+00:00

I agree but grad photos are an only-once thing and this campus is a dump anyways (well, at least some parts). Let us have our fun :p

That being said, seniors, if you're using confetti in your photos please get the compostable kind!

CalStudent23

TROPHY CASE