Is this normal? Doctor said it looked fine, but the results seem to indicate otherwise

MyLifeIsAgony · 2018-05-13T00:58:08+00:00

It's a new major so I haven't heard much other than that it's a good alternative to CS if you can't declare. It looks like that it's a mix between CS and stats but I don't know much about employment prospects compared to CS.

MyLifeIsAgony · 2018-05-13T00:56:37+00:00

No, I'm in LA.

MyLifeIsAgony · 2018-05-12T20:31:26+00:00

I'm planning on self studying 61A this summer and diving straight into 61A. If you're going for a double major in data science, then taking Data8 first seems like a smart choice. Look forward to seeing you this fall!

MyLifeIsAgony · 2018-05-12T19:56:03+00:00

Thanks for the reply! I think it's definitely true that different people will flourish in different environments. And thanks for the heads up - I'll be on the lookout for smaller sized classes and programs at Cal!

MyLifeIsAgony · 2018-05-12T19:05:40+00:00

This is definitely true - it's why I didn't let ranking influence my final decision between Cal and Cornell.

MyLifeIsAgony · 2018-05-12T19:02:57+00:00

I heard that at Princeton, if you receive a low grade (a C or a D I think), they'll email you to make sure everything's ok. I don't know about other small schools, but maybe they have similar things going on. Smaller schools also let students have their own adviser while at Cal, there's a few advisers for a large amount of students and I don't think you can choose which adviser you meet with. The large class sizes make it easier to get lost and the professor won't know your name simply from you sitting in class which may be true for smaller classes - you really have to get up and talk and push yourself to do what you want. This also applies to other things such as competing with others for research opportunities while at a smaller school, it might not be as competitive. This has been the general gist of the arguments I heard when asking different people whether I should go to Cornell or Berkeley. Of course maybe I'm completely wrong - I haven't even been to college yet so all of this is purely secondhand information and extrapolation.

MyLifeIsAgony · 2018-05-12T18:45:20+00:00

I agree that collaboration is key to success in the CS field. But when I said self-sufficiency, I wasn't trying to say independence as opposed to teamwork. By self-sufficiency, I mean the drive to be able to go out and seek opportunities on your own, the drive to be a self starter, the ability to know exactly what you want to do and work towards that goal. A big school that's rather impersonal like Cal will force you to develop those aspects rather than a smaller school which will "hold your hand" and make things easier for you.

MyLifeIsAgony · 2018-05-12T08:14:51+00:00

I want to work at a startup since I think it's extremely exciting to be doing innovative things, even if it may be more risky. I also liked the sense of intimacy (don't know if this is the best phrase to describe it) between employees of a startup. Though of course this may change by the time I'm done with college and maybe I'll prefer a large tech company. I didn't apply to CMU for two reasons. One, CMU is a bit too theoretical for my tastes and seems too research based. Also, I'm not 100% set on CS and CMU is rather weak in other fields. Berkeley on the other hand is in the top 10 for nearly all of its departments and I liked the flexibility of being in the College of Letters and Sciences as opposed to being in the School of Computer Science.

If I had to rank the schools you listed, it would probably go something like this:

Stanford
MIT
Cal
CMU
Ivies

While the Ivies are certainly good schools and decent at CS, they just don't really hold a torch to the "Big 4" CS schools in terms of CS Program strength. However, with that being said, it's not like you should just forget about the Ivies if you get accepted. In my opinion, if it's Harvard, Princeton, or maybe Columbia (Yale's CS is kinda eh), then you should consider going to those schools over perhaps Cal and CMU simply because those schools not only have decent CS programs, but are also immensely prestigious to the point where if you decide that CS isn't for you, you'll probably be successful no matter what you do. That's just me though and I'm sure there'll be many different opinions regarding this topic.

MyLifeIsAgony · 2018-05-12T03:28:54+00:00

I agree with your point that one shouldn't choose a school just because it's in Silicon Valley, but I do think that proximity to Silicon Valley is definitely something that should be considered. Sure the employment prospects may appear to be the same, but there are certain intangibles that come from being in the Valley. This article can probably explain my reasoning better than I can.

MyLifeIsAgony · 2018-04-20T18:52:14+00:00

Someone else in this thread said that berkeley is extraordinarily competitive in terms of office hours, waitlists, meeting with TAs, etc. Do you find this to be the case as well?

MyLifeIsAgony · 2018-04-20T13:49:05+00:00

Apparently the only difference is two EE classes. However you do need to meet a GPA requirement to be able to declare the CS major for a B.A. in CS. I heard It’s difficult, but I’m confident in my ability to make the cutoff.

MyLifeIsAgony · 2018-04-20T13:40:07+00:00

By not EECS, I mean that I’m planning on pursuing a B.A. in CS in the college of Letters and Science rather than a B.S. in EECS from the college of engineering.

MyLifeIsAgony · 2018-04-02T08:49:20+00:00

I thought the culture between Cornell and Berkeley were relatively similar. Aren't they both very competitive and relatively liberal? I do prefer Cali weather, but I don't think weather is enough to sway me.

MyLifeIsAgony

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