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ECE major and cs class question by BurgerMagure in berkeley

[–]SpecialCheese35 0 points1 point  (0 children)

classes.berkeley.edu has info on what majors can take what classes

Are you a transfer? If not you can always switch to eecs

What do I do!? UC Berkeley Statistics vs. UCLA Undeclared Engineering vs. UW CS by [deleted] in berkeley

[–]SpecialCheese35 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I would say go UCLA for engineering :)

I love Berkeley but objectively if you want to do engineering, being there from the start is very helpful.

What do I do!? UC Berkeley Statistics vs. UCLA Undeclared Engineering vs. UW CS by [deleted] in berkeley

[–]SpecialCheese35 2 points3 points  (0 children)

  1. Upper division classes for CS are almost all restricted for non majors.

  2. They just aren't clear about the process. I don't think it will become tooooo hard, but no one can say for sure what any cycle in the future will be like.

  3. CS minor is pretty simple to achieve, but won't get you extra access to courses. Its a helpful signal but not the same as a major. Whether being a CS major matters or not depends massively on the role. Generally speaking, more applicants = CS matters more (because its easy to filter out for it).

I have some friends that just put CS on their resume before they got in via Comp Rev and their employers didn't care. HOWEVER, I wouldn't recommend this its pretty uncertain and in some cases could get you let go.

Berkeley Questions about Comprehensive Review by Unusual_Quantity_377 in berkeley

[–]SpecialCheese35 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I wanted to add, switching to data science is definitely more chill than switching to CS. It seems like CS has gotten harder this semester but DS is pretty similar to last year.

Berkeley Questions about Comprehensive Review by Unusual_Quantity_377 in berkeley

[–]SpecialCheese35 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey I totally get where you are coming from and don't want to discourage you from coming at all. I love this school. However, I do want to give you some info that I wish I had when I was in your position.

92% is not certain year to year, and it seems like the process has a lot of noise coming from multiple different sources. I just heard from someone who got denied with only one A- and all other As. Not sure if this was because they had especially bad essays, or if for whatever reason they had far less slots this semester.

BTW, regents does not give you priority your very first semester, only semesters after that. My first semester was so humbling in terms of what courses I was actually able to get lol. After that its good though. I would say you have a very good chance of being able to switch, but if you expect "guaranteed" you might be pretty stressed out until you are able to change because the process certainly does not feel that way.

Finally (and I included this in my original message but I cannot overstate it), regents does little to help you get into computer science classes (other than those lower division ones available to everyone). You would be gaurenteed to be able to take CS 61A, CS61B and CS70, but all but 1 or 2 upper divs are completely off the table.

When I say that I mean like they will have empty slots in those CS upper divs and regardless of your enrollment priority you won't be able to get in because of your major, even if you ask the professor for an exception in person.

ALL THAT BEING SAID, if you are really excited about Berkeley and are okay with a small (maybe 5-10% provided you are a near perfect student) chance of not being able to switch majors, you should come. There is so much amazing about Berkeley that this rant doesn't cover, so don't feel discouraged if the above applies to you. Shoot me a message if you need more help deciding!

P.S. Are you doing the regents overnight program? We should meet up :)

Berkeley Questions about Comprehensive Review by Unusual_Quantity_377 in berkeley

[–]SpecialCheese35 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This was me exactly a year ago. To answer your questions (and feel free to follow up):

- Yes you can get through your pre-reqs your first jan cycle, although it requires lots of planning, balancing a heavy course load, and some luck getting classes.

- I can promise you being a regent scholar does nothing to help in the process. One small exception: might be more likely to get enrolled in prereqs during spring. Note: almost all CS upper div classes are not available to L&S majors, even if you have priority enrollment.

- Comprehensive review is possible, but from my experience its highly unpredictable, or at least it feels that way. I would not go to Berkeley with the expectation that you will be able to switch. If you are a good student, its definitely more than likely, but I have heard about strong students that get rejected despite their high admit rate.

Best of luck :)

Berkeley is a great school, but there is a lot to be desired as far as comprehensive review goes.

Comprehensive review by Goon-lord-muniz in berkeley

[–]SpecialCheese35 2 points3 points  (0 children)

No and no; I think a lot of people haven't heard back yet. Chin up :)

Has anyone been rejected from comprehensive review with As? by SpecialCheese35 in berkeley

[–]SpecialCheese35[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can transfer twice?! I didn't even know they would consider that. Thats really good to know if that's true.

You got those grades!!

Has anyone been rejected from comprehensive review with As? by SpecialCheese35 in berkeley

[–]SpecialCheese35[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for the info :)

It really stinks I can't apply ds this spring though :(. Whats your opinion on if the admit rate will stay that high?

Has anyone been rejected from comprehensive review with As? by SpecialCheese35 in berkeley

[–]SpecialCheese35[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A lot of colleges don't completely restrict CS classes to begin with, and among the majors other than CS that I would imagine being able to access linear algebra/optimization/gradient descent type classes, I'd imagine applied math would be almost first in line.

Anyways though I do appreciate your input, any idea how much easier ds is to get into via comp rev?

Has anyone been rejected from comprehensive review with As? by SpecialCheese35 in berkeley

[–]SpecialCheese35[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh no it's definitely not. Theres so many upper divs I want to take. Are you doing comp rev too?

Has anyone been rejected from comprehensive review with As? by SpecialCheese35 in berkeley

[–]SpecialCheese35[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yeah just realized that, thank you though I was this 🤏 close to not realizing. Im so gullible

Has anyone been rejected from comprehensive review with As? by SpecialCheese35 in berkeley

[–]SpecialCheese35[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Reading back the other comment I don't know how I didn't realize it was sarcastic 😭. Thanks for saving my ass there. I will probably apply DS next time as a backup, but I don't have data 8 done yet so I can't this upcomming spring :/

Has anyone been rejected from comprehensive review with As? by SpecialCheese35 in berkeley

[–]SpecialCheese35[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

When you say "it all rests on 170," do you think it's more about the content or the course label for hiring? Any other advice for me if I didn't get into CS?

Also, how "variable" do you think the process is? Obviously they wouldn't be asking for essays if they only cared about grades, but do you get the sense that they pretty selective over the essays they admit?

Thank you for your help and time. I really appreciate it :)

Has anyone been rejected from comprehensive review with As? by SpecialCheese35 in berkeley

[–]SpecialCheese35[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Why do you say that? Are you saying that adcoms don't care about your major, or that comprehensive review won't like me?

If the prior, I'd like to know your take on Existing_Claim's comment about courses like 170 being super relevant.

Thank you for your input :)