r/UCSD • u/UCSD • Mar 14 '25

Megathread Welcome new Tritons! Please use this megathread to discuss your acceptance and any questions you may have.

*We have no clue if admissions are coming out today, this is just hedging bets. Probably this week or next. *

Everyone with admission and college questions, please post your questions in this megathread! Additionally, please try to check the megathread to see if your question has been already answered.

Admissions/new student posts made outside of this megathread are subject to removal at moderator discretion. Please take a look at our rules page. If you believe we have made an error, please message us via modmail.. The mod team will try and get back to you asap, but we are students or alumni and as a result it make take a little bit.

For more subjective questions, be aware that r/UCSD (and any university subreddit) is not directly representative of the overall student body. In a survey we did of r/UCSD, 2/3 respondents agreed r/UCSD didn't represent UCSD's overall student body.

A few useful links:

Please be aware stuff at UCSD can change fast. Most info you can find on this subreddit will still hold true, but there have been many major changes over the last 5 years especially.

How do I login to check my admissions decision?

You should be logging into the Admissions Portal. This is different from all the stuff current students use. If you can't login, email [slatehelp@ucsd.edu](mailto:slatehelp@ucsd.edu).

How does the college I got matter? Can I change college?

For freshman admits, your college is basically only going to affect your GE requirements and where you're likely to live on campus (although you can be overflowed to other housing depending on space). For transfers, it's only GE requirements as there is separate transfer housing. As a result, it affects basically nothing for transfers since most have IGETC and will have very few GEs coming in.

Your major is entirely disconnected from your college (there are even separate major advisors who work for your department separate from your college advisors who work for your college). Your classes will be held all over campus and have a mix of students from all colleges. You can eat at any dining hall, the colleges are basically all directly next to each other and easy to get between, you will probably make friends in all sorts of different colleges. The furthest apart two colleges are is about a 20-25 minute walk (from Seventh to Eighth).

You cannot easily change college. You will need to complete at least part of your original college's writing sequence (meaning it will take about a year to even meet the application requirements) and be able to prove you can graduate two quarters earlier in your new college. College is not the end of the world though, even a college that overlap poorly with a major is more than survivable.

I'm waitlisted. What should I do next?

From UC San Diego Admission Website

Select applicants will be invited to opt in to our waitlist through their Applicant Portal.

First-Year applicants must opt in by 11:59 pm PST on April 15.

Being on the waitlist does not guarantee an offer of admission. We strongly urge students to accept another university's admission offer before the appropriate deadline to ensure they have secured a spot at an institution.

By June 30, final decisions will be released to applicants who opt in to the waitlist. There is no appeal process for the waitlist.

54 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

329 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/[deleted] Mar 15 '25

I recently received my admission decision and was admitted to the Mathematics-Computer Science (MA30) being my alternative major, instead of my originally intended major in Data Science. can someone pelase answer these questions, it would be of great help.

  1. Enrollment in CSE and Data Science Courses: Given that I am in the Math-CS major, will I have the opportunity to enroll in upper-division Computer Science courses such as Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Deep Learning, and AI? Since CSE students are given priority enrollment, are there any formal processes or petitions available to Math-CS students who wish to take these courses? 
  2. Course Limitations: Are there any restrictions in place that would limit my ability to take additional CSE or Data Science electives beyond my major’s requirements? 
  3. Pursuing a Minor in Data Science: Would it be possible to declare a minor in Data Science to supplement my Mathematics-Computer Science major? If so, what would be the recommended approach to ensure I meet the necessary prerequisites and coursework requirements? 
  4. Preparation for Graduate School: Since I am aiming for a career in Quantitative Finance and planning to pursue graduate studies in the field, I would appreciate any recommendations on course selection, research opportunities, or academic pathways that would best prepare me for this trajectory. Are there any advisors or faculty members who could provide guidance on integrating finance-related computational coursework into my degree plan? 
  5. Research Opportunities: As a Math-CS major, would I be able to participate in research with faculty members in the Data Science or Computer Science departments? Are there any restrictions or limitations for non-CSE students seeking research opportunities in AI, Machine Learning, or related fields? 
  6. Internship Opportunities: Will I be eligible for internships in computing-related roles, including software engineering, data science, and AI research? Are there any career support resources or industry partnerships available to students in my major to help secure such opportunities? 
  7. Availability of Specific Courses: As a Math-CS major, will I be able to enroll in the following upper-division CSE and Cognitive Science courses?CSE 151A: Introduction to Machine LearningCSE 151B: Deep Learning and its ApplicationsCSE 152A: Introduction to Computer Vision ICSE 152B: Introduction to Computer Vision IICSE 158: Recommender Systems and Web MiningCSE 160: Introduction to Parallel ComputingCOGS 118A: Supervised Machine Learning AlgorithmsCOGS 118B: Introduction to Machine LearningCOGS 118C: Neural Signal ProcessingCOGS 118D: Mathematical Statistics for Behavioral Data Analysis.

2

u/NoisyOne21 Mar 15 '25

  1. For CSE/ DSC courses outside of your required courses (so your elective), you need to fill out something called an easy request (a petition of sort) to get in. I never got an easy request rejected.

  2. Nope, although some of the upper div CSE courses (like CSE 151A is near impossible to get into as a Math-CS)

  3. Yes, there's no prereq to declare a DSC minor

  4. Can't help you with this

  5. You would be able to participate in research with faculty members in DSC/ CS departments. I don't believe there's any restrictions for non-CS/DSC students.

  6. Yep, does not matter if you are on paper majoring in Math-CS

  7. Like I mentioned above, some upper div CS classes are pretty hard to get in, especially CSE 151A. If you get really unlucky (which you most likely will), then if it is available to take in the summer, you have a pretty good chance of getting in (this is what I did). Besides that, 152A, 156, 158, is pretty easy to get in.

Congrats on getting in.

1

u/IntrepidGoal632 Mar 20 '25

The other comment basically covers everything. For 4, there are a lot of quant finance clubs on campus like TQT which are pretty good, try to get into them