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[quote=Anonymous]UCSB CCS Physics is extremely good. It is a small and selective program, known as “grad school for undergrads.”  The program fosters close relationships with professors, all at the top of their field. I believe there are 4 Nobel laureates currently teaching in the Physics department. CCS students can customize their courses more than an L&S student, so there is more freedom in that regard. Lots of research opportunities as well. Grad schools highly respect the CCS program and students place well into top grad schools. In academia, UCSB is quite well known for Physics, Materials Science, and ChemE. I think the nation’s first quantum foundry is actually at UCSB. So lots of academics worldwide come to visit (oddly, I met a tourist in Japan who studied Materials Science at ETH Zurich who did postdoc research at UCSB; ETH is like the MIT of Europe I learned).

An L&S degree is just as good, but CCS offers more depth and breadth. It is also a more intimate learning experience with small class sizes. It is easy for CCS students to find research opportunities but non-CCS students can conduct research too. UCSB is unique in that it has a low graduate student population (e.g. no business school, no medical school). So there is more space available for undergrads to research than at other UC’s. SB is much more undergraduate focused than other UC’s. One downside with L&S is that intro classes are very large. Students may not learn as well. This will be at any UC. That is why I love CCS as students take major-related CCS classes and have that intimate learning experience, and also experience that large public school feeling when taking gen-ed classes. It’s the best of both worlds.

If a student can’t get into CCS freshman year, they can always reapply. And if that doesn’t work out, L&S physics is still great. Physics is a strong major as students will learn problem solving, theory, as well as more applicable topics like coding. The only UC that rivals UCSB Physics is probably UC Berkeley. With all of the advantages of UCSB CCS though, I’d probably say UCSB CCS > Berkeley > UCSB.

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