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UC Berkeley has long been considered among the world’s most selective colleges and is home to top-ranked programs in computer science, data science and statistics. UC Berkeley students seeking to add or switch into these majors are now confronted with a new application process called comprehensive review.
2025 was the first year of comprehensive review for the College of Computing, Data Science, and Society, or CDSS, which offers majors including computer science, data science and statistics.
Students were unsure what to expect from the first year of comprehensive review, but they were surprised by the high acceptance rate for all three majors, with computer science at 62%, data science at 93% and statistics at 84%. Students who met the basic application requirements achieved even higher acceptance rates. However, CDSS academic advisors note that this first year is an anomaly, and acceptance rates this upcoming cycle will be limited.
For students admitted before fall 2024 and prior to comprehensive review, applicants only need to meet a minimum GPA and grade for major-specific courses to be admitted into CDSS majors. However, comprehensive review now requires students to write additional essays. The number of students admitted to each major has been capped, making admissions more selective.
Students admitted in fall 2023 or later who did not initially select the major they are applying to on their UC Berkeley application, as well as students admitted in fall 2024 or later who were not admitted directly into the major, had to fill out an application under comprehensive review.
The application for the next cycle opens Jan. 1 and closes Feb. 13, 2026, giving students about a month and a half to submit their applications. However, the requirements and short answer questions have already been made public for students who want to start earlier.
The application requires at least a 2.0 cumulative UC GPA, senior residency requirements, a plan to complete the requirements and some parts of the reading and comprehension requirements to be completed. Each major also has its own course requirements.
Following basic requirements, the applications for data science and computer science each have four short answer questions, while statistics has two. The questions ask why the applicant is interested in the major. Students are able to apply to multiple majors and rank them based on preference, and each application is reviewed separately by each major’s selection committee. They will receive at most one acceptance from the highest-ranked major that admits them.
Additionally, the application requires students to create a four-year plan outlining how they intend to complete the major given their remaining semesters on campus.
Sophomore Ariel Shen applied through the comprehensive review process during the 2025 cycle as a freshman and was admitted to the data science major. While most students who apply to comprehensive review are sophomores, Shen found that the requirements were still easy to fulfill as a freshman.
For all three majors, the required classes to apply are dependent on the year each student is in at UC Berkeley. For example, Shen only needed to have one additional lower- division course completed or expected to be completed in the spring to apply.
“I’m glad it was more than just a GPA cutoff, since the process was meant to target students who ‘discovered’ an interest in (computer science) in college,” said junior Carolyn Zhuang, who was admitted to computer science last cycle.
During the 2025 cycle, 841 distinct students applied through the comprehensive review to a CDSS major. This expanded to a total of 1,089 applications when separately counting individual applications to each major. Overall, 897 applications were accepted across all majors, and 81 students were not admitted into any CDSS major. Finally, 760 students were admitted to a single CDSS major after receiving admission to their highest-ranked major.
By major, 193 computer science, 658 data science and 46 statistics applications were accepted. Of those accepted, 191 students in computer science, 549 in data science and 20 in statistics were ultimately admitted.
Of those who applied, 68% of computer science applicants, 97% of data science applicants and 96% of statistics applicants were minimally eligible for their applied majors. The yield rate for statistics applicants is much lower than for computer science and data science. This difference among majors suggests that students were likely to rank the majors in the order computer science, data science and statistics.
CDSS academic advisors shared the anticipated capacity by major in the recent FAQs about comprehensive review.
“Currently, we anticipate that the Statistics major will have a capacity exceeding its current size. The Data Science major will have a slightly limited capacity, but will remain a large major that accepts hundreds of students each year. The Computer Science major will have a significantly smaller capacity than in past years,” the FAQ document read.
William Deng, a current sophomore studying data science who plans to apply to add computer science this cycle, notes that while he thinks making the majors selective is unfortunate, it is understandable given the department’s finite resources.
“It makes students need to put in more effort. We become people who know how to work hard and people who are disciplined, so that’s also a side effect of these majors being more selective,” Deng said.
Zhuang shared a similar sentiment and said she hopes the computer science department will be able to support its students with its given resources. However, Zhuang noted that she may not be able to see these changes in her time here. “It is a bit frustrating to see that even after making (computer science) classes more selective, many of the problems seem to persist,” Zhuang said.
Deng said he knew he wanted to apply into computer science when he first came to UC Berkeley because of the restricted upper division computer science classes that are difficult to enroll in without having declared the major. Zhuang had a similar experience, which was the main reason she applied.
However, Zhuang also encouraged other students looking into comprehensive review to join clubs on campus to explore their interest.
“There are many ways to be involved with computer science without being a computer science major,” Zhuang said.
Shen also encouraged freshmen students to try new classes, even if they don’t fulfill a specific program requirement.
“Interests change, opportunities show up unexpectedly – your first year is the best time to explore, so don’t expect to have everything figured out on day one,” Shen said.
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