Try for Haas. Keep a floor under it.

Haas first · the new priority

New standing instruction, Sep 11, 2026: try for Haas. This block is the answer to that instruction, built from official Haas, CDSS, L&S, Economics, Berkeley International Office and DHS sources read on 2026-09-11. The eleven-path analysis further down is unchanged and is now the fallback reading, with Path H (Economics plus Computer Science) kept as the benchmark every Haas structure is measured against. Anything a source does not state is marked Unverified and stays marked.

The ranking, best first

The single biggest tradeoff, stated once: Haas is the best degree Berkeley offers for the career tier Andy ranked last (investment banking and consulting) and the worst serious option for the tier he ranked first (quant trading). Business Administration is CIP 52.0201, not on the DHS STEM list, and is named by zero filtered quant postings while "computer science" is named by all of them. Pairing Haas with a STEM degree fixes the immigration half of that problem completely and the career half not at all.

The OPT cliff · the one fact that could change the answer

The CIP code, confirmed from both sides

CIP is the Classification of Instructional Programs, the federal program code printed on the I-20. DHS keeps a list of which codes count as STEM. The Berkeley International Office UCB Major/CIP Code List (last updated 9/3/2026) carries this exact row:

"70141U","Business Administration BS","52.0201","Business Administration and Ma","No"

• Plan code 70141U
• CIP 52.0201, "Business Administration and Management"
• BIO's own "STEM eligible CIP?" column: No

The DHS STEM Designated Degree Program List (last updated July 22, 2024) contains exactly four codes in the 52 series:

52.0201 appears nowhere on it. So "business is not STEM" is false as a general rule. Berkeley's specific Haas undergraduate code is simply not on the list.

The arithmetic

Two bachelor's degrees do not create two 12-month pools. The regulation caps it: "A student may be authorized 12 months of practical training, and becomes eligible for another 12 months of practical training when they change to a higher educational level." The ceiling on any bachelor's path is 12 plus 24 = 36.

The regulation that makes pairing work

• 8 CFR 214.2(f)(10)(ii)(C): "An extension will be for 24 months for the first qualifying degree for which the student has completed all course requirements (excluding thesis or equivalent), including any qualifying degree as part of a dual degree program."
• (C)(3): "The degree that is the basis for the 24-month OPT extension under this paragraph (f)(10)(ii)(C) may be, but is not required to be, the degree that is the basis for the post-completion OPT period authorized under 8 CFR 274a.12(c)(3)(i)(B)."
• (C)(4), the condition nobody mentions: "The STEM practical training opportunity that is the basis for the 24-month OPT extension under this paragraph (f)(10)(ii)(C) must be directly related to the degree that qualifies the student for such extension."

Read together: a simultaneous degree produces two diplomas with two CIP codes, which is "a dual degree program" in the regulation's own words. The STEM half carries the extension even though the Haas half is the one a reader sees first.

The STEM partners available

Economics note from the BIO sheet: "Changed to STEM-eligible CIP code in June 2019. Applies to all students enrolled in Econ programs Fall 2017 and later." A Fall 2026 entrant is comfortably covered.

What 24 missing months actually costs

1. One H-1B lottery instead of three. A 12-month OPT running roughly summer 2030 to summer 2031 gives essentially one March registration (March 2031). Thirty-six months gives three (2031, 2032, 2033). Missing the one means leaving the country.
2. A summer internship becomes expensive. Pre-completion OPT draws from the same 12-month pool. Ten weeks full time is noise against 36 months and one sixth of his entire U.S. working life against 12.
3. Unemployment cap of 90 days, not 150. The 150-day cap only exists once the STEM extension is approved.
4. Job-relatedness. The OPT job must relate to the major on the I-20. A quant role against "Business Administration and Management" is an argument he would not have to make against Computer Science.

Four residual risks, stated honestly

1. Unverified SEVIS representation. SEVIS carries Major Code 1, Major Code 2 and Minor Code on one student record, and "The Major 1 and Major 2 fields will appear on the students' Forms I-20." No BIO page states how BIO orders them for a simultaneous degree, and the whole 36-month case rests on it. Ask BIO by February 2028.
2. Two current DHS statements point different directions on the adjacent fact pattern of one degree with two majors. The never-withdrawn SEVP STEM OPT Webinar FAQ (14 April 2016): "if a student receives one degree with dual majors where one of the majors is in STEM, the student cannot base STEM OPT upon the major if the degree itself is not a STEM degree." The current SEVIS Help Hub (updated 27 July 2026): a first extension is available if the "Student's primary or secondary major was a STEM-eligible field." A simultaneous degree is two diplomas, not one, so it sits on the safe side, but get BIO's written position.
3. Both degrees confer in the same term (Spring 2030), so neither is a "previously obtained degree" under (C)(3). The plan rests on the "dual degree program" clause plus BIO's SEVIS entry.
4. The DHS list is tested around 2031, not today: "At the time the DSO recommends a 24-month OPT extension ... the degree that is the basis for the application for the OPT extension must be contained within a category on the STEM Designated Degree Program List." 11.0701 Computer Science is the most durable code on that list; 45.0603 was added by a 2019 revision and is policy, not statute.

Getting into Haas

One door is open, it opens once in his life, and it opens in March 2028. Everything in this section is from haas.berkeley.edu; the Berkeley Undergraduate Catalog has no Business Administration B.S. program page at all.

Which door is open

The one-attempt rule, and why March 2028 is the only date

Three independent official statements say the same thing:

• Continuing-students page, bolded: "You may only apply once."
• FAQ: "Continuing UC Berkeley students may only apply during either their sophomore or junior year."
• FAQ, answering his exact question ("If I complete all prerequisite courses and finish all eligibility requirements by my first year at UC Berkeley, can I apply to Haas as a first year?"): "No, Continuing UC Berkeley students may only apply during either their sophomore or junior year."

No second round, no early round, no waitlist, and no published appeal or re-application path anywhere on haas.berkeley.edu.

Haas says "sophomore or junior year". For Andy the second option is arithmetic fiction:

• March 2028 (sophomore) means entry Fall 2028, which is semesters 5, 6, 7 and 8. The I-20 ends 17 May 2030. Exact fit, zero slack.
• March 2029 (junior) means entry Fall 2029, which is semesters 7 and 8 only. The degree needs 38 upper-division business units plus 12 upper-division non-business units = 50 upper-division units. That is 25 units a semester against a Haas 13-unit floor, so it forces a 9th and 10th semester.

A 9th semester now costs a BIO Extension of Program (adviser certification plus proof of funding; the 2026-27 undergraduate budget is $31,378 tuition and fees per semester plus roughly $10,800 living) and a USCIS Form I-539 Extension of Stay ($420 online, $470 paper) under the fixed-period-of-admission rule effective 15 September 2026. USCIS text reproduced by BIO says delays "caused by academic probation or suspension or a student's repeated inability or unwillingness to complete his or her course of study are not acceptable reasons for an extension."

One window. About 31 March 2028. Unverified whether "sophomore year" means year of enrollment or unit-based class standing. He holds sophomore unit standing (30 to 59.9 units) as early as Spring 2027, so the two readings diverge for him, but the practical answer is the same because a Fall 2029 Haas start does not fit the I-20. Confirm it in writing anyway.

The prerequisites

Note the calculus list: the continuing-students web page lists MATH 51 plus MATH 16B, which both April 2026 PDFs omit. Do not quote either list as complete.

The grade and unit rules, every line

• "Students must have completed at least 60 semester units and finished all prerequisite courses with a letter grade of C- or higher."
• "Each course must be worth a minimum of three (3) semester or four (4) quarter units."
• "Prerequisite courses and appropriate exam credit may not be more than five (5) years old."
• "For continuing and transfer student admits, all Haas prerequisite requirements must be completed before starting at Haas." The PDF checklist adds: "Complete Haas prerequisites by end of sophomore year."
• First attempt governs: "If you repeated or took more than one course to fulfill a prerequisite, you must use the first attempt to satisfy the requirement." And: "If you received a D+ or lower in a prerequisite, you must repeat the course until you receive at least a C-. The D+ will still be considered."
• Letter grades, and the two sources conflict. The 2-Year PDF: "All prerequisite courses must be taken for a letter grade (including DATA 8, even if a student does not plan to use it toward the Statistics requirement.)" The continuing-students page is softer: the committee prefers a letter grade, and a P/NP prerequisite requires "a letter from the professor or the department stating what the letter grade would've been", with the warning that taking prerequisites P/NP "could adversely affect your admission decision". Plan on the strict PDF rule.
• No summer catch-up exists. The published timeline pins completion to the day spring ends ("May 15, 2026: Spring semester ends. Prerequisites must be complete"), which lands before summer session.

What AP can and cannot buy

IB and A-Level equivalents exist for Economics, R&C and Calculus 1. Also: "once a student is enrolled at UC Berkeley, any remaining prerequisite requirements must be completed at UC Berkeley", which collides with the UGBA 10X rule below.

Andy's prerequisite scoreboard

Three courses owed. That is the entire prerequisite gap.

Two unresolved conflicts that cost real money

• Can UGBA 10X be taken off-campus? Three official Haas statements, two positions. The continuing-students page says yes twice ("The introductory business requirement may be completed at other institutions", and "all remaining prerequisites must be completed at UCB with the exception of Reading & Composition and Introductory Business (UGBA 10X)"). Both April 2026 PDFs say R&C "is the only requirement that can be completed at a CA Community College". requirements_for_degree.pdf (December 2023) says "UGBA 10 (must be taken at UC Berkeley)". Take it at Berkeley and the conflict never matters.
• Unverified Can a non-Haas student even enroll in UGBA 10X? Haas Phase 1 restricts "most UGBA courses" to declared Business Administration majors with 5 or more terms of attendance. Whether UGBA 10X sits inside that restriction is not stated in any source. Ask this September. Backups in order: Summer 2027, then Fall 2027, then Spring 2028.

The cycle dates

The 2026 cycle is published and gives the shape. The 2028 dates are not published.

Also: "we do not accept applications after the deadline." The requirements PDF calls itself "a planning guide" and carries a creation date of 30 April 2026, so it describes the current cycle and is not a guarantee for March 2028. Re-check haas.berkeley.edu in November 2027.

What is in the application, and how competitive

Four components, verbatim: "A self-reported academic record", "Two essay questions", "Activities and awards report", "Video interview upload".

• Unverified Essays. Prompts and word limits are not published; they live behind a berkeley.edu login at haasug.berkeley.edu/apply/. Open an application account the day the cycle opens just to read them.
• Video interview (official guide PDF): required, self-recorded, budget "approximately 1.5 minutes per question", retakes allowed via a "start over" option, prepared notes are fine but "do not read from a scripted response". Haas evaluates "authenticity, intellectual curiosity, leadership potential, integrity, and ability to convey your story". Attire and background are explicitly not evaluated. Unverified question count and per-question time limit.
• Unverified Recommendation letters. None are mentioned on any of the three official descriptions of the application, but no page says "not accepted" in words.
• Evaluation factors, verbatim and complete: "We evaluate applicants based on the following factors: Grades & Coursework, Essays, Activities & Awards." No weights, no rubric. The mandatory video interview is absent from that list.
• What Andy brings: Composerdle, shipped on the App Store (v1.0, build 28, passed App Review, CI-signed), with a live web version, a Vercel serverless API, Cloudflare R2 storage, HMAC-signed stateless game tokens and a native SwiftUI client. That is real shipped product work, not a class project. Plus the POLSCI 1 A+.

Three cautions. The page labels all three as "Entering Class Size", which is enrolled students, not admits. Unverified Haas publishes no applicant count and no admit rate, so any percentage computed from 52, 96 or 205 would be fabricated. Unverified There is no published minimum GPA to apply, and no page states whether Haas computes a prerequisite GPA or the overall UC GPA. The only official characterization: "Because there are many more applicants than spaces available, completion of the prerequisites does not guarantee admission", and "Admission to the business major is competitive and highly selective."

Graduating from Haas

From the 24 April 2026 Spieker Degree Requirements PDF: "students must complete the Haas prerequisites by the end of sophomore year, earn a minimum of 38 upper-division business units and 12 upper-division non-business units, complete the seven-course breadth requirement, fulfill the American History, American Institutions, and American Cultures requirements, and complete at least 120 total units."

The UGBA core, 30 units

UGBA 100 and 102A are "Strongly recommended for junior year". UGBA 102A is an enforced prerequisite for 102B. Grading: "All Haas Business courses MUST be taken for letter grades, including core substitutions", with UGBA 194, 198 and 199 as the only exceptions, and "Students must receive a grade of C- or higher in core classes".

Core substitutions, and the unit trap

Haas accepts ECON 100A, ECON 101A, ENVECON 100 or POLECON 106 for UGBA 101A, and ECON 100B, ECON 101B or POLECON 107 for UGBA 101B. But: "units for these approved substitutions are non-business upper-division units and students must take additional business electives toward the required 38 upper-division units."

So the substitution is a wash, not a saving. Substituting both drops the UGBA core taken at Haas from 30 units to 24, raises the UGBA elective bill from 8 units to 14, pre-pays 8 of the 12 non-business units, and leaves the upper-division total at 50 either way. What it buys is timing: two of those courses can land before Haas starts, in terms that would otherwise be half empty.

• Unverified and load-bearing: no Haas page says whether a core substitution taken before Haas admission still counts.
• Unverified The unit values of ECON 100A/100B/101A/101B and ENVECON 100 are not stated on any Haas page. If any is 3 rather than 4 units, the non-business column comes up short.

Breadth, where Haas is stricter than L&S

Same seven areas as L&S: Arts and Literature, Biological Science, Historical Studies, International Studies, Philosophy and Values, Physical Science, Social and Behavioral Sciences. Haas then adds exceptions:

Consequences, all of them

• AP Physics C 5/5 does not clear Physical Science. He owes a real physics, chemistry, astronomy or earth-science course. Math, statistics and CS are excluded from that area.
• DATA C8, MATH 54, UGBA 10X and the statistics companion cannot double as breadth. They are prerequisites.
• ENGLISH R1A and R1B cannot be breadth.
• ECON 1 (his AP credit) cannot be Social & Behavioral Sciences breadth. It is doubly barred, as a prerequisite and as economics. It is a pure extra on the unit budget.
• ECON 100A / 100B / 101A / 101B cannot be breadth once used as core substitutions.
• UGBA 107 cannot clear Philosophy & Values. It is a business course and a core course.

The one requirement Haas does not have

No foreign language requirement appears in any Haas degree document. That is established by omission across three complete graduation checklists: the 4-Year PDF (Apr 2026), the 2-Year PDF (Apr 2026) and requirements_for_degree.pdf (Dec 2023). Unverified as an explicit exemption, because no Haas page states one in words. Confirm it.

This matters enormously. His APR reads Foreign Language Not Satisfied, and L&S deleted the high-school-years route "For students admitted for Fall 2026 and after", his exact cohort. A pure Haas B.S. erases the problem. It comes back the moment he pairs Haas with an L&S degree, because the Economics degree carries L&S college requirements. That is the real price of H4 and of the Economics half of H6.

Cheapest fixes, in order, all run in parallel this fall: check for a GCE A-level, IGCSE, GCSE or O-level non-English language grade of A, B or C, which clears it outright and for a Hong Kong student is very likely already in hand; send Hong Kong secondary transcripts to the Central Evaluation Unit (undergradtranscripts@berkeley.edu, or 16 Sproul Hall MC 0608) to test the "primary language of instruction" route; file the APR Correction Request Form. Decision date: June 2027. If the APR still reads Not Satisfied after Spring 2027 grades post, commit a Berkeley language sequence to Summer 2027 and Summer 2028, because summers do not count against the 8-semester cap.

Residence, time limits and enrollment mechanics

• Senior residence: "After you become a senior (with 90 semester units earned toward your BS degree), you must complete at least 24 of the remaining 30 units in residence at the University in at least two semesters. To count as residence, a semester must consist of at least 4 passed units." Note the wording, "in residence at the University", not "as a Haas student", unlike L&S and CDSS. Taken literally, pre-Haas Berkeley units count. Unverified whether Haas audits it that way. Four full Haas semesters clear it under either reading.
• Honors residence is not a degree rule: "At least 43 semester units must be taken in residence at Berkeley for letter grades" is an honors criterion. Note also that the business GPA excludes courses from other departments used as core substitutions, so swapping ECON for UGBA 101A removes 3 units from the honors GPA base.
• Time to graduation: first-year admits get up to ten semesters, third-year admits up to six. Unverified There is no published row for a second-year admit, which is arguably Andy's category. Moot in practice: Haas's ceiling is not permission to remain in the United States, and the I-20 caps him at eight. Haas prints the warning itself: "All students with athletic, visa or scholarship contracts should check in with their respective program offices about their allowed time to graduation."
• Enrollment after admission: "Phase 1: Enrollment into most UGBA courses will be restricted to students in the Business Administration major with 5 or more terms of attendance." Phase 2 keeps that restriction for the first two weeks, then opens the waitlist in order. Unverified Fall 2028 is Andy's 5th term at Berkeley and his 1st at Haas; if the rule reads as five completed terms, his first Haas semester loses Phase 1 access to its own core courses.
• Other mechanics: no time-conflict overrides; no auditing; instructor drop for non-attendance in the first three weeks; UGBA enrollment is finalized "Friday of week 4" per one page and "Sunday of the 3rd week" per another Unverified. Coursework outside Berkeley after admission is permitted during summer, while abroad, or alongside a 13-unit Berkeley load; business electives must be upper division, new material and letter graded.

What of Andy's record already counts for Haas

Still owed for the degree: UGBA 10X, the statistics companion, ENGLISH R1B, five breadth areas (Arts & Literature, Biological Science, Historical Studies, International Studies, Physical Science), American Cultures (one approved course, C- or P, no exam substitute), and the entire upper-division block of 38 business plus 12 non-business units.

The other Haas routes

M.E.T. is closed

"Current UC Berkeley College of Engineering sophomores majoring in an M.E.T. academic track are eligible to apply." Catalog 2026-27: "Students enrolled in any other College at UC Berkeley ... are NOT eligible to apply to the M.E.T. Program." Andy is in Letters & Science, so two gates fail at once: wrong college, and no M.E.T. engineering track major. For completeness: eight tracks, minimum 3.0 overall and technical UC GPA, Physics 7A and 7B prerequisites, the same calendar as Haas, a 20.5-unit-per-semester cap, and two official pages that disagree on whether continuing students apply in sophomore spring or join in junior year Unverified. Two consequences: delete the Biological Science waiver from every Haas plan, and never change college into College of Engineering EECS, which would bar the Haas simultaneous degree entirely.

Robinson LSBE is open on paper and a full biology pivot in practice

Eligibility: "must be admitted to UC Berkeley as first-year students. Eligible candidates will apply to the Program during the fall semester of sophomore year." Andy clears that sentence. The curriculum is what closes it. The degrees are a B.S. in Business Administration plus a B.A. in Molecular and Cell Biology, Integrative Biology or Neuroscience, as a simultaneous degree (Unverified: the catalog says MCB only, the program site says all three; trust the program site). Declaration prerequisites are per major (MCB: Chem 1A, 1AL, 3A, 3AL, 3B, Bio 1A. Integrative Biology: Chem 1A, 1AL, Biology 1A, Bio 1B, Physics 8A. Neuroscience: Chem 1A, 1AL, Biology 1A, Physics 8A, 8B), plus the entire Haas prerequisite set on the same deadline, all "completed by the end of sophomore Spring Semester". The 2026-27 cycle opened Oct 1, closed Nov 6, 4pm, decided Dec 21, and its simultaneous-degree packet was due Jul 1, 2027; Andy's would be about Oct to Nov 2027 Unverified.

It is the only Haas-adjacent funnel whose selectivity is published:

25 of 82 = 30.5% for the Class of 2028, and 75 offers on 232 applications over three years = 32.3%. That is materially friendlier than a 52-seat pathway with no published rate. LSBE is also STEM-carrying, which nobody mentions: MCB B.A. is CIP 26.0406, Integrative Biology 26.0101, Neuroscience 26.1501, all STEM-eligible because DHS designates the whole 26 series. It is still a no, for four reasons: roughly nine science courses starting from zero chemistry, biology and physics, on top of the Haas prerequisites; an application that closes Nov 6 of sophomore fall, so the commitment to Chem 1A and Bio 1A starts in Spring 2027; it is a one-way door (see the barred pairings below); and it requires actually wanting a biology degree.

There is no general business minor

The catalog's Business Administration page has a Minor Program heading with exactly one entry: the Summer Minor in Sustainable Business and Policy, hosted jointly by Haas and Agricultural and Resource Economics, and "approved for all Berkeley undergraduate students". Complete five of six: UGBA 196SA, 196SB, 196SC, ENVECON 100, ENVECON 104, ENVECON 105. Taught in summer sessions, enrollable from early February, "can be completed in one or more summers", with a $1,500 scholarship for finishing in one or two consecutive summers at 2.0+. An L&S or CDSS student cannot minor in Business Administration.

Is the summer minor worth it? It burns zero of the eight semesters, the scarcest thing Andy owns, and it puts three UGBA courses on the transcript before the March 2028 application, which is real evidence of business intent for the two essays. Two cautions: those summers are the same summers as quant internships and pre-completion OPT, and Unverified whether ENVECON 100 could simultaneously serve as a UGBA 101A core substitution while being barred from breadth as a substitution. Unverified and not evaluated: the Berkeley Charter of Professional Accountancy, a Haas summer program covering all 30 accounting units for California CPA licensure in two summers. Its page publishes no eligibility rule, and it is worth one email because if it is open to non-Haas undergrads it costs zero I-20 semesters.

The six Haas-first paths, H1 through H6

Every path assumes Fall 2026 through Spring 2030, eight semesters, no ninth, both degrees conferred Spring 2030 before the I-20 ends 17 May 2030. Summers do not count against the semester cap. Common Fall 2026, locked and in progress, 17 units: MATH 54 (4), DATA C8 (4), ENGLISH R1A (4), PHILOS 12A (4), Piano Practice DeCal (1, P/NP).

H6 · The dual-application hedge Recommended

Feasible in 8 semesters36 months of OPT in every branchTwo applications in one winter

Why it wins: every branch confers a degree by Spring 2030 and every branch gives 36 months of work authorization. Applying to CDSS and Haas in the same cycle does not void either application: Haas's exclusion list names only M.E.T. tracks and MCB/IB/Neuroscience, CDSS never mentions Haas, and the windows do not overlap (CDSS 1 Jan to 13 Feb, Haas about 2 to 31 March). Unverified as an affirmative permission, since it is an argument from silence. It is worth one email.

The one click that matters: on the CDSS application, select Simultaneous Degree, never Change of College. Change of College deletes the Economics major and moves his home college to CDSS before the Haas decision, and Haas names only "Engineering, Letters and Science" as partner colleges.

Ordered steps

1. Confirm DATA C8 is a letter grade; check the AP Micro and Macro exam dates against the five-year rule; start the three language filings.This week, Sep 2026
2. Send the advising email batch, including "can both applications be live in the same winter?"Fall 2026
3. Spring 2027 Phase 1, with the ECON prerequisite override requested by email because AP credit posts after Phase 1.Oct 2026
4. CS 61A, UGBA 10X, the statistics companion, ENGLISH R1B, one breadth course. Every Haas prerequisite is banked by the end of this term, and CS 61A gives the posted Berkeley letter grade the CDSS bar requires.Spring 2027
5. Language decision point. Intensive sequence in Summer 2027 if the APR still reads Not Satisfied.June 2027
6. CS 70 (term 3 is the only unrestricted window), ECON 100A, ECON 100B, one breadth course. Apply to the Economics major in the first five weeks.Fall 2027
7. Confirm the 2028 cycle dates, collect the written rulings, draft both essay sets.Nov to Dec 2027
8. Economics declaration posts. Verify it is the PRIMARY plan in CalCentral, because that is the CIP that prints as Major 1.Mid-Jan 2028
9. CDSS comprehensive review. Rank CS #1, Data Science #2. Simultaneous Degree.1 Jan to 13 Feb 2028
10. The Haas application. One attempt, lifetime.About 2 to 31 Mar 2028
11. Build a non-UGBA Fall 2028 Phase 1 schedule; register CS 61C for Summer 2028; pre-write both packets, one naming CDSS and one naming L&S Economics.Apr to May 2028
12. Decisions land. Take Haas plus Economics if Haas admits, Economics plus CS if it does not, then file the chosen packet. Never both, because no source describes a three-college simultaneous degree.1 June to 1 July 2028

Overlaps: on the CS branch, ECON 140 is the single overlap, filling the CS 4-unit technical elective from the EECS approved non-CS list. On the Haas branch, ECON 100A and ECON 100B are the two overlaps as UGBA 101A/101B substitutions, and ECON 140 fills part of the 12 non-business units as a degree requirement, which is uncapped. Two overlaps maximum on either branch.

Risks: two applications in one winter with opposite essay instructions (CDSS bars describing Berkeley clubs, Haas has an activities-and-awards report where clubs belong); the container radio button; the Economics declaration must post before 13 Feb 2028; the two-week packet window; CS 70 exists only in Fall 2027; the language requirement survives on every branch that keeps Economics; Fall 2028 Phase 1 runs before both decisions; all 2028 dates unpublished.

H4 · Haas B.S. plus Economics B.A. (L&S), simultaneous

36 months of OPTOnly one lotteryTightest legal fit on the board

Why it is safe: Economics is uncapped. "Students who meet the admission requirements as listed above are guaranteed admission into the major." No essays, no comprehensive review, no college change. Why it is tight: the last four semesters carry 18 to 19 upper-division courses, being 8 UGBA core plus 5 UGBA electives plus ECON 141 plus five Economics electives, at about 16 units a term. Why it costs something H1 does not: the L&S Foreign Language requirement survives, because the Economics degree carries L&S college requirements. Budget 0 to 3 courses and 0 to 15 units into the summers.

Overlaps: both permitted upper-division overlaps are spent, ECON 101A for UGBA 101A and ECON 101B for UGBA 101B. The Economics outside-department cap ("no more than TWO courses from outside the Economics Department") is completely unspent, so both slots stay free as insurance. Economics accepts UGBA 101B for its macro core but never accepts UGBA 101A, no exceptions, which is why the substitution runs in this direction only.

OPT: 36 months, entirely on Economics CIP 45.0603. Haas contributes zero. Needs BIO's Economics mismatch memo at extension time, because the diploma says "Economics" and the CIP title says "Econometrics and Quantitative Economics".

If Haas denies: the Economics B.A. is conferred Spring 2030 with the most slack of any outcome, about 3.5 courses a term, and three of the eight upper-division Economics courses (ECON 101A, 101B, 141) are already banked at the moment of denial. Only UGBA 10X is sunk.

Risks: one lifetime Haas application into 52 seats; the language requirement can block the Economics degree, which by the linked-fate rule blocks the Haas degree too; Unverified the pre-admission core-substitution ruling; the two-week July 1 window; the 3.00 GPA gate; 18 to 19 upper-division courses in four terms; the approved Economics elective list is not an offered list (ECON 111 last ran Fall 1974, 173 in 2010, 122 in 2012).

Career verdict: the best degree combination Berkeley offers for investment banking and consulting, the tier Andy ranked last. Mediocre for quant, because it puts zero computer science on the transcript. The mitigation is real but partial: D. E. Shaw's Quantitative Analyst Intern posting tests the transcript, not the diploma ("Advanced coursework in fields such as math, statistics, physics, engineering, computer science, or other technical and quantitative programs"), and ECON 101A plus 101B plus 141 plus MATH 53 plus MATH 54 plus STAT 20 passes that reading. That is why the calculus-based 101 track is chosen over the cheaper 100 track despite costing MATH 53.

H2 · Haas B.S. plus Computer Science B.A. (CDSS), simultaneous

36 months on the most durable CIPTwo lotteriesOne unverified structural rule

Feasibility: yes on coursework, with two independent lotteries and one unverified rule. The four pre-Haas terms are not crowded: every Haas prerequisite lands by the end of Spring 2027, leaving Fall 2027 and Spring 2028 for CS 61B, CS 70 and the breadth block. The Haas years then carry about 55 units of required work across four terms. Three gates: CDSS comprehensive review in January 2028 ("The Computer Science major will have a significantly smaller capacity than in past years"), Haas in March 2028 (52 seats, one lifetime attempt), and Unverified whether Haas accepts CDSS as a simultaneous-degree partner at all. Haas's own page names only "(i.e. Engineering, Letters and Science)", while the campus Petition to Declare Simultaneous Degrees that Haas itself hosts does list "College of Computing, Data Science, & Society" among eight participating colleges. That question must be answered by November 2027.

OPT: 36 months, driven entirely by CS CIP 11.0701, the most durable code on the DHS list and the only pairing where the diploma name and the CIP title match, so no mismatch memo is needed. Haas contributes zero.

If Haas denies but CDSS admitted: he graduates with the Computer Science B.A., Spring 2030, 36 months of OPT, the single best degree on the board for quant. Every CS course was going to be taken anyway; the 38 units of UGBA simply never happen. If CDSS denies and Haas admits: pair Haas with Economics instead, which only exists because Economics was declared in January 2028.

Risks: two one-shot lotteries four months apart; the unverified Haas and CDSS pairing; the container chosen blind in January; the two-week packet window; the 3.00 GPA gate separate from admission; Fall 2028 Phase 1 before both decisions; AP staleness; Unverified AP Calc BC as "completed" for CDSS; CS 61C closed to non-majors during the academic year; CDSS caps at 8 semesters "full stop" and refuses extensions "in order to add or complete a minor or an additional major(s)".

Career verdict: highest ceiling on the board, second most likely to land. "Computer science" is named by every filtered quant and big-tech posting, and Haas is the strongest brand for banking, so H2 stops the two goals competing. Its failure branch, CS alone, is almost as good as Path H's success case. Everything turns on one email by November 2027.

H3 · Haas B.S. plus Data Science B.A. (CDSS), simultaneous

36 monthsFriendliest CDSS oddsWeaker degree keyword

Feasibility: yes, at about 17 units a term with exactly the two permitted upper-division overlaps. The Data Science lower division is nearly free for Andy: DATA C8 is already in progress and doubles as half the Haas statistics prerequisite, the statistics companion doubles again, and only CS 61A is genuinely new. The DS major also auto-satisfies three of four CDSS essential skills (Computational Reasoning, Statistical Reasoning, HSDDT), worth two to three whole courses a CS major would owe.

The two overlaps, named: UGBA 142 (Haas business elective plus DS Computational and Inferential Depth) and ECON 100A (Haas UGBA 101A substitution plus DS Economics domain emphasis). Nothing else may overlap, which makes the plan immune to the unresolved question of whether Haas's 12 non-business units count as a major or a degree requirement.

OPT: 36 months, via Data Science CIP 11.0199. BIO publishes a CIP and major-name mismatch memo for it, because the diploma says Data Science and the CIP title says "Computer and Information Sciences, Other". If Haas denies: Data Science B.A. alone, Spring 2030, 36 months, with semesters 5 through 8 turning into genuine slack.

Risks: the same two-lottery structure and the same unverified Haas and CDSS pairing as H2; DATA C100 taken before he is a declared DS major; the Economics domain emphasis is "heavily impacted, and often restricted by major to enroll", so the plan uses only ECON 100A/100B/140, which are on the Phase-I exception list; Unverified DATA 88E's approval status and offering pattern; Unverified UGBA 142's unit value.

Career verdict: the version of a Haas plan most likely to actually finish with two degrees. CDSS's own words: Data Science "will remain a large major that accepts hundreds of students each year" against Computer Science's "significantly smaller capacity", and in the 2025 cycle Data Science accepted 658 of 704 minimally eligible applicants, 93.5%. The price: Data Science is not one of Two Sigma's five named disciplines ("statistics, mathematics, physics, electrical engineering, or computer science") while Computer Science is named by everyone. Free upgrade: rank CS #1 and Data Science #2 on the same application, since "your ranking is not a factor" in each major's own decision and "if more than one requested major wishes to admit you, you will be admitted to the major you ranked highest". That converts H2 into a free option on top of H3.

H1 · Haas B.S. alone

Easiest to finishNo foreign language requirement12 months of OPT

Feasibility: yes, the easiest path on the board to finish. Four semesters at Haas map exactly onto semesters 5 through 8, only three prerequisite courses are owed, and there is no foreign language requirement. The thing that breaks it is not the calendar. It is the admission, and the OPT cliff on the other side.

OPT: 12 months. CIP 52.0201. No 24-month extension, no Major-1 or Major-2 trick, no mismatch memo that helps. One H-1B lottery. The Economics application in Fall 2027 is still mandatory, not optional, because L&S requires a declared major at the start of junior year and the Haas decision does not arrive until mid-June 2028. What makes this H1 rather than H4 is a single deliberate omission: letting the 1 July 2028 simultaneous-degree deadline lapse.

If Haas denies: he graduates with the Economics B.A., declared since mid-January 2028, conferred Spring 2030, with 36 months of OPT on CIP 45.0603, and the denial branch is materially easier than the success branch, about 3.5 courses a term instead of 4.75.

H5 · Haas B.S. plus a STEM minor

12 months of OPTWorst value on the board

Feasibility: yes, and it is the worst-value path here. A minor is permitted, and Haas "highly encourage[s] students to explore all areas of interest through a minor", but it produces no CIP code and never touches the I-20. The best of them is the Data Science minor (CDSS), "approved for all undergraduate students (except those pursuing a BA in Data Science)", seven courses, two of whose three lower-division courses Andy needs anyway.

Rejected alternatives: the Computer Science minor is the better keyword, but EECS states in writing that minors get no enrollment priority into CS 61C or restricted upper-division CS, that an "Other Declared Major" student reads the same as "L&S Undeclared" on the enrollment table, and that "completion of the minor is not guaranteed". The Statistics minor (9 courses, 5 upper-division) and the Mathematics minor (same shape) cannot coexist with 38 upper-division business units in four terms.

OPT: 12 months. The minor changes nothing: "The degree that is the basis for the application for the OPT extension must be contained within a category on the STEM Designated Degree Program List." SEVIS stores a Minor Code and no eligibility text anywhere references it. Unverified whether a minor even appears on a Haas diploma.

The uncomfortable arithmetic: a Haas denial gives him 36 months, and a Haas admission taken as H5 gives him 12. Never choose H5 deliberately. Take the CS 61A and DATA C100 coursework regardless, because those are transcript lines quant firms read and they cost almost nothing on this schedule, but when Haas says yes in mid-June 2028, file the simultaneous-degree packet. The minor is a footnote; the second degree is 24 months of legal working life.

Collision analysis and the decision tree

1. The decision-order inversion. CDSS decides 30 March to 1 June 2028 and Haas decides mid-June 2028, but the CDSS container choice is made back in January, before either answer exists. He commits to a pairing structure blind.
2. April 2028 Phase 1. Fall 2028 enrollment runs before both decisions, when he is neither a CDSS student nor a Business Administration major, so two restriction sets lock him out at once: Haas's "Phase 1 ... restricted to students in the Business Administration major with 5 or more terms of attendance", and EECS's "CS 61C: Cannot enroll or waitlist in undergraduate classes during the academic year". Build the whole Fall 2028 Phase 1 schedule out of courses neither restriction touches, and put CS 61C in Summer 2028.
3. The June to July 2028 pile-up. The Haas packet is due 1 July, about two weeks after the decision, in the summer when advisers are thin. It needs a five-page campus petition with a term-by-term plan for every remaining semester, the Degree Requirement Worksheet, and signatures from both major advisers, a home-college adviser, a second-college adviser and a dean or dean's representative in each college, all "dated no more than four months prior to submitting the request". L&S processing alone is 10 to 15 business days, and "approval of this petition is not guaranteed". Two weeks is not enough to start this. Write it in May.
4. The Economics notification gear. Fall applicants are "notified mid-January", right as the CDSS window opens, which makes him a declared major in time for the simultaneous-degree container and creates the L&S major adviser who must sign the petition. It only works if he applies in Fall 2027. A Spring 2028 Economics application notifies mid-June 2028, after the CDSS decision, after Phase 1, and simultaneous with the Haas decision. That single slip breaks the whole ordering.

Foreclosure, both directions. A CDSS major does not foreclose Haas, because CDSS is absent from Haas's exclusion list Unverified. A Change of College into CDSS effectively does foreclose Haas: it deletes the L&S major, the CDSS 8-semester cap "also applies to students pursuing a double major/simultaneous degree", and the published do-not-consider list for extra semesters includes "requesting an additional semester in order to add or complete a minor or an additional major(s)". And Haas forecloses CDSS after March 2028, which is the buried headline: a January 2029 CDSS application cannot produce a simultaneous degree, because CDSS requires the packet "at least two terms prior to graduation" and "CDSS students may not declare a simultaneous degree in their final term at UC Berkeley". Both of his one-shots are January and March 2028. Neither is a fallback for the other.

Prerequisite competition. Both prerequisite sets can be finished on time, and the binding term is Spring 2027, because Fall 2027 is pre-committed to CS 70 ("L&S undeclared in terms 3 to 4 = no restrictions"). Three things can break Spring 2027: UGBA 10X enrollment for a non-Haas student Unverified, CS 61A seats ("Most seats are reserved for specific student populations"), and ECON 100A enrollment, because Phase 1 runs in October 2026 and AP credit posts at the end of December. Use Summer 2027 as the shock absorber for exactly one course.

NOW (Fall 2026)
 |- DATA C8 -> LETTER GRADE (this week, no recovery)
 |- AP exam dates vs the 5-year rule
 |- Language: A-level/IGCSE check -> CEU transcripts -> APR correction
 '- Advising emails

SPRING 2027   bank every Haas prerequisite + CS 61A

JUNE 2027     LANGUAGE DECISION POINT
 |- Cleared      -> summers stay free
 '- Not cleared  -> language sequence in Summer 2027 + Summer 2028

FALL 2027
 |- CS 70 (only unrestricted window)
 '- APPLY TO ECONOMICS (first 5 weeks)  <- the gear everything meshes with

JAN 2028      Economics declaration posts -> verify PRIMARY plan in CalCentral

1 JAN - 13 FEB 2028   CDSS: rank CS #1, DS #2, SIMULTANEOUS DEGREE
                      (Change of College = deletes Economics = one-way door)

~2 - 31 MAR 2028      HAAS. One attempt, lifetime.

APR 2028      non-UGBA Fall 2028 Phase 1 + CS 61C registered for Summer 2028
MAY 2028      WRITE BOTH PACKETS. Signatures dated Mar-Jun only.

1 JUN 2028  CDSS decision          MID-JUN 2028  Haas decision
        |                                 |
        '-----------------+---------------'
                          |
   BOTH ADMIT      HAAS ONLY       CS ONLY        NEITHER
   Haas + Econ     Haas + Econ     Econ + CS      Econ alone
   (decline CS)                    (= Path H)
     36 mo           36 mo           36 mo          36 mo

   BY 1 JULY 2028: file the chosen packet. Never both.

Haas versus the previous recommendation (Path H)

Path H, Economics plus Computer Science, is still on this page below and is still the benchmark. This is the honest side-by-side, including the places Haas loses.

Where Haas genuinely wins

Investment banking and consulting, provably. The only employer-level data Haas publishes is the MBA report, Class of 2025, top employers hiring 3 or more graduates: Adobe, Amazon, Bain & Company, Boston Consulting Group, Deloitte Consulting, Google, McKinsey & Company, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, NVIDIA, ServiceNow. All three MBB firms, one bulge-bracket bank. Berkeley Career Engagement runs dedicated Finance and Consulting career fairs plus on-campus interviews, and three of the 16 Haas-sponsored student organizations are consulting clubs. And the brand is real: "Haas" is a name a recruiter recognizes without a follow-up question, from 52 continuing-student seats a year, campus-wide.

Where Haas loses, with the receipts

1. Zero quant trading firms appear anywhere in Haas's published outcomes. That MBA employer list contains no Jane Street, no Citadel, no Citadel Securities, no HRT, no Two Sigma, no D. E. Shaw, no Optiver, no Jump, no IMC, no SIG. MBA data is indicative, not dispositive, for an undergraduate, but it is the only employer-level evidence Haas puts on the record.
2. Haas publishes no undergraduate employment report at all. The entire public dataset is one sentence: "Class of 2025 graduates attained positions with an average starting salary of $100,000 and 90% of graduates accepted a job or continued education offer within 3 months of graduation." No median, no industry percentages, no employer names. The published role list (accounting, finance, consulting, sales, marketing, business analytics, product management, human resources, supply chain management) contains no trading, no quantitative research, no software engineering.
3. Two of four quant early-talent programs exclude a business degree in writing. Jane Street FTTP: "If you are planning to study math, physics, computer science, or another STEM-related major, this is the program for you." HRT Inside HRT: for students pursuing "a degree in computer science, mathematics, or another STEM-related field." Business Administration is CIP 52.0201, not STEM.
4. Two do not filter by major at all, so Haas does not lose these. Jane Street main postings: "We look for smart people with curious minds from any background." D. E. Shaw: "We encourage undergraduate and graduate students from all academic disciplines, schools, and class years to apply." Citadel and Citadel Securities Student Informational Programs have no major filter, only a graduation window (December 2027 to June 2029 in the 2025/26 terms), which re-issues annually, so the honest statement is "not this cycle", not "shut out".
5. Unverified Haas sponsors zero quant, trading or investment-banking clubs. Berkeley's quant clubs exist but are campus-wide, not Haas-sponsored. Which ones was not researched.
6. Unverified Several employer pages could not be read this pass: Citadel Securities returned HTTP 403, Two Sigma 404, McKinsey timed out, BCG 404, Goldman Sachs 403. "Target school status" is not published by any firm, so treat every claim about it as unverifiable.

TL;DR ranking

This is a reference, not a plan. Everything here is sourced from official Berkeley pages verified on 2026-09-10, then checked by a rules-lawyer pass and a career pass. Where a source is silent, it says Unverified or "not stated in source". Do not smooth those over: they are the places that can break a path.

Jargon, defined once

• Comprehensive review. CDSS's once-a-year, essay-based, capacity-capped admission process. Not a form; a competitive application read by advisers and faculty. Window: January 1 to February 13.
• Simultaneous degree. One major in L&S and one in a different college (CDSS). Two separate diplomas, two CIP codes. Home college stays L&S.
• Double major. Two majors, both inside the same college. One diploma.
• Change of college. You leave L&S entirely and become a CDSS student. Deletes any L&S major.
• Breadth. The Seven-Course Breadth requirement. Seven areas, one course each. No exam can satisfy any of them.
• CIP code. The federal program code on your I-20. It decides whether you get the 24-month STEM OPT extension.
• APR. Academic Progress Report in CalCentral. The official running check of what you have satisfied.
• EGT. Expected Graduation Term. Spring 2030 for Andy.

Your record today

Consistent across all eleven gap analyses. This is what is banked as of 2026-09-10.

Completed

In progress, Fall 2026 (17 units)

AP scores: credit posts end of December 2026, roughly 21 semester units

High-school Multivariable Calculus and Linear Algebra: zero Berkeley credit. MATH 53 and MATH 54 must still be taken.

AP unit values are Unverified on any berkeley.edu page. Only the 0.67 quarter-to-semester conversion and the Calc BC to MATH 51+52 mapping are official. Confirm on the CalCentral Transfer Credit Report in January 2027.

Requirement scoreboard

The Foreign Language problem, stated exactly

The APR reads Not Satisfied. L&S deleted the route Andy was counting on, effective for his exact cohort: "For students admitted for Fall 2026 and after, L&S is no longer using completion of high school language other than English through three or more years of instruction to satisfy the L&S Language Requirement."

The surviving route is narrower: "Starting Fall 2026, you can satisfy the L&S Language Requirement by completing at least three years of secondary school in which the primary language of instruction was a language other than English, starting from grade 6 or above as verified by transcripts." If the Hong Kong school was English-medium, this route fails.

Three actions, in parallel, this semester

1. Send HK secondary and middle transcripts to the Central Evaluation Unit: undergradtranscripts@berkeley.edu, or mail to 16 Sproul Hall MC 0608, or hand a sealed transcript to Cal Student Central, 120 Sproul Hall.Sep to Oct 2026
2. File the APR Correction Request Form (Qualtrics link on the L&S Forms & Petitions page).Sep to Oct 2026
3. Check for an exam score that clears it outright. A GCE A-level, IGCSE, GCSE, or O-level non-English language grade of A, B, or C satisfies it immediately. For a Hong Kong student this is the cheapest possible fix. Check it first.Do this one first

Fallback cost if all three fail: 1 to 3 Berkeley language courses, roughly 5 to 15 units, in a plan with 8 semesters and no ninth.

Path A, B, J and K delete this requirement entirely. A change of college into CDSS means L&S requirements stop applying, and the published CDSS essential-skills list names no foreign language. That inference is flagged below as Unverified against a CDSS adviser, but it is real and it is one of the strongest non-obvious arguments for the CDSS-only paths.

Programs, one by one

Nine programs. Each one splits into what it takes to graduate and what it takes to switch into it, then lists what is still unverified.

Computer Science B.A. · CDSS, program A5201U, taught by EECS

Residual uncertainties

• Unverified Whether AP Calc BC 5 counts as Math 51/52 "Completed Prior to Application (final grades required)." No page says exam credit satisfies that line. This single question can invalidate the whole application.
• Unverified Whether the 3.0 GPA is cumulative UC GPA or a GPA over the listed courses. The pre-2023 standard used 3.30 over CS 61A/61B/70.
• Unit total conflict: the EECS page headlines "20 Upper Division Units*" with an asterisk that has no footnote, while its own four bullets sum to 24 and the catalog's Plan of Study shows 6 courses at 4 units. Plan 24.
• Unverified Whether the Design course double-counts inside the 8 UD COMPSCI units.
• List conflict: the EECS Design list includes CS 185; the catalog's does not. EECS allows Math 156, Math 221, Data 188 in the 16-unit block; the catalog allows only INFO 159, DATA 101, STAT/DATA C100.
• The catalog page's own sample Plan of Study totals 113 units, 7 short of the 120 minimum.
• Catalog internal inconsistency: the General Guidelines exclusion list reads "199, 198, 197, 196, 195…" but the footnote inside the upper-division sections drops 196.
• An official CS 61A substitution exists (Data 8 or Stat 20 + Data C88C + CS 47A) but "none of the grades in these classes will be included in your GPA for Comprehensive Review." Do not use it: it zeroes out three grades from the one number readers see.
• Transfer cap: "The Department allows CS majors to satisfy at most three upper division course requirement at another four-year institution."
• Catalog workload warning: "COMPSCI 152, COMPSCI 162, COMPSCI 164, COMPSCI 189, COMPSCI 170, COMPSCI 184, and EECS 151 are known to have heavy workloads. It is not recommended to take these courses in combination."

Data Science B.A. · CDSS, program A50AMU

Residual uncertainties

• Unverified and decisive: whether AP Calculus BC credit satisfies the "one additional course from Calculus 1, Calculus 2 or Intro Programming, Completed with Final Grades (C- or better) Posted" line. Exam credit carries no letter grade. If it does not, Andy's first eligible window is January 2028, after CS 61A posts. Email ds-advising@berkeley.edu.
• Source conflict: the CDSS FAQ accepts exam credit for calculus; the catalog page A50AMU prints "AP/IB or other high school exam credit is not accepted."
• Unverified whether re-application after a denial is allowed. "Any year up to and including your 6th semester" implies yes; no page states it.
• 2027 and 2028 cycle dates unpublished.
• The dedicated CDSS "Requirements: Lower Division" page returned HTTP 403; the list was taken from the upper-division page, which reprints it.
• The 2026-27 catalog lists 28 domain emphases (adds "Aerospace"); the CDSS page lists 27.
• DATA C88C's unit value is printed as "3-4" in the catalog plan; exact value not verified.
• DATA C104's term-by-term offering pattern is not stated in source.
• "There is no intent to provide enrollment priority to Data Science majors for any specific domain emphasis classes."

Economics B.A. · L&S, program 25246U

Residual uncertainties

• Unverified Early Review criteria.
• Unverified Exact Spring 2027 and later application deadlines.
• Unverified Whether the enrollment system honors AP Micro/Macro and Calc BC for ECON 100A enrollment before credit posts at the end of December 2026. Spring 2027 Phase 1 runs in October.
• Unverified Whether DATA C140 or DATA 89 clears ECON 140/141's enrollment prerequisite as "equivalent."
• Unverified No official page caps the number of applications; "unlimited attempts inside the window" is an inference.
• Ambiguity worth an email: "All Intermediate Economics core prerequisites must be completed at UC Berkeley." Read literally this would void the AP substitutions for ECON 1 and MATH 51/52 that the whole plan rests on. The admissions page says the opposite. Get it in writing.
• The catalog page carries a provisional disclaimer: "The program requirements on this page may be pending advisor review."
• The catalog's embedded Statistics list contains one course id (1254421, presumably STAT 88) that returns 404; DATA C88S is the live cross-listing.
• Total upper-division units (about 27 to 32) is derived from per-course values; no official page states one number.
• UC Extension carve-out: XB-prefix prerequisite grades count in both GPAs; "we do not accept the online courses Math X1A and X1B."

Philosophy B.A. · L&S, program 25651U

Residual uncertainties: this section has the most, and the biggest

• THE BIG ONE, unresolved between two live 2026-27 official sources: the department web table and the department PDF checklist both say Epistemology/Metaphysics is two courses from different groups. The 2026-27 catalog's underlying rule data marks all four groups with condition=completedAtLeastXOf, restriction=1, one course from each of A, B, C, D. Read literally, the catalog major is 14 courses, not 12. Worse: Group B is a single course (PHILOS 125), and the department's Fall 2026 offerings contained no Group A and no Group B course at all, only 135 and 136. If the catalog reading is enforced, the major gates on a course that may not be scheduled. Get this in writing from ugphil-advisor@berkeley.edu before building any Philosophy plan.
• History II conflict: web table includes 18 and 19; PDF checklist does not.
• Unverified Upper-division unit values for every course except 12A, 25A, 25B, 100.
• Unverified Summer 2027 offering of PHILOS 25A.
• Unverified Current acceptance status of the declaration Google Form.
• The department PDF checklist is dated 2016.
• The catalog links a Declaration of Major form PDF (major_declaration_petition_2.4.25.pdf) that returns HTTP 404. The live form is major_declaration_petition_5_6_26.pdf.
• The 2026-27 program page carries no visible academic-year label.
• Catalog versus department list differences: catalog adds 106, 109 (Ethics), 126, 128 (Group A), 154, C158, C167 (History II).

Computer Science minor · College of Engineering / EECS, program 16I011U

Residual uncertainties

• Unverified Whether a declared non-CS major can enroll in restricted upper-division CS during fall or spring at all. This is the question that decides whether the minor is completable. Email cs-advising@berkeley.edu.
• Unverified DATA 101, INFO 159, MECENG C205, NWMEDIA 190, NWMEDIA C203: none could be verified as currently offered.
• Unverified The "no grade below D-" footnote and the 194/seminar exclusion wording.
• Transfer-cap conflict (one course versus three-at-Berkeley).
• The catalog page renders its Lower Division Core block empty; the course list is only readable on the EECS page.

Data Science minor · CDSS / DSUS, program A5I172U

Residual uncertainties

• Unverified Batch cutoffs for Spring 2027 through Spring 2030, including the one that matters for a Spring 2030 EGT.
• Unverified Whether an undeclared student may submit the declaration form; the page lists no declared-major prerequisite, but the completion form requires a Major Advisor signature.
• HCE list differs between catalog and CDSS page (catalog includes BIOENG 100; omits ANTHRO 168 and INFO 101).
• Unverified Whether AP Calculus BC credit satisfies DATA C140's "one year of calculus … with C- or better, or Pass" prerequisite.
• The catalog page renders Foundations, Programming and Probability lists empty; only the CDSS page displays them.
• Unit values verified only for a subset of the elective list.

Free overlap worth knowing: neither the CS minor nor the DS minor restricts minor-to-minor overlap, and L&S's ban only covers "between L&S minors", and neither of these is an L&S minor. So COMPSCI 61A, COMPSCI 70 and DATA/COMPSCI/STAT C100 could count twice, making both minors together roughly 11 distinct courses, not 14.

Mathematics minor · L&S, Department of Mathematics, program 25I071U

Residual uncertainties

• Elective count conflict: the department page says one additional upper-division course and refers to "the five upper-division courses used for the minor." The 2026-27 catalog's Coursedog rule for that group reads "Complete at least 3 of the following Courses." If the catalog version is what the Registrar audits, the minor becomes 7 upper-division courses / 28 units, and the total jumps from 36 to 44 units. Confirm with the Math staff adviser.
• The catalog elective list is NOT a closed list. The only entries on the page are two open range rules: "Any MATH 100-196 level course" and "Any MATH 200-289 level course." The long STAT/COMPSCI/ECON/PHYSICS list that circulates is the Applied Mathematics MAJOR cluster list, a different page and a different requirement.
• The department's own pre-approved Applied Math elective list (a different list again) includes Stat 140, Stat 151B, Stat 156, Econ 103, CS C100, CS 176, Data C100, MCB 160/166, plus a catch-all for "courses in other departments … with substantial mathematical content at an appropriately advanced level and … at least 3 units."
• Unverified Whether ECON 141 or DATA C140 counts as the elective.
• No Fall 2026 section found for MATH 56; MATH 54 is the safe assumption.
• The minor is defined in the catalog as upper-division courses only, so the four math courses are declaration prerequisites, not catalog minor requirements, and the audit reads five courses.

Statistics minor · CDSS, Department of Statistics, program A5I173U

Residual uncertainties

• Unverified and high-stakes: whether the 3.2 math prerequisite GPA applies to the minor.
• Unverified STAT 156's unit value; the catalog course search returned no result.
• Unverified Whether a Statistics or Data Science major may also hold the Statistics minor.
• STAT 152 staleness: on the official elective list but no class-search offering since Spring 2020.
• DATA C140 Fall 2026 enrollment is closed pending department consent.
• Diploma notation conflict: the department page says the minor appears "on their transcript, but not on their diploma"; L&S says minors are noted on diplomas for students graduating Fall 2023 or later. Department wording appears stale.
• The catalog page could only be partially read before the site began returning bot-challenge pages; the exact catalog phrasing of the letter-grade, residency and overlap guidelines is unconfirmed.
• The Statistics department's Minor Required Courses page still uses old numbering ("Math 1a, Math 1b") while the Prerequisites page uses 51/52.

Philosophy minor · L&S, Department of Philosophy, program 25I057U

Residual uncertainties

• Course-count conflict: the department page requires six courses (25A/25B plus five upper-division). The 2026-27 catalog minor page lists only the five upper-division rows and shows no lower-division row. Treat the department's six-course version as binding until an adviser says otherwise.
• Unverified Whether a CDSS-college student may declare and complete this minor at all, and which of the three declaration processes is current.
• Unverified Which deadline governs a CDSS student, the L&S EGT rule or a CDSS equivalent.
• Non-majors "are usually blocked from enrolling in upper-division courses until Phase II." All five upper-division courses are a Phase II gamble, every term.
• The department does not guarantee its offering pattern.

Logic minor, for reference (it shares PHILOS 12A, which the Philosophy minor does not): Introductory (1) = PHILOS 12A/W12A or MATH 55; Mathematical Logic (1) = PHILOS 140A or MATH 125A; Computability and Logic (1) = PHILOS 140B or MATH 136; Electives (3) from PHILOS 134, 142, 143, 146, 149, 290; MATH 135, 225A/B, 227A, 229, 235A, 236; COMPSCI 172; LINGUIS 121, 221; at most one from PHILOS 141, 148, COMPSCI 188; at least two must be undergraduate-level. "PHILOS 140A and 140B are typically offered in alternate years", a real scheduling trap. At most one upper-division course may count for both the Logic minor and a major.

College rules

Andy is a Fall 2026 admit, so he is on the later side of every cohort line: "students admitted Fall 2023 or later" (EECS), "students admitted in Fall 2024 and after" (CDSS), "students admitted in Fall 2018 and beyond" (breadth), "students admitted for Fall 2026 and after" (L&S language). No grandfathering applies anywhere.

L&S versus CDSS, side by side

University and campus requirements, both colleges: Entry Level Writing; American History & Institutions (F-1 students exempt at 90.5 units if status is maintained through the last day of finals); American Cultures, one approved course, C- or P, no exam substitute.

Enrollment holds L&S can place: R&C not done by end of 4th semester; Undeclared at 90 units; Unapproved Reduced Course Load (below 13 units with a prior history); Study Abroad Excess Units; Excess Incomplete Units (12+ pending Incomplete units).

CDSS extra-semester petitions. The published "will not be considered" list includes: "You are requesting an additional semester in order to add or complete a minor or an additional major(s)"; improving GPA; non-required career-prep courses; health insurance or housing; a fall or spring abroad. Requests are due Friday of RRR week.

Double major (both majors inside L&S)

• Prerequisite: "You must already be declared in a major within L&S."
• Overlap: "No more than two upper-division courses can overlap between the two majors." "Programs with more than two UD overlapping courses will be denied." Since Fall 2020 the cap applies overall across all declared majors, not two per pair.
• Limits: "must finish all degree requirements within 9 semesters (counting enrollments in all institutions attended) or by the end of the semester in which they exceed 136 units", whichever comes SECOND (the more generous of the two).
• Four steps, all required or it is denied: complete pages 2 to 5 of the petition PDF (including a program plan listing every remaining course, marked UD/LD, at minimum 13 units per semester); the NEW major adviser signs and initiates the eForm; the CURRENT major adviser signs and approves it; email the signed PDF to lspetitions@berkeley.edu.
• Signatures must be dated no more than four months before submission. Processing: 5 to 10 business days (petition PDF) or 10 to 15 (web page).
• Deadline, and it changed for Andy's cohort: "Through Summer 2027: submit prior to the first day of classes in the term in which you intend to graduate as reflected in your Double Major petition. Beginning Fall 2027: submit prior to the first day of classes of your EGT listed in CalCentral at the time of submission. The deadline does not change even if your EGT may change due to the addition of the second major." Adding a double major in your EGT term makes you ineligible to graduate that term.
• Result: one B.A. diploma listing both majors. Ceiling rises to 136 and a 9th semester is allowed on paper, unusable for Andy, whose I-20 ends 17 May 2030.

Simultaneous degree (L&S major plus a major in another college)

• Definition: L&S calls it "declaring a major in L&S and another major in a non-L&S College at Berkeley." CDSS calls it "the declaration of two majors in different colleges at UC Berkeley." Two diplomas, two CIP codes.
• Home college: "The college in which you are currently declared is your home college." For Andy that is L&S, so L&S requirements including Foreign Language and Quantitative Reasoning keep applying.
• Eligibility (L&S): at least one semester completed at Berkeley; overall GPA 2.0+; approval from your L&S Undergraduate Major Adviser; approval from the other college; signatures dated within four months; a program plan showing completion within nine semesters or 136 units, whichever comes second.
• Admission to the CDSS side is comprehensive review. "If you are in a different college and are looking to complete a simultaneous degree with a CDSS major, you will need to complete the simultaneous degree packet and follow the comprehensive review process." The packet is filled out after decisions: "Once final decisions are released, students can begin working on the double major packet or the simultaneous packet."
• Overlap: two upper-division courses. Both colleges agree. "You can overlap more than two upper division courses for non-major requirements, such as college general education requirements." "If the other college has a more restrictive overlap policy, then the more restrictive policy applies."
• Required document: the Degree Requirement Worksheet (UC, Campus, L&S). "If your Simultaneous Degree Petition submission does not include the Degree Requirement Worksheet, your request will be denied." The lawyer pass flags that this denial language may belong to the Double Major petition; include the worksheet regardless.
• Deadlines, and CDSS is stricter and wins: L&S says "at least one term prior to the term in which you intend to graduate … and no later than the last day of that term," and elsewhere "should be submitted at least two terms prior." CDSS: "Simultaneous degree applications should be submitted at least two terms prior to graduation in order to meet College residence requirements" and "CDSS students may not declare a simultaneous degree in their final term at UC Berkeley."
• Semester cap: L&S would allow a 9th "as long as the other college also agrees." CDSS does not agree, its cap "also applies to students pursuing a double major/simultaneous degree," and adding a major is on the published do-not-consider list. Plan on 8.
• Petition acknowledgement, verbatim: "as a simultaneous degree student, I must adhere to the policies, procedures, and deadlines of both colleges/schools. When policies, procedures, or deadlines differ, I will follow the more restrictive requirement."
• Both senior-residence rules must be satisfiable. The Central Evaluation Unit warns about exactly this.
• Approval "is not guaranteed." The second college submits the approved packet via CalCentral; the record updates within about two weeks.
• If you later drop the CDSS degree: "if your EGT was originally adjusted due to the simultaneous degree, your current EGT may be changed back to your original EGT based on the CDSS semester limit policy."
• A double major across colleges does not exist. CDSS: "A double major refers to the declaration of two majors in CDSS." L&S: a non-L&S major is always a simultaneous degree.

Change of college into CDSS

• Only through comprehensive review. "Students wanting to change colleges into CDSS, have a simultaneous degree with CDSS, declare a double major within CDSS, or Change Majors within CDSS are required to go through the comprehensive review process. This applies to all students admitted in Fall 2024 and after."
• Conditions: "Candidates for a change of college must have an overall GPA of 2.0 or higher and have completed at least one semester at UC Berkeley at the time of application." "Changes of college into CDSS will not be approved for students who have not satisfied Entry Level Writing and are not on track to complete the Reading & Composition requirement by the end of their sophomore year (fourth semester)." Must be able to meet CDSS senior residence while declared as a CDSS student.
• "All students who are admitted to the College of CDSS do so declared in one of our majors."
• It deletes any L&S major. This is the one-way door.
• Reversal: a Change of College out of CDSS requires acceptance by the other college through its own process. L&S windows: Aug 15 to Nov 1 and Jan 15 to Jun 1; 2.0 cumulative UC GPA; ELW; R&C progress; juniors and seniors also need a signed major declaration and program plan; not allowed in the EGT term.
• Declaration paperwork deadline: "by the last day of instruction in order to be declared in their desired major by the last day of the semester prior to their EGT semester."
• Unverified The process for changing college out of L&S was not verified on any L&S page; L&S publishes only a change-into-L&S page.

Minors: the overlap arithmetic that actually governs

Other minor rules:

• "All minors must be declared prior to the first day of classes in the term in which you intend to graduate." Summer graduates: before Summer Session A. Some departments impose earlier dates (CS minor: one semester before graduation; Math minor: one semester before EGT).
• "You are allowed to declare as many minors as will fit into your semester or unit limits."
• "Your semester limit and unit ceiling do not change as a result of adding on a minor." CDSS will not grant an extra semester to finish one.
• "It is okay to declare a minor in a different college as long as the minor department will permit you to declare."
• Minors appear on the transcript and, for students graduating Fall 2023 or later, on the diploma.
• Completion: file the Completion of L&S Minor form with the minor adviser; the major adviser signs to verify the single overlap.
• If the minor is unfinished at the end of the EGT term, L&S graduates you without it and does not move the EGT.

The eleven paths, A through K

Every path below is feasible in 8 semesters only after the rules-lawyer corrections listed at the end of each section. Not one of the original plans would have produced a degree: breadth, American Cultures, and the CDSS HSDDT essential skill were missing from most of them. The semester tables shown are the corrected versions.

Career ranking, for reference while reading: H > A > I > K > B > J > C > G > E > F > D.

Path A · Computer Science B.A. (CDSS), single major, via Change of College

Feasible in 8 semestersOnly if admitted in January 2028Deletes the Economics option

Why it fits: AP Calc BC 5 kills MATH 51 and 52; MATH 54 is in progress; that leaves only CS 61A, 61B, 61C, 70 in the lower division. Upper division is 24 units = 6 courses across 4 CDSS terms. He crosses 90 units at the end of Spring 2028, so entering CDSS in Fall 2028 gives 4 terms and about 61 units against a 24-unit / 2-term senior-residence rule. And CDSS deletes the Foreign Language and Quantitative Reasoning requirements, so the pending Central Evaluation Unit filing stops mattering for the degree.

The rules that bind: the CDSS 8-semester cap with no escape hatch; the I-20 ending 17 May 2030; and the enrollment deadlock, because as L&S undeclared he "cannot enroll or waitlist" in CS 61C or restricted upper-division CS during the academic year, and only CS 168 and CS 188 are open.

Why January 2028, not January 2029: the official outer limit is the January of the 6th semester = January 2029. But a Jan 2029 admit (decision by about June 1, 2029) leaves only Fall 2029 and Spring 2030 in CDSS, exactly the 2-term senior-residence minimum at exactly 12 units each, with every restricted upper-division CS course compressed into two terms. Arithmetically possible, practically fragile.

How to get in, in order

1. Finish ENGLISH R1A (C- or better); confirm DATA C8 is letter-graded; confirm all six AP scores are on file; hold the GPA; join the CDSS interest form.Last safe: Fall 2026
2. Do NOT apply in January 2027, ineligible, no CS grade exists.No deadline
3. COMPSCI 61A (Phase 1; Summer 2027 is the backup). ENGLISH R1B finishes R&C.Last safe: Fall 2027 for 61A
4. COMPSCI 61B plus COMPSCI 70 in term 3, the one window with unrestricted Phase 1 access. Email cs-advising@cs.berkeley.edu with the four open questions.Last safe: 1 Dec 2027 for the email
5. File the comprehensive review, Jan 1 to Feb 13 2028. Rank CS #1, DS #2. Select Change of College into CDSS.Feb 2029 officially; treat Feb 2028 as real
6. Decision Mar 30 to Jun 1 2028; file the CDSS Program Plan form with the Change of College box to cdss-undergrad@berkeley.edu.Last safe: Summer 2028
7. Verify the new I-20 reads CIP 11.0701; check the APR against CDSS rules; file the CDSS APR Correction Form if wrong.Last safe: Fall 2028
8. If denied: apply to Economics in Fall 2028 (5th semester / 80 units, whichever comes second).Last safe: Sept 2028

What counts: MATH 51 + 52 (AP), MATH 54 (in progress), DATA C8 for CDSS Statistical Reasoning (CS majors do not auto-satisfy it), ENGLISH R1A for R&C A, PHILOS 12A for Philosophy & Values breadth, POLSCI 1 for Social & Behavioral plus AH&I.

What remains: CS 61A, 61B, 61C, 70; 24 upper-division units; R&C B; HSDDT (no exam option, not auto-satisfied by CS); five breadth areas; American Cultures; 12 upper-division units beyond the major to reach 36.

Overlap: none needed. Single major, single college, so the 2-course major-to-major cap and the 1-course major-to-minor cap are both unspent. Legitimate double-counts: POLSCI 1 (breadth plus AH&I); DATA C8 (Statistical Reasoning, free because CS auto-satisfies Computational Reasoning); an AC-designated breadth course; a second-semester foreign language for International Studies (CDSS-only); ECON 100A (CS tech elective plus Econ fallback core). Cannot double-count: one course one breadth area; DATA C104 as both HSDDT and the tech elective Unverified; CS/DATA courses as breadth Unverified.

OPT: 36 months on CIP 11.0701 Computer Science. The cleanest case available: one degree, one CIP, no Major 1 / Major 2 argument, no CIP/major-name mismatch letter needed, and the never-withdrawn 2016 SEVP dual-major FAQ does not apply.

Risks

• One real shot (Jan 2028); CS capacity "significantly smaller than in past years."
• The enrollment deadlock makes summer enrollment load-bearing; CS 61A/61B seats are not promised.
• The 3.0 GPA bar is undefined. AP Calc BC as "completed" Math 51/52 is unconfirmed and can invalidate the whole application.
• Fall 2028 Phase 1 runs before the decision. Change of college is a one-way door that deletes the Economics option.
• A Jan 2029 admit has zero slack; no 9th semester; DATA C8 must be a letter grade; HSDDT has no exam option; American Cultures is unsatisfied.
• 2027 and 2028 dates unpublished; catalog-versus-EECS conflicts unresolved.
• He is not a declared CS major until Fall 2028, after every first- and second-year recruiting program has closed; Citadel's graduation window may exclude a May 2030 graduate.

Lawyer fixes applied

Added seven breadth courses; added an HSDDT course (NWMEDIA 151AC, which also clears American Cultures and 4 UD units); closed the 36-UD-unit gap; corrected the technical-elective slot to ECON 100A and planned five upper-division CS courses rather than four; moved DATA/STAT C140 from Spring 2027 to Spring 2028 (prerequisite and GPA risk); added an L&S-advising hedge for the denial branch; downgraded Summer 2028 CS 61C from essential to preferred (CS 170 needs only 61B plus 70); flagged that CS 168 lists 61C as recommended, not required; added the ECON 100A prerequisite-override step; flagged DATA C8's grading option as urgent; corrected the 90-unit and unit-ceiling arithmetic.

Path B · Data Science B.A. (CDSS), single major, via Change of College

Feasible, more room than any other pathCoursework fits in about 6 semesters

Why it fits: 7 lower-division courses, of which 4 are already handled (DATA C8, MATH 54, and MATH 51/52 by AP). Only CS 61A, CS 61B and one Economics-domain lower-division course remain. The 8 upper-division courses total 32 units with the Economics domain, safely over the 28-unit floor. Three of the four CDSS essential skills are auto-satisfied by the major.

The rule that binds: admission, not arithmetic. Three windows only: Jan 2027, Jan 2028, Jan 2029. A Jan 2029 admit leaves exactly 2 CDSS terms at 12 units each, zero slack.

How to get in

1. Email ds-advising@berkeley.edu: does AP Calc BC 5 satisfy the "one additional course from Calculus 1, Calculus 2 or Intro Programming, completed with final grades posted" line?Last safe: Dec 2026
2. Take CS 61A in Spring 2027, it removes the AP ambiguity permanently.Last safe: Fall 2027
3. Apply Jan 1 to Feb 13 2027 (likely a throwaway) and again Jan 1 to Feb 13 2028 (the real one). Declare the Economics domain emphasis on the application.Last safe: Feb 2029
4. On admission, complete the CDSS confirmation form; change of college effective the following Fall.Last safe: last day of instruction, Fall 2029
5. Verify the I-20 shows CIP 11.0199.Within 21 days
6. Optional upgrade: Jan 2028 second cycle to add Computer Science as a CDSS double major. One CDSS major per cycle, so DS first, CS second.Last safe: Jan 2029

What counts: DATA C8 for Foundations; MATH 54 for Linear Algebra; AP Calc BC 5 for Calculus I and II; ENGLISH R1A for R&C A; PHILOS 12A for breadth; POLSCI 1 for breadth plus AH&I. Does not count: AP CS A (not Program Structures, not Computational Reasoning); AP Micro/Macro (not the domain-emphasis lower-division course); AP Physics C (no breadth).

What remains: CS 61A, CS 61B, ECON 1 (or ECON 2 or DATA 88E); 8 upper-division courses; R&C B; five breadth areas; American Cultures; MATH 53 (needed for the CS-add option and several C&ID courses).

Overlap: no major-to-major overlap to manage. Free double-counts: the HCE course auto-fills HSDDT ("Courses approved for the Human Contexts and Ethics requirement for the Data Science major will automatically fulfill" it); the DS major auto-fills Computational and Statistical Reasoning; a second-semester language fills International Studies; an AC course fills a breadth area; a breadth course may fill the domain's lower-division slot. Cannot: "A single course may satisfy only one requirement in the major", so ECON 140 cannot be both C&ID and domain emphasis.

OPT: 36 months on CIP 11.0199 Computer and Information Sciences, Other. Single major, no dual-major ambiguity. Prepare a CIP/major-name mismatch letter, because the diploma says Data Science and the CIP title does not.

Risks

• The AP-calculus question can kill the Jan 2027 attempt; comprehensive review is holistic and capacity-limited with no published GPA floor and no feedback on denials.
• CDSS prints a warning that the Economics domain emphasis is "heavily impacted, and often restricted by major to enroll." ECON 140's stats prerequisite does not name DATA C8.
• CS course access as a declared DS major is only implied by an asterisk convention, not stated; DATA C104 term offerings unverified; 2027 dates unpublished.
• The F-1 first-year change-of-objective rule; the 8-semester cap with the escape hatch pre-closed.
• The language requirement only disappears once the change of college actually posts; breadth cannot be bought with exams.
• Single-major slack is a real strategic cost: semesters 7 and 8 carry no major requirement at all.

Lawyer fixes applied

Added MATH 53 (absent from the original, gates CS 189, ECON 101A and most C&ID options); moved Probability out of Spring 2027 so it follows CS 61A and MATH 53; moved the change of college to Fall 2027 so the SEVIS change of educational objective posts after the first academic year; added an AC plus HCE plus HSDDT triple-duty course; rebuilt the term loads to about 139 units instead of a padded 156; added the "one course = one requirement" warning on ECON 140; added the 28-unit arithmetic check at the start of Fall 2029.

Path C · Economics B.A. (L&S), single major (the parachute)

Feasible, most slack of any pathNo admission lotteryForeign language can block the degree

Why it fits: the major is 8 upper-division courses plus 6 prerequisites, and AP kills 3 of the 6 prerequisites. Only the statistics course must be taken at Berkeley. Economics is guaranteed on prerequisites. The 8-semester cap, the 130-unit ceiling, the 5th-semester application window and the 90-unit hold are all non-binding.

The one thing that binds: the Foreign Language requirement. The degree is not conferred until it clears.

How to get in

1. Do not apply in the Fall 2026 cycle (zero core courses = denial). Fix the language filing. Check American Cultures on the APR. Verify AP credit in Dec 2026.Last safe: Fall 2026
2. Never take ECON 1/2 or MATH 51/52 at Berkeley, a Berkeley grade in an equivalent course enters the admission review.Permanent
3. Spring 2027: DATA C88S (the one Berkeley prerequisite: statistics plus quantitative residency plus named on ECON 140/141's enrollment line), MATH 53, ENGLISH R1B, ECON 101B.Last safe: Spring 2028 for the stats course
4. Fall 2027: ECON 101A plus ECON 141 in progress, then apply in the first five weeks.Last safe: Fall 2028 (5th semester / 80 units)
5. Mid-January 2028: auto-declared. Phase I access to the 5 electives opens.Last safe: Jan 2029
6. Confirm the reissued I-20 reads CIP 45.0603.On declaration

Why the 101-track (101A / 101B / 141) over 100A / 100B / 140: they are the department's quantitative versions and the strongest signal an Economics-only transcript can send. Difficulty is not a criterion. Credit restrictions mean you must pick one track and stay on it.

What counts: AP Micro 5 plus Macro 5 for ECON 1; AP Calc BC 5 for MATH 51 plus 52; POLSCI 1 for breadth plus AH&I; PHILOS 12A for Philosophy & Values; ENGLISH R1A for R&C A. MATH 54 and DATA C8 are not Economics prerequisites: MATH 54 exists here only to unlock ECON 141, and DATA C8 only to unlock DATA C88S.

What remains: the statistics prerequisite; 3 core plus 5 electives; R&C B; Foreign Language; five breadth areas; American Cultures; 6 upper-division units outside the Economics department or department cluster.

Overlap: POLSCI 1 (breadth plus AH&I); one AC course doubling as a breadth area; an ECON elective carrying a breadth attribute (check the GE attribute, do not assume); DATA C88S (statistics prerequisite plus quantitative residency plus ECON 140/141 enrollment). The two-course outside-department Economics cap is unspent, both slots stay free as insurance if a scheduled elective vanishes. Cannot: DATA C8 as the statistics prerequisite; any exam as breadth; R&C as breadth; PHILOS 12A in two areas.

OPT: 36 months on CIP 45.0603 Econometrics and Quantitative Economics. Single major, cleanest possible dual-major-free case. Requires BIO's CIP/major-name mismatch letter at STEM-extension time, because the diploma says Economics.

Risks

• Foreign Language is the only thing that can block the degree; American Cultures status is unknown.
• One deficient prerequisite grade is survivable, two is fatal; taking ECON 1/2 or MATH 51/52 at Berkeley is self-inflicted damage.
• ECON 101B enrollment in Spring 2027 depends on AP credit posting after Phase 1; the approved elective list is not an offered list.
• The honors track is ambiguous in the catalog; ECON 141's offering frequency is unverified; the MATH 53 prerequisite for ECON 101A could not be re-verified on the catalog.
• The F-1 first-year rule; Spring and Fall 2027 deadlines unposted; the catalog page is marked provisional.
• Recruiting is the real risk, not graduation.

Lawyer fixes applied

Named MATH 54 as a load-bearing ECON 141 dependency; named DATA C8 as the DATA C88S prerequisite and STAT 20 as the escape hatch; scheduled five breadth courses plus AC; added two upper-division non-Economics courses for the 6-UD-outside rule; rebuilt to about 117 Berkeley units (from 129) to leave 13+ units of ceiling headroom for a language sequence; set a hard language checkpoint at end of Spring 2027; flagged the MATH 53 AP-posting enrollment problem; corrected the 13-unit "floor" to the F-1 12-unit floor; flagged the "all intermediate core prerequisites at UC Berkeley" ambiguity for a written answer.

Path D · Economics plus Philosophy double major (L&S), no minor

Feasible, easiest path to fitWorst career verdict on the boardOPT contested

Why it fits: both majors are in L&S, so no second-college gate, no comprehensive review, no simultaneous-degree packet, no college change. Econ is 8 upper-division courses, Philosophy is 9; with 2 allowed overlaps that is 15 distinct upper-division courses. AP kills most of Econ's lower division.

The rule that binds: L&S grants a 9th semester to a declared double major, but the I-20 ends 17 May 2030 = 8 semesters. Zero recovery term.

How to get in

1. Fall 2026: three emails: BIO (first-year change-of-objective rule), Economics (AP-based enrollment override), and the language filing (transcripts plus APR Correction plus check for an A-level/IGCSE/GCSE/O-level language grade A to C, which clears it outright).
2. Fall 2027, first five weeks: apply to Economics.Last safe: Fall 2028
3. January 2028: Economics posts automatically. Verify it is the primary plan in CalCentral. This is an immigration decision, because Econ is CIP 45.0603 (STEM) and Philosophy is 38.0101 (not).
4. February 2028: file the L&S Double Major petition for Philosophy. Four steps or denial.Last safe by rule: before the first day of Spring 2030 classes. Last safe in practice: Fall 2028, because PHILOS 100 is majors-only and Fall 2028 Phase 1 runs in spring 2028
5. Spring 2028: get BIO's written confirmation that Economics stays Major 1.
6. By Fall 2027: settle the Philosophy Epistemology/Metaphysics 2-versus-4 dispute in writing with ugphil-advisor@berkeley.edu.
7. First week of Spring 2030: put yourself on the degree list.

What counts and does not: as Path C, plus PHILOS 12A = the Philosophy major's Logic requirement (one of the 12) and Philosophy & Values breadth. MATH 54 is neither an Econ prerequisite nor a Philosophy requirement, its only job is unlocking ECON 141.

What remains: 1 Econ prerequisite plus 8 Econ upper-division; 11 Philosophy courses; R&C B; Foreign Language; four breadth areas; American Cultures.

Overlap: the 2-course cap is spent on PHILOS 141 (Philosophy elective plus one of Economics' two outside-department slots) and ECON 119 or C110 (Economics elective plus Philosophy's single non-PHILOS elective). Both are unverified for offering frequency. Free double-counts: PHILOS 12A (major plus breadth), PHILOS 25A (major plus Historical Studies), POLSCI 1, an AC course. PHILOS 25B gets no breadth credit, because 12A and 25A already use both Philosophy-department breadth slots.

OPT: 36 months, but contested. Driver is Economics 45.0603. Philosophy 38.0101 is not on the DHS list. An L&S double major produces ONE B.A., which is exactly the fact pattern the never-withdrawn April 2016 SEVP FAQ addresses: "if a student receives one degree with dual majors where one of the majors is in STEM, the student cannot base STEM OPT upon the major if the degree itself is not a STEM degree." The current SEVIS Help Hub says "primary or secondary major" is fine. Mitigation: declare Economics first so 45.0603 is Major 1, get BIO's position in writing by Spring 2028, and treat dropping Philosophy as the fallback.

Risks

• The contested STEM OPT reading; no 9th semester and no unit headroom.
• The Foreign Language route Andy was counting on was deleted for his exact cohort.
• The Philosophy Epistemology/Metaphysics 2-versus-4 conflict (Group B is one course, and neither Group A nor Group B was offered in Fall 2026); both overlap courses may simply not be offered.
• Economics electives cannot be planned off the approved list; one bad grade can cost the major outright.
• Spring 2027 Phase 1 runs before AP credit posts; upper-division enrollment is gated by declaration status in both departments.
• The "department cluster" wording in the 6-UD-outside rule is undefined; source currency is shaky.

Lawyer fixes applied

Added MATH 53 (absent, but required by both ECON 101A and ECON 141; without it neither Fall 2027 core course is enrollable and the whole declaration timeline collapses); scheduled four breadth courses; scheduled R&C Part B; scheduled American Cultures onto a breadth course; budgeted a two-term language sequence in Fall 2028 and Spring 2029 rather than leaving it as an unfunded contingency; corrected the overlap budget to 17 upper-division courses assuming zero verified overlaps; corrected the 136-unit "no headroom" misreading (the rule is "whichever comes second"); corrected the 90-unit hold arithmetic; restricted History II to 153/155/156A/160 to 188.

Path E · Economics plus Philosophy double major (L&S) plus Computer Science minor (CoE/EECS)

Feasible in 8 semestersEasiest to get intoWorst to get hired from

The easiest path to get into and the worst to get hired from. No capped major anywhere: Economics is guaranteed, Philosophy is open declaration, the CS minor is a rolling form. No college change. CDSS comprehensive review does not apply.

The rules that bind: CS 61C is closed to "Other Declared Major" students in fall and spring, so it must be a summer course or a California community college equivalent; the one-course-total overlap rule between all majors and minors; the 8-semester / 136-unit ceiling with zero slack.

How to get in, in order (you cannot reorder these)

1. Declare Economics first, apply in the first five weeks of Fall 2027 with ECON 100A and 100B in progress. Decision mid-January 2028.
2. Then petition the Philosophy double major, February 2028, so it clears before Fall 2028 Phase 1. PHILOS 100 is closed to non-majors.
3. Then apply for the CS minor, rolling, once 4 of 7 requirements are done (Fall 2028). Requires a declared non-CS major, which step 1 provides.Deadline: end of Fall 2029, EECS "declare their minor 1 semester before graduation"
4. Spring 2030: CS Minor Completion Form by the Friday before RRR week; Completion of L&S Minor form; degree list; Foreign Language must read Satisfied.

Overlap: exactly three double-counts

• PHILOS 141 for Philosophy elective plus Economics upper-division elective (uses 1 of Economics' 2 outside-department slots). Overlap 1 of 2.
• ECON C110 for Economics elective plus Philosophy's single outside-department elective. Overlap 2 of 2. Credit restriction: no credit for C110 after ECON 104. ECON 105 is a dead backup, last offered 2019.
• ECON C147 / COMPSCI C177 for Economics elective plus one of the three CS minor upper-division courses. This is the one allowed major-to-minor overlap, total, across everything. Unverified whether the course is scheduled in 2029-30 and whether EECS accepts an ECON-numbered enrollment toward the minor. Fallback: COMPSCI 168 in its place and zero major-to-minor overlap.

OPT: 36 months, driven entirely by Economics 45.0603. The CS minor contributes nothing, because every eligibility statement is written in terms of a degree or a major. Same contested dual-major exposure as Path D.

Risks

• The CS 61C and upper-division CS enrollment block, with two summers load-bearing and EECS stating "completion of the minor is not guaranteed."
• The Philosophy Epistemology/Metaphysics 2-versus-4 conflict; thin Group A and Group B offerings; PHILOS 100 sits at the end of a four-link dependency chain.
• ECON 140's prerequisite names STAT 88 not DATA C88S; Spring 2027 Phase 1 predates AP credit.
• The Foreign Language cohort change; American Cultures unsatisfied.
• 161 Berkeley units against a 136 ceiling, safe only because the ceiling is not assessed when you graduate inside your semester allowance; Philosophy unit values unverified.

Lawyer fixes applied

Added DATA C8 in Fall 2026 (the DATA C88S prerequisite the plan omitted); removed CS 188 from Spring 2028 as an undeclared student (enrollment table blocks it); added a Summer 2029 Berkeley upper-division CS course, because the minor needs three upper-division courses all taken at Berkeley and only CS 168 and 188 are reachable in fall and spring; scheduled all seven breadth areas and American Cultures; added an explicit language contingency; corrected the minor's two GPA tests and the "no outside-department courses for the three minor electives" rule; flagged the ECON C147/C177 overlap as unverified in two ways.

Path F · Economics plus Philosophy double major (L&S) plus Data Science minor (CDSS)

Feasible, 132 Berkeley unitsNo competitive admission anywhereRanked #5 of 5

Every term 16 to 19 units. CDSS comprehensive review gates CDSS majors, not minors, so this path never touches it, never gets rejected, never needs a backup.

The rules that bind and are all cleared: I-20 = 8 semesters; 2 upper-division overlaps between the majors (PHILOS 141 and ECON 119); 1 upper-division overlap between a major and the minor (ECON 140); Economics' 2-course outside-department cap (1 used); Philosophy's single non-PHILOS elective (used by ECON 119); the DS minor's second, independent cap of one course from the major department (used by ECON 140).

How to get in

1. Fall 2026: file the language paperwork; check American Cultures; never take ECON 1/2 or MATH 51/52 at Berkeley.Last safe: Fall 2026
2. Spring 2027: ECON 100A, PHILOS 25B, DATA C88S, CS 61A.
3. Declare the DS minor once DATA C8 posts (Dec 2026) plus two more minor courses are in progress. Google Form https://forms.gle/kENfVQ2bcEMvtgRLA, batched 4 times a year. Recommended: the first batch on or after Fall 2027, to sit clear of the F-1 first-year rule.Last safe: before the first day of Spring 2030
4. Fall 2027: apply to Economics with ECON 100B and ECON 140 in progress.Last safe: Fall 2028
5. January 2028: Economics posts automatically. Verify it is the primary plan.
6. Late Jan to Feb 2028: file the L&S Double Major petition for Philosophy. Before Fall 2028 Phase 1, or PHILOS 100 slips a year.Last safe: Fall 2028 in practice
7. February 2028: BIO in writing. Is Economics Major 1, and will BIO recommend STEM OPT on it?
8. Before Fall 2028 Phase 1: get six written adviser answers (Epist/Met 2-versus-4; ECON 119 as Philosophy's outside elective; PHILOS 141 as a Philosophy elective; PHILOS 141 as an Economics outside-department elective; ECON 140 as the DS-minor overlap; DATA C88S clearing ECON 140's "STAT 88" line).Last safe: Fall 2027 for the last one
9. Spring 2030: degree list; DS Minor Completion form by the last day of classes; Completion of L&S Minor form.

Overlap: ECON 140 = Economics core plus DS minor upper-division elective (the single major-to-minor overlap, and it is also the only major-department course in the minor's upper-division block, satisfying the second cap). PHILOS 141 and ECON 119 = the two major-to-major overlaps. DATA C88S is free, because the overlap rules govern upper-division courses only, and 88 is lower division. Cannot: PHILOS 121 as the DS-minor HCE course on top of ECON 140, because the minor allows a maximum of one course from the student's major departments in its upper-division block.

OPT: 36 months, driven by Economics 45.0603. Philosophy 38.0101 contributes nothing; the Data Science minor contributes nothing, no OPT eligibility text anywhere references a minor. Same contested dual-major reading as D and E. A simultaneous degree would remove that exposure entirely; this path cannot.

Risks

• The contested STEM-OPT dual-major reading; PHILOS 141 and ECON 119 offering frequency unverified; the Epistemology/Metaphysics conflict; PHILOS 100's dependency chain.
• ECON 140's stats prerequisite naming; ECON 100A enrollment before AP credit posts; the language requirement; American Cultures not on the APR.
• Spring 2027 is the highest-variance term and the one the major admission depends on.
• DS minor batch cutoffs published only through January 2027; DATA C104 offering pattern unverified; CS 61A seat risk; the APR's unexplained 20-unit figure.

Lawyer fixes applied

Scheduled the Seven-Course Breadth (absent entirely from the original); scheduled American Cultures; budgeted the language contingency; corrected DATA C140 out of the DS-minor upper-division elective slot (C140 is a Probability option and DATA C88S already fills that slot, and one course cannot satisfy two requirements inside the same minor); moved ENGLISH R1B out of a 19-unit Spring 2027; moved ECON 140 into Fall 2027 and all electives to Fall 2028+ because upper-division Econ is Phase-I restricted to declared majors; flagged the DATA C88S lower-division overlap question; flagged that ECON 140's presence on the DS minor elective list is unverified.

Path G · Economics plus Philosophy double major (L&S) plus Mathematics minor

Feasible, tightlyOnly with the right declaration orderStrongest transcript, wrong degree line

Why it fits: no second college, no comprehensive review, no simultaneous-degree packet, no change of college. 28 courses left over 7 terms, about 16 units per term.

The chain that sets the whole plan: MATH 53 gates ECON 101A and ECON 141 and the Math-minor declaration; PHILOS 25A and 25B are fall-only and spring-only; PHILOS 100 is majors-only, which requires the double-major petition, which requires Economics to be declared first, which requires two core courses.

How to get in

1. Fall 2026: letter grade in MATH 54; email ugphil-advisor@berkeley.edu (Epist/Met 2-versus-4, minor course count) and the Math staff adviser (elective count: 1 or 3?); start the language filing.
2. Spring 2027: MATH 53, DATA C88S, PHILOS 25B, ENGLISH R1B, a Physical Science breadth course.
3. Fall 2027: ECON 101A plus ECON 101B, then apply to Economics in the first five weeks. Also PHILOS 25A.Last safe: Fall 2028
4. Spring 2028, weeks 1 to 4, strictly in this order: (a) Economics posts automatically, verify it is the primary plan for CIP reasons; (b) file the L&S Double Major petition for Philosophy; (c) file the Math minor Google Form https://forms.gle/RnPemNoCLsqQTDUF6 (now legal, a major is declared and 51/52/53/54 are complete); (d) get four written adviser answers.
5. Fall 2028: PHILOS 100, the first term it is enrollable.
6. Math minor deadline: by end of Fall 2029 (department rule, stricter than L&S's).End of Fall 2029

Overlap: exactly three

• PHILOS 141 for Philosophy elective plus Economics outside-department elective (1 of 2 slots).
• ECON C110 (or 119) for Economics in-department elective plus Philosophy's single non-PHILOS elective.
• MATH C103 / ECON C103 for Mathematics-minor elective plus Economics elective. Cross-listed, so it costs zero outside-department slots. This is the single allowed major-to-minor overlap.
• MATH 104, 110, 113, 185 appear on neither department's approved list, so they are pure minor coursework, which conveniently satisfies the L&S "6 upper-division units outside the major department" rule.

OPT: 36 months on Economics 45.0603, contested for the same dual-major reason. The Mathematics minor, the most mathematically serious part of the path, contributes nothing to OPT.

Risks

• The Foreign Language cohort change (highest probability breaker); the Philosophy Epist/Met 2-versus-4 conflict.
• The Math minor elective 1-versus-3 conflict: if the catalog reading is audited, the minor becomes 7 upper-division courses / 28 units.
• The two Econ-to-Philosophy overlaps are unconfirmed; offering frequency is the quiet killer (the Philosophy department does not guarantee its pattern, and no Group A or Group B Epist/Met course ran in Fall 2026).
• ECON 101A/101B/141 offering frequency unverified; PHILOS 100 is a single point of failure at the end of a chain; AP credit posts after Spring 2027 Phase 1.
• Econ declaration is unforgiving on grades; no ninth semester exists.
• MATH 104 and 113 are where the minor dies: the department itself advises B- or better in 53 and 54 first, and calls 104 "particularly demanding."
• Breadth courses unnamed; the catalog is marked provisional; unit ceiling about 136 with one slip from binding.

Lawyer fixes applied

Corrected the false claim that PHILOS 100 gates the rest of the Philosophy upper division (only 100 itself is majors-restricted), because starting the other upper-division Philosophy courses in Spring 2028 is what creates the slack the plan needs; named MATH 54 as a load-bearing ECON 141 and Math-minor dependency; scheduled American Cultures and all seven breadth areas; set a hard language decision date of June 2027 with Summer 2028 as the release valve; named the three overlap courses explicitly; made Spring 2030 hold only substitutable courses; corrected the 90-unit arithmetic; noted DATA C88S's dependency on DATA C8 and STAT 20 as the escape hatch.

Path H · Economics B.A. (L&S) plus Computer Science B.A. (CDSS), simultaneous degrees

RecommendedFeasible in 8 semesters, no 9thOne real shot: January 2028

Why it fits: 131 units across 8 Fall and Spring terms (15 to 19 each) plus 4 units in Summer 2028. AP Calc BC 5 wipes out MATH 51 and 52 for both degrees at once; AP Micro plus Macro wipes out ECON 1. That is about 20 units Andy never sits through. Economics needs 8 upper-division courses; CS needs 4 lower-division courses plus 24 upper-division units. He crosses 90 units during Spring 2028 and is a declared CDSS student from Fall 2028, so 4 terms and about 63 units against a 24-unit / 2-term senior-residence rule.

Why January 2028 is the only real cycle: January 2027 is impossible (CS requires at least one of 61A/61B/70 with a posted grade; he will have none). January 2029 fails the packet rule outright, because CDSS requires the simultaneous-degree packet "at least two terms prior to graduation" and bars declaring one in the final term, so a June 1 2029 decision leaves only Fall 2029, one term.

How to get in, in order

The order is not optional. The L&S petition requires an L&S major adviser's signature, so Economics must be declared before the packet can move.

1. Fall 2026: fix the language filing; email cs-advising@cs.berkeley.edu (AP Calc BC as "completed"; 3.0 GPA scope; design-course double-count; which non-CS list governs); join the CDSS interest list; protect MATH 54, DATA C8 and R1A grades.Last safe: Fall 2026
2. Spring 2027: COMPSCI 61A, DATA C88S (Econ statistics plus quantitative residency plus named on ECON 140's enrollment line), ECON 100A, ENGLISH R1B. Never take MATH 51/52/ECON 1/2 at Berkeley.Last safe: Fall 2027 for 61A
3. Fall 2027: COMPSCI 61B plus COMPSCI 70 (term 3 = unrestricted CS 70 access), ECON 100B, one breadth course. Apply to the Economics major in the first five weeks with 100B in progress.Fall 2028 officially; treat Fall 2027 as real
4. Mid-January 2028: Economics declares automatically. Jan 1 to Feb 13 2028: file the CDSS comprehensive review. Rank CS #1, Statistics and Data Science below it. Select Simultaneous Degree, not Change of College.Jan 2029 officially; Jan 2028 in practice
5. Apr 2028: Fall 2028 Phase 1 runs before the decision, so register CS 61C for Summer 2028 as the hedge.Last safe: Summer 2028
6. Summer or Fall 2028: file the Simultaneous Degree packet plus Degree Requirement Worksheet. L&S Econ adviser signs, then lspetitions@berkeley.edu (10 to 15 business days), then CDSS major and college advisers sign, then cdss-undergrad@berkeley.edu. Signatures dated within four months.Last safe: Spring 2029
7. Fall 2028: confirm the new I-20 carries both plan codes and ask which prints as Major 1.Last safe: Fall 2028
8. Spring 2030: both degrees must be conferred in the same term. File I-765 from about 16 Feb 2030 with Form I-539.

What counts: MATH 51 plus 52 (AP, both degrees); ECON 1 (AP Micro plus Macro); MATH 54 (CS lower division, not an Econ prerequisite); DATA C8 (CDSS Statistical Reasoning, since CS auto-satisfies only Computational Reasoning); ENGLISH R1A; PHILOS 12A (Philosophy & Values breadth); POLSCI 1 (Social & Behavioral plus AH&I).

What remains: CS 61A, 61B, 61C, 70; 24 CS upper-division units; the Econ statistics prerequisite; 3 Econ core plus 5 Econ electives; R&C B; Foreign Language (L&S is still the home college, so this does NOT disappear); HSDDT; five breadth areas; American Cultures.

Under the 136-unit simultaneous-degree ceiling. Every term at or below 16 units, which stays inside the Phase 2 17.5-unit cap so a late-clearing restricted course can still be added.

Overlap: one solid, one opportunistic, cap is two

• Overlap #1 (planned): ECON 140 = Economics upper-division core econometrics and the CS 4-unit upper-division technical elective. ECON 140 is on the EECS approved non-CS technical electives list, is 4 units, and is letter-graded. Worth 4 units back.
• Overlap #2 (bonus, do not plan on it): ECON C147 = COMPSCI C177. If offered, it counts as an Economics elective and fills 4 of the 8 upper-division COMPSCI units because it carries a COMPSCI title. Offering frequency not stated in source; the catalog's Economics course data is a stale snapshot. The plan assumes one overlap and still fits.
• Cannot: ECON 100A and 100B both into CS (the major has one non-CS slot and ECON 140 is in it); DATA C8 for two essential skills; MATH 54 for anything in Economics; a breadth course for two areas; R&C for breadth; any exam for breadth.
• Uncapped: non-major requirements. "You can overlap more than two upper division courses for non-major requirements, such as college general education requirements."

OPT: 36 months, double-covered. CS = CIP 11.0701; Economics = CIP 45.0603. Both on the DHS STEM list. Use CS as the basis, because the diploma says Computer Science and the CIP title says Computer Science, so no mismatch letter is needed; Economics would need one. The regulation explicitly blesses this shape: the extension is for "the first qualifying degree … including any qualifying degree as part of a dual degree program," and the basis degree "may be, but is not required to be, the degree that is the basis for the post-completion OPT period." So a quant job related to either degree qualifies. Two bachelor's degrees do not create two 12-month pools; the ceiling is 12 plus 24 = 36.

Risks

• One shot at Jan 2028; CS capacity shrinking by CDSS's own statement.
• The enrollment deadlock (CS 61C and restricted upper-division CS closed to "Other Declared Major" students, so Summer 2028 is the hedge and Fall 2028 Phase 1 runs before the decision); CS 61A/61B seat risk.
• The undefined 3.0 GPA scope with averaged retakes and NP = 0.0. AP Calc BC as "completed" Math 51/52 is unconfirmed.
• ECON 100A enrollment in Spring 2027 before AP credit posts. The Foreign Language requirement still binds because L&S stays the home college.
• The 20-versus-24 upper-division unit conflict and the catalog-versus-EECS list conflicts; the Economics approved elective list is not an offered list.
• Simultaneous-degree approval "is not guaranteed" and needs four signatures within a four-month window.
• Order-of-operations failure: if the Fall 2027 Econ application slips to Spring 2028 the declaration arrives mid-June 2028 and compresses the packet window.
• No 9th semester on either side. Unverified whether CDSS applies the L&S major/breadth double-dip; AP unit total is an estimate.

Lawyer fixes applied

Added seven breadth courses (the original budgeted one); added the HSDDT essential skill (auto-satisfied by Data Science only, never by CS) on a course that also clears American Cultures and a breadth area; reduced Fall 2028 to one upper-division CS course added in the adjustment period, because Phase 1 runs before the decision and before the declaration posts; moved MATH 53 out of a 19-unit Spring 2027 that sets the comprehensive-review GPA; named the CS 61A fallback (Summer 2027); moved all five Economics electives to Fall 2028+ because upper-division Econ is Phase-I restricted to declared majors; added the Early Review question to the Fall 2027 application; capped every term at 16 units to stay inside the Phase 2 17.5 cap; added the AH&I F-1 exemption note; kept the two upper-division sets disjoint so neither overlap cap is accidentally spent.

Path I · Economics B.A. (L&S) plus Data Science B.A. (CDSS), simultaneous degrees

Feasible in 8 semesters with room to spareMuch friendlier admission oddsWeaker word on the degree line

Same architecture as Path H, weaker word, much friendlier admission odds.

Why it fits: the two majors share the two upper-division courses the rules allow, so the real load is 14 distinct upper-division courses (8 Econ plus 8 DS minus 2 shared) = 56 upper-division units, plus 7 lower-division courses and 5 breadth courses. That is about 14.4 units per term over the 7 terms after Fall 2026.

Rules cleared: the CDSS 8-semester cap; comprehensive review no later than the 6th semester (Jan 2027 / Jan 2028 / Jan 2029); the packet "at least two terms prior to graduation" (filed Fall 2028, four terms early); CDSS senior residence (admitted Fall 2028, so 4 terms, 62 units); the Economics 5th-semester window (applies in semester 3); the L&S 90-unit hold (declared at about 54 Berkeley units).

Why January 2028 is the last safe window: a Jan 2029 admit takes effect Fall 2029 = semester 7, which breaks the two-terms-before-graduation packet rule and leaves CDSS senior residence at exactly 2 terms and 24 units.

How to get in

1. Now: email ds-advising@berkeley.edu about AP calculus as a "final grades posted" course; email BIO about the first-year change-of-objective rule and about which CIP prints as Major 1; file the language paperwork.
2. Spring 2027: take COMPSCI 61A. It is the load-bearing course, because a real Berkeley letter grade in "Intro Programming" makes the Jan 2028 application bulletproof regardless of the AP answer. Also DATA C88S (Econ statistics plus quantitative residency plus the "STAT 88" name on ECON 140's enrollment line) and MATH 53.
3. Jan 1 to Feb 13 2027: free shot (likely ineligible). Rank Data Science first. Declare the Economics domain emphasis on the application.
4. Fall 2027, first five weeks: apply to the Economics major with ECON 101A and ECON 141 in progress, two cores from different subjects, both on the Phase-I exception list open to undeclared students.
5. Jan 1 to Feb 13 2028: the real CDSS application. By then DATA C8, MATH 54, CS 61A, CS 61B and DATA 88E are posted, far past the second-year bar of 5 lower-division courses.
6. Fall 2028: file both simultaneous-degree packets (L&S petition plus Degree Requirement Worksheet to lspetitions@berkeley.edu; CDSS packet to cdss-undergrad@berkeley.edu). Collect all signatures in one August to September window; they expire after four months.
7. Minors: none. Economics has no minor; a DS major cannot hold the DS minor; a Statistics minor buys nothing under the one-course-total overlap rule.

Overlap: exactly two, and both are Economics courses

• ECON 141 = Economics upper-division core econometrics and DS Economics Domain Emphasis upper-division course #1.
• A second ECON domain course (ECON 148 is the usual pick) = Economics elective and DS domain course #2.
• Critical: the two Computational & Inferential Depth courses must be non-ECON. "A single course may satisfy only one requirement in the major," and the DS FAQ's own example is that ECON 140 cannot count for both C&ID and the Economics domain.
• DATA C88S is free, it serves the Econ statistics prerequisite and (in other configurations) a DS slot, and the overlap caps govern upper-division courses only. Unverified whether a lower-division course counted toward a major prerequisite and a minor or second-major requirement consumes an overlap; CDSS's wording says "upper-division," L&S's does not. Ask L&S College Advising.
• Do not use DATA/STAT C140 as the Economics statistics prerequisite, it is upper-division and would risk burning an overlap slot; DATA C88S is lower division and cheaper.

OPT: 36 months, double-covered. DS = CIP 11.0199; Economics = CIP 45.0603. Both STEM. Use Data Science as the basis, because the diploma says Data Science and the CIP title says Computer and Information Sciences, which is a cleaner story than Economics's "Econometrics and Quantitative Economics." Both degrees must be conferred in the same term: "If you complete a program after September 15, 2026 at one educational level, you cannot change to the same or lower educational level in the future."

Risks

• The AP-calculus ambiguity (mitigated by CS 61A); comprehensive review is holistic with no published GPA floor.
• The Economics domain emphasis is "heavily impacted, and often restricted by major to enroll," though Andy has Phase I access from January 2028 as a declared Econ major.
• ECON 140/141's stats prerequisite naming; DS upper-division prerequisite chains not stated in source; the overlap-denial risk if a third course creeps in.
• Exact 2027 and 2028 dates unpublished; the F-1 first-year rule; two Econ core courses in one term concentrates grade risk.
• No 9th semester on either side; whether CDSS applies the L&S major/breadth double-dip is unstated.

Lawyer fixes applied

Flagged that the January 2027 window is not eligible as built (MATH 54 is linear algebra, not calculus or intro programming, and exam credit carries no letter grade); mapped all seven breadth areas and scheduled American Cultures; budgeted the Foreign Language contingency into two slack slots held open until the APR flips; replaced the ECON 101A plus ECON 101B pairing with ECON 101A plus ECON 141 for the Fall 2027 application (different subjects, both on the Phase-I exception list, and 141 is the overlap course, with every prerequisite complete by Spring 2027); named the two overlap courses explicitly; restricted the C&ID courses to non-ECON options with supportable prerequisite chains; moved all Economics electives to Fall 2028+ because Phase I for Spring 2028 closed in October 2027; flagged DATA 88E's approval and offering as unverified; flagged the AP Calculus BC single point of failure (that one score does four jobs); added the 28-unit escape-clause check.

Path J · Data Science B.A. (CDSS, Economics domain emphasis) plus Philosophy minor

Feasible, structurally the lightest pathAdmission is the whole riskRank DS #1 or this path disappears

One degree, one college, one minor. No simultaneous-degree petition, no two-college deadline conflict, no 9th-semester argument, and the L&S Foreign Language problem disappears on the change of college.

Why it fits: the DS major is 7 lower-division plus 8 upper-division courses, four of the seven lower-division slots are already handled, the Economics-domain eight-course upper-division set totals 30 to 32 units against a 28 floor, and three of the four CDSS essential skills are auto-satisfied. The Philosophy minor is 6 courses, one of which (PHILOS 121) double-counts.

How to get in

1. Fall 2026: email ds-advising@berkeley.edu about AP calculus and about whether re-application after a denial is allowed; email BIO; file the language paperwork anyway, it still binds until the change of college posts.
2. Optional, hard deadline Sept 16 2026: swapping PHILOS 12A for CS 61A would make the January 2027 window genuinely eligible and buy 6 CDSS terms instead of 4. Cost: starting 61A in week 3, in the term the application is read on. Not recommended.Sept 16, 2026
3. Jan 2027: submit as a throwaway only if ds-advising confirms re-application is allowed.
4. Fall 2027: declare the Philosophy MAJOR as a placeholder. Open declaration, no GPA gate, triggered by holding 12A plus 25B and being enrolled in 25A. This is the fix for the L&S junior-year declaration deadline and the 90-in-progress-unit registration hold on every branch where CDSS admission slips.
5. Jan 1 to Feb 13 2028: the real CDSS application. DATA C8, CS 61A, MATH 54, CS 61B and ECON 1 all posted = 5 lower-division courses against a 5-course bar.
6. Fall 2028: change of college posts; drop the Philosophy major and declare the Philosophy minor (two minor requirements done at Cal: 25B and PHILOS 121); verify the I-20 reads CIP 11.0199.
7. Jan 2029: last legal CDSS window if both earlier attempts failed.
8. Spring 2030: degree list; Completion of L&S Minor form.

Overlap: PHILOS 121 = DS major Human Contexts & Ethics and Philosophy minor upper-division elective. That is the one allowed major-to-minor overlap. Free double-counts: PHILOS 25A (minor lower-division plus Historical Studies breadth); POLSCI 1; an AC course also filling a breadth area; a second-semester language for International Studies (CDSS-only); DATA C8 (Foundations plus Statistical Reasoning, which is auto-satisfied by the major anyway). Cannot: PHILOS 12A toward the minor at all; PHILOS 25B for breadth (12A and 25A already use both Philosophy breadth slots); ECON 140 for both C&ID and the domain emphasis.

OPT: 36 months on CIP 11.0199, the cleanest single-CIP case. The Philosophy minor is invisible to immigration in both directions.

Risks

• Admission is the whole risk; the AP-calculus question.
• The Economics domain emphasis carries CDSS's own "heavily impacted" warning and there is no enrollment priority for DS majors in domain courses.
• The language requirement is two-sided: gone if CDSS admits, live if it does not.
• PHILOS 121's offering is not guaranteed and it carries the only overlap; Philosophy upper-division enrollment is Phase II for non-majors.
• Offering terms unverified for DATA C101/C102/C104 and DATA 88E; prerequisite details not stated in source for DATA C100, STAT 135 and ECON 100A.
• The Jan 2029 window leaves zero senior-residence slack; the F-1 first-year rule; an adviser could read the major/breadth overlap differently at CDSS.
• The Philosophy minor sits on a catalog 5-versus-6-course conflict. Taking ECON 1 forfeits the AP Economics units (accepted, because exam credit cannot satisfy the domain emphasis under any circumstances).
• No second major means an all-three-denials scenario leaves him with nothing unless the Econ hedge is filed by Fall 2028.

Lawyer fixes applied

Corrected the "ranking CS first costs nothing" advice; added a Fall 2027 Philosophy-major placeholder declaration to clear the L&S junior-year deadline and the 90-unit hold on the denial branch; flagged that January 2027 is not eligible as built; removed ECON 140/141 from the plan (its statistics prerequisite is unbought and ECON 141 needs MATH 53) in favour of ECON 100A plus ECON 100B; flagged the DATA C140 Spring 2027 prerequisite-override need (calculus arrives as AP credit after Phase 1); kept the Economics major alive as a free STEM fallback (DATA C140 is on the Econ statistics list and is taken at Berkeley); scheduled all seven breadth areas and American Cultures; corrected the unit and upper-division totals; restricted the MLDM pick to options that do not require CS 70.

Path K · Computer Science B.A. (CDSS) plus Philosophy minor

Feasible in 8 semestersSame one-shot CS gate as Path AMinor is worth nothing to recruiters or OPT

Same CS gate as Path A, plus a minor that is worth nothing to a recruiter and nothing to OPT, but which does close the 36-upper-division-unit gap that the CS major alone cannot.

The three binding rules: the EECS comprehensive-review prerequisite (at least one of CS 61A/61B/70 completed with a final grade, which makes January 2027 impossible); the CDSS 8-semester cap with the minor explicitly barred from buying a 9th; and the enrollment deadlock that forces all major work into semesters 5 to 8. One piece of good news: CS 70 has no restrictions for L&S undeclared students in terms 3 to 4, and Fall 2027 is term 3.

How to get in

1. Fall 2026: letter grade in MATH 54; never take a CS or math major course P/NP (retakes are averaged, NP = 0.0); CDSS interest form; email cs-advising@cs.berkeley.edu (four questions) and ugphil-advisor@berkeley.edu (is the minor six courses; may a CDSS-college student declare it).
2. Spring 2027: CS 61A (Phase 1, waitlist if needed; Summer 2027 backup), ENGLISH R1B, DATA C8 (the missing Statistical Reasoning essential skill), PHILOS 25B.
3. Fall 2027: CS 61B plus CS 70 in term 3; PHILOS Ethics; a breadth course.
4. Jan 1 to Feb 13 2028: file the comprehensive review. Select Change of College. Rank CS #1, DS #2 (only if he would genuinely accept DS).
5. Fall 2028: first CDSS term, CS 61C becomes enrollable; verify the I-20 shows CIP 11.0701.
6. Summer or Fall 2028: declare the Philosophy minor once two minor requirements are done at Cal.Last safe: Fall 2029
7. Spring 2030: degree list; Completion of L&S Minor form.

Overlap: PHILOS 121 for CDSS HSDDT essential skill plus Philosophy minor elective. This is legal double-counting and does not consume the one-course major-to-minor allowance, because HSDDT is a college requirement, not a major requirement. PHILOS 25B for minor lower-division plus Historical Studies breadth. Optional, one only: PHILOS 140A, 140B or 143 are on the EECS approved technical-elective list, so one could serve as the CS technical elective and a minor elective, but 140A and 140B "are typically offered in alternate years," so DATA C100 is the robust choice and the major-to-minor allowance simply goes unused. Cannot: a second major-to-minor overlap; a third PHILOS breadth course (12A and 25B use both slots); PHILOS 12A toward the minor.

OPT: 36 months on CIP 11.0701. Cleanest possible case: single STEM major on a single STEM degree, no dual-major ambiguity, no CIP/major-name mismatch letter. The Philosophy minor can neither create nor destroy STEM OPT eligibility.

Risks

• The same one-shot CS gate as Path A, with less slack. If denied he sits L&S-undeclared into a 90-in-progress-unit registration hold with no L&S fallback built in.
• The CS 61C and upper-division CS enrollment block; CS 61A seat risk; the undefined 3.0 GPA bar; the AP Calc BC question.
• The Philosophy minor's 5-versus-6-course conflict and its two separate GPA tests; Philosophy upper-division Phase II access; the department's non-guaranteed offering pattern.
• Unverified whether a CDSS-college student may complete an L&S minor; the 20-versus-24 CS upper-division unit conflict; the catalog workload warning.
• No ninth semester, and since 15 Sept 2026 asking for one also costs a Form I-539 with adjudication risk. Two undeclared years across both first-year and second-year recruiting cycles.

Lawyer fixes applied

Added DATA C8 for the CDSS Statistical Reasoning essential skill (the plan omitted it entirely, and CS majors auto-satisfy only Computational Reasoning); added PHILOS 121 for HSDDT (auto-satisfied by Data Science only, no exam option) and showed it double-counting into the minor legally; removed CS 188 from Spring 2028 as an undeclared student; added a Fall 2028 Philosophy-major-or-Econ contingency for the denial branch (the 90-in-progress-unit hold lands while registering for Spring 2029); scheduled PHILOS 25A and 25B into real terms and named the minor's Ethics and Epistemology/Metaphysics distribution rules; budgeted seven breadth courses; carried seven upper-division CS/technical courses so the plan survives either the 20 or the 24 unit reading; corrected the unit and upper-division totals.

F-1 and OPT consequences

Three layers, a CIP table, and thirteen mechanics Andy has to execute himself.

The three layers

Ceiling on any bachelor's path: 12 plus 24 = 36 months. Two simultaneous bachelor's degrees do not create two 12-month pools: "A student may be authorized 12 months of practical training, and becomes eligible for another 12 months of practical training when they change to a higher educational level."

CIP codes (BIO UCB Major/CIP Code List, last updated 9/3/2026)

Path-by-path outcome

Why the Philosophy paths are contested

Two official DHS statements point opposite ways, and an L&S double major is exactly the fact pattern:

• Current, SEVIS Help Hub (updated 27 July 2026): a first STEM extension may be requested if the "Student's primary or secondary major was a STEM-eligible field." Under this, Econ as Major 1 or Major 2 qualifies.
• Older, SEVP STEM OPT Webinar FAQ (14 April 2016), never formally withdrawn: "if a student receives one degree with dual majors where one of the majors is in STEM, the student cannot base STEM OPT upon the major if the degree itself is not a STEM degree."

A double major produces one B.A. A simultaneous degree produces two degrees, each with its own CIP, and 8 CFR 214.2(f)(10)(ii)(C) explicitly covers "any qualifying degree as part of a dual degree program." Mitigation on any Philosophy path: declare Economics FIRST so 45.0603 is Major 1, and get BIO's position in writing by Spring 2028. Worst case is 12 months instead of 36.

Mechanics Andy must execute

1. SEVIS carries Major 1 and Major 2, and "The Major 1 and Major 2 fields will appear on the students' Forms I-20." How BIO orders them is Unverified, no BIO page states it. The reasonable assumption is that it mirrors the primary plan in CalCentral, the major declared first. That is why declaration order is an immigration decision.
2. BIO "will automatically produce a new I-20 when a student declares or changes their major" and emails it. Open it and verify the CIP. Schools must update SEVIS within 21 days (8 CFR 214.3(g)(2)).
3. The Sept 15 2026 rules: F-1 admission is now a fixed period, "not to exceed four years, plus a 30-day period for arrival and an additional 30-day period for departure." Undergraduates may not change "educational objectives" during the first academic year, and BIO says it is "currently looking into this and hoping for better guidance from USCIS" on whether Undeclared to Declared counts. Every plan here puts the first declaration after Spring 2027.
4. "If you complete a program after September 15, 2026 at one educational level, you cannot change to the same or lower educational level in the future." Both degrees of a simultaneous degree must be conferred in the same term (Spring 2030).
5. Admit Until Date: in the U.S. before 9/15/26 and never departing gives AUD = shorter of program end plus 60 days or 4 years plus 60 days (max 11/14/2030). Any entry on or after 9/15/26 resets it to program end plus 30 days. Filing an I-539 does the same. Assume 16 June 2030, not 16 July.
6. About 16 February 2030: file Form I-765 for 12-month OPT, up to 90 days before the 17 May 2030 program end date, and within 30 days of BIO's SEVIS recommendation. File Form I-539 Extension of Stay at the same time, because the March 18 2027 carve-out covers only "Summer 2026, Fall 2026, and Spring 2027 Program End Dates." Cost $420 online / $470 paper. BIO's own two pages conflict on the back end of the window: the legacy OPT page says 60 days after completion, the newer duration-of-status page says 30. Ask BIO in writing; file at the front, not the back.
7. About Spring 2031: file the 24-month STEM extension, up to 90 days before the 12-month EAD expires and within 60 days of BIO's recommendation. Employer enrolled in E-Verify with an EIN; paid; 20+ hours per week; directly related to the basis degree; signed Form I-983 training plan; degree earned within the previous 10 years; reporting within 10 days of changes; four validation reports.
8. Unemployment caps: 90 days on the 12-month OPT; 150 days total across all 36 months once the extension is approved.
9. 240-day rule: filing an EOS before the original I-20 program end date lets you continue on-campus employment and authorized CPT for up to 240 days while it is pending. Filing after does not.
10. CPT: more than one year of full-time CPT at the bachelor's level cancels OPT eligibility entirely. Part-time CPT does not count.
11. Pre-completion OPT (for example Summer 2027) draws from the same 12-month pool. Every month used before graduation is a month less after. The deduction rate for part-time pre-completion OPT is Unverified, not found on any BIO, ICE or eCFR page.
12. A 9th semester now costs a USCIS filing, not just a form. BIO Extension of Program (adviser-signed, "Additional degree coursework needed," filed at least 5 business days, and BIO's I-20 page says one month, before the end date, with proof of funding: 2026-27 undergrad budget $31,378 tuition per semester plus $2,400 per month living) plus Form I-539. And USCIS text quoted by BIO: "Delays including, but not limited to, those caused by academic probation or suspension or a student's repeated inability or unwillingness to complete his or her course of study are not acceptable reasons for an extension."
13. The STEM list is tested around 2031, not today. 8 CFR 214.2(f)(10)(ii)(C)(2)(iii) tests the list "At the time the DSO recommends a 24-month OPT extension." 45.0603 was itself added by a past revision; DHS updates the list through the Federal Register. 11.0701 is the safest bet on the list; 45.0603 is policy, not statute.

Decision calendar, now through Spring 2030

Dates marked Unverified are not published; re-check the named page.

Open questions and the emails to send

Ten emails. Four addresses are quoted directly from official pages and are safe to use; the rest are described by office, so look up the current address on that department's advising page first.

Also unresolved, and worth chasing

1. The Math minor elective count, one course (department) or three (catalog)? Email the Math staff adviser before filing the minor form.
2. The Statistics minor's 3.2 math prerequisite GPA, live on the Declare-the-Minor page today. Plan to 3.2 until a Statistics adviser says otherwise.
3. Breadth mapping. Five areas are open and none of the eleven plans names a specific course. Pull the actual list from the classes.berkeley.edu breadth filter and Andy's own APR. Physical Science must be real physics, chemistry, astronomy or earth science: math, statistics and CS are excluded, and AP Physics C does nothing.
4. The Econ plus Philosophy overlap. No fetched page lists a single course on both the Economics approved outside-department elective list and the Philosophy eligible outside-electives list. The whole double-major arithmetic rests on PHILOS 141 and ECON C110/119 being accepted. Get both in writing.
5. Haas and the Statistics B.A. were never researched. Haas was declared out of scope, yet Andy's standing strategy ranks it on top. The Statistics B.A. was never read, yet several plans tell him to rank Statistics on the comprehensive review, a major whose requirements nobody has checked. Statistics is the cheaper and more urgent fix: it feeds a form he submits in 16 months.
6. The change-of-college-out-of-L&S process was never verified from an L&S source. L&S publishes only a change-into-L&S page.
7. DeCal and P/NP accounting. L&S caps Passed grades at one-third of Berkeley units. Whether DeCal units count toward the F-1 12-unit full-time minimum matters, because several plans end at exactly 12 units.
8. Economics "Early Review" criteria are not defined on any accessible page. Ask on the application.

Sources

Every URL below was fetched or attempted on 2026-09-10. guide.berkeley.edu is retired: every program URL there now 301-redirects to registrar.berkeley.edu/catalog. The live catalog is undergraduate.catalog.berkeley.edu, labeled "Undergraduate Catalog 2026-2027".

Catalog

• undergraduate.catalog.berkeley.edu
• programs/A5201U, Computer Science B.A. (overview, Plan of Study), plus requirements-krhha
• programs/A50AMU, Data Science B.A., plus requirements-krhha
• programs/25246U, Economics B.A., plus requirements-krhha
• programs/25651U, Philosophy B.A., plus requirements-krhha and overview-aoYks
• programs/25I057U, Philosophy Minor, plus /requirements-krhha and /overview-aoYks
• programs/16I011U, CS Minor, plus /requirements-krhha
• programs/A5I172U/requirements-krhha, Data Science Minor
• programs/25I071U, Mathematics Minor, plus /requirements-krhha
• programs/A5I173U, Statistics Minor, plus /requirements-krhha
• University and campus requirement pages: units-gpa; american-history-american-institutions; american-cultures; entry-level-writing; college-school-requirements/reading-composition; /archive
• Course pages used: 1044241 (CS 61A), 1044261 (61B), 1044271 (61BL), 1044281 (61C), 1044291 (61CL, 404), 1044331 (CS 70), 1245674 (DATA C8), 1253642 (C88C), 1254422 (C88S), 1678161 (DATA 89), 1480473 (DATA C100), 1583262/1583263 (C102), 1577123 (C104), 1220182 (C131A), 1480152 (DATA C140), 1480151 (STAT C140), 1220421 (STAT 20), 1220221 (STAT 133), 1220231 (STAT 134), 1220241 (STAT 135), 1220251 (150), 1220261 (151A), 1220281 (152), 1220291 (153), 1220301 (154), 1220311 (155), 1220331 (157), 1220341 (158), 1220351 (159), 1051691 (ECON 100A), 1051701 (100B), 1051711 (101A), 1051721 (101B), 1051991 (ECON 140), 1052001 (141), 1051681 (ECON 1), 1052261 (ECON 2), 1224831 (UGBA 101B), 1144962 (MATH 51), 1145002 (52), 1145461 (16A), 1145481 (16B), 1220181 (STAT C131A), 1063272 (ELENG 66)

EECS and Computer Science

• eecs.berkeley.edu/academics/undergraduate/cs-ba/
• eecs.berkeley.edu/resources/undergrads/cs/: degree-reqs-lowerdiv/, degree-reqs-upperdiv/, how-to-declare-cs/ (last updated 11/03/25), enrollment-policy/, faq-4/, major-declaration-appeal/, minor/
• eecs.berkeley.edu/tech-electives/ and the approved CS graduate and special topics courses page
• www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Courses/: CS61A, CS61B, CS61C, CS70, CS168, CS188

CDSS

• cdss.berkeley.edu/academics/: college-degree-requirements-and-policies; policies/majors-and-minors; policies/unit-semester-limits; policies/transfer-credit; policies/registration-enrollment; policies/academic-standing; undergraduate-education
• cdss.berkeley.edu: faqs-undergrads; admissions; economics (Economics domain emphasis); degrees/domain-emphasis/organizations-and-the-economy
• cdss.berkeley.edu/dsus/: academics/majorrequirements; academics/declaring-major; declaring-data-science-prerequisite-pathway; academics/domain-emphasis; academics/business-and-industrial-analytics; advising/data-science-faqs; advising/forms-procedures; academics/data-science-minor
• 404s: cdss.berkeley.edu/undergraduate-programs/computer-science, /undergraduate-programs/data-science, /comprehensive-review, /undergraduate-programs/minors
• CDSS Comprehensive Review FAQ (Google Doc, updated Feb 4 2026); Data Science CR doc; CDSS exam chart; CDSS Essential Skills approved-course sheet; DS Minor Processing Timeline; DS Minor Approved Elective List
• CS application: deptapps.eecs.berkeley.edu/csapp/apply. CR interest form: forms.gle/qMruAKLUvMgcNiVA9. DS minor form: forms.gle/kENfVQ2bcEMvtgRLA
• Archived 2024-25 Guide CDSS pages: berkeleyguidearchive.github.io/2024-25/undergraduate/colleges-schools/computing-data-science-society/ plus computational-reasoning-requirement/, statistical-reasoning/, human-social-data/, satisfying-international-studies-class/

Economics

• econ.berkeley.edu/undergraduate/: admissions; admissions/first-years; admissions/policies; admissions/faq; program/major-requirements (elective list updated 4/3/26); program/honors
• www.econ.berkeley.edu/content/course-enrollment; the 26-27 Freshman Student Advising Handout PDF
• New 2024 Admissions Policy FAQ (Google Doc); the application Google Form; the CIP FAQ page now returns a permissions error

Philosophy

• philosophy.berkeley.edu/undergraduate; /undergraduate/faqs; /undergraduate/outside_electives; /resource/file/1/undermajorreq.pdf (dated 2016); /courses/term/108 (Fall 2026 provisional)
• Declaration form: forms.gle/1AZBvw9A5bbHPLu17
• 404s: philosophy.berkeley.edu/undergraduate/major, /undergraduate/declaring-the-major

Mathematics and Statistics

• math.berkeley.edu/undergraduate/minor-mathematics (form: forms.gle/RnPemNoCLsqQTDUF6); /courses/overview/high-school-exam-credits; /programs/undergraduate/faqs; /undergraduate/major/applied; /undergraduate/major/declaring
• statistics.berkeley.edu/academics/undergrad/minor; /minor/minor-required-courses; /prospective/minor-prerequisites; /prospective/declare-minor (form: forms.gle/RNmCVu1sdenFWAcX9); /prospective/declaring-major

L&S

• lsadvising.berkeley.edu: degree-requirements; seven-course-breadth; reading-composition; quantitative-reasoning; ls-language-requirement; forms-and-petitions
• lsadvising.berkeley.edu/majors-minors/: declare-or-change-major; double-majors; simultaneous-degrees; minors; change-colleges-letters-and-science
• lsadvising.berkeley.edu/policies/: unit-ceiling-and-semester-limit; unit-minimum-maximum-semester; registration-holds; grading-options-letter-graded-and-passno-pass. Also /progress-planning/preparing-graduation and /progress-planning/transfer-credit/high-school-exam-scores
• Forms: double_major_petition_4_21_26.pdf; petition_to_declare_simultaneous_degrees_4_24_26.pdf; degree_req_worksheet_uc_campus_ls_6_22_26.pdf; major_declaration_petition_5_6_26.pdf; minor_completion_4_24_26.pdf; conditions_to_declare_pdf_petition.pdf
• ls.berkeley.edu/ls-high-demand-majors-first-year-students and the high-demand-majors minor FAQ; campus simultaneous-degree petition (Google Drive); CDSS Program Plan form (Google Drive)
• 404s: lsadvising.berkeley.edu/policies/double-majors, /policies/simultaneous-degrees, /policies/minors

Campus, credit and writing

• ceu.berkeley.edu/degree-progress-and-requirements/degree-requirements/; ceu.berkeley.edu/transfer-credit/examinations/
• writing.berkeley.edu/requirements; registrar.berkeley.edu/catalog
• classes.berkeley.edu, section pages used for POLSCI 1, PHILOS 12A, PHILOS 25A, PHILOS 25B, PHILOS 100, MATH 51, DATA C140
• admission.universityofcalifornia.edu AP exam credits page

Immigration

• internationaloffice.berkeley.edu: students/employment/opt; students/employment/stemopt; immigration/end-of-ds-students; immigration/i20; students/current/extension (plus student-extension.docx); students/current/f-1/regulations; the economics_stem_memo.pdf and data_science_stem_memo.pdf
• BIO UCB Major/CIP Code List (updated 9/3/2026), Google Sheets
• ice.gov DHS STEM list (updated July 22 2024)
• studyinthestates.dhs.gov: sevis-help-hub F-1 STEM OPT page; CIP page; program-information page; stem-opt-hub eligibility pages; elimination-of-duration-of-status FAQ (updated Aug 31 2026); the External STEM OPT Webinar FAQ PDF (April 14 2016)
• ecfr.gov title-8 part-214 section-214.2 and section-214.3

Recruiting (for the career verdicts)

• janestreet.com: join-jane-street/, internships/, internships/trading/, programs-and-events/, programs-and-events/fttp/, programs-and-events/bridge/, position/8617344002/
• careers.twosigma.com job details for Quantitative Researcher Intern 2027 Summer and Software Engineering Internship Summer 2027; twosigma.com/careers/internships/ and /undergraduate-students/
• deshaw.com/careers, /careers/internships, quantitative-analyst-intern-new-york-summer-2027-5890, proprietary-trading-intern-new-york-summer-2027-5731
• hudsonrivertrading.com/student-opportunities/ and /careers/
• Citadel Student Informational Signature Programs Terms 2025 PDF; citadelsecurities.com career detail pages (HTTP 403 to automated fetch, degree lines recovered from the search index only, marked PARTIAL)
• careers.microsoft.com Explore Microsoft; google.com careers STEP (JavaScript-rendered, PARTIAL); sig.com/careers/early-talent/ (Unverified eligibility)
• Not fetched at all: Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, McKinsey, Bain, BCG campus pages. The claim that IB and MBB publish no degree-field requirement is Unverified.