These folks are not kidding when they say you need all A ' s going forward , especially in math and science . None of the UC schools take CLEP or DSST . That shouldn ' t necessarily stop you from trying to attend Cal . But you are giving up a huge source of free credits while enlisted . I assume you know computer science is math heavy and you might do better in a related computer major that ' s offered at other schools like MIS . Another problem with Cal is that the CS major has a GPA requirement . Worse , you won ' t know for sure if you will get into the major until after grades for your first semester . You may end up having to change majors or change schools . And CS is a pretty hard major even for straight A students . I ' m not trying to scare you out of here , but it ' s a real uphill climb from here with lots of chances of falling off the mountain since you are choosing CS .