"At schools like Berkeley, more than half of the students who attempt the intro computer science course will not meet the average grade required to actually declare the major. Without previous experience, it’s incredibly hard to make it on the right side of that curve."
I don't think this is true, and find this wording to be _more_ intimidating to potential CS students, as it gives the false pretense that it is "incredibly difficult" to pass CS classes with no prior experience.
So I think their claim is _technically_ true but leaves out a lot of context. I assume they're talking about CS 61A, which last fall enrolled _over 2000 students_[0]. That's almost 1/3 of the entire freshman class. The average grade for CS61A is actually a B+[1]. However, to declare as a CS major as a Liberal Arts major you need an average GPA of at least 3.4, which is higher than the B+ GPA (3.3). Thus, their claim is technically true.
Actually the context is missing but in a kinda different way. Berkeley CS has about 2000-2200 students in 61A each semester, and an average grade of B+ (3.33). Students need a 3.33 average in 61A and two other classes, 61B and 70. However, most students don't take the other courses ("Only" 1750 and 750 this semester in each of those). Cal requires 61A for other majors too (Cognitive science, data science) so a lot of students take that class but don't take others. In essence, Im agreeing with you, but just being a little different semantically.
It is true because Berkeley intentionally does this in order to cap the number of people enrolled in their computer science major. Some people that even do well in their CS classes are not able to declare the major due to the high GPA requirement
I don't think this is true, and find this wording to be _more_ intimidating to potential CS students, as it gives the false pretense that it is "incredibly difficult" to pass CS classes with no prior experience.