<p>I know that Berkeley and the UCs in general publish more info on admissions than most schools, so I was wondering if they published admit rate for specific majors anywhere? To be specific, I want to know if I have a better shot next year if I apply under biochemistry, undeclared, biology, chemistry, or the new chemical biology major.</p>
<p>anyone knows? i am curious about it too since i have been kicked to the college of chemistry.</p>
<p>UC's do not admit by major (generally). If you're an applicant to the College of Letters and Science (L&S), they do not admit by major.</p>
<p>College of Engineering and College of Chemistry may be a different story, but both are highly competitive. </p>
<p>Biochemistry does not fall under College of Chemistry, but under "Molecular and Cell Biology" in L&S. Chemistry is a major offered under both College of Chemistry and L&S.</p>
<p>As a side note however, if is generally advisable to apply for a major in which you have demonstrated particular strength. It's just a tip, and not an absolute rule. For example, if you're a chem major, take the SAT IIs in Chem and AP Chem test and class. Don't take World History. It doesn't make sense. But this is a general guideline.</p>
<p>The link below takes to to the Cal Admissions Website; you can go directly to your college of choice. </p>
<p>Undergraduate Majors and Programs
<a href="http://students.berkeley.edu/admissions/general.asp?id=20%5B/url%5D">http://students.berkeley.edu/admissions/general.asp?id=20</a></p>
<p>College of Chemistry
<a href="http://chemistry.berkeley.edu/index.shtml%5B/url%5D">http://chemistry.berkeley.edu/index.shtml</a></p>
<p>College of Engineering
<a href="http://www.coe.berkeley.edu/%5B/url%5D">http://www.coe.berkeley.edu/</a></p>
<p>College of Letters and Science
<a href="http://ls.berkeley.edu/%5B/url%5D">http://ls.berkeley.edu/</a></p>
<p>Small correction: If you're a <em>transfer</em> student, your selected major does play a role.</p>
<p>Yes, true. The information I provided applies to non-trasfer applicants (i.e. Freshmen applicants).</p>
<p>The CoE is indeed a different story. The CoE in particular definitely admits by major. The most difficult major to get admitted into at Berkeley is EECS. Note, EECS is not necessarily the most difficult major to complete - Chemical engineering is arguably the most difficult to complete - but EECS is definitely the most difficult to get admitted into. </p>
<p>""The College of Engineering admits students by majors; the Colleges of
Chemistry, Environmental Design, Letters and Science, and Natural
Resources do not admit students to specific majors. Students choose a
major after enrolling in these colleges. The Haas School of Business
accepts junior level applicants only."</p>
<p>Admitted EECS students also basically get the 'run' of Berkeley, for it is far far easier to change majors from EECS to something else than it is to change majors from something else to EECS, and that something else doesn't have to be another engineering discipline, but can be practically any major at Berkeley (with the exception of Business Administration, which is run through the Haas School and has its own unique rules for admission). Hence, EECS in some ways functions as an 'honors' major in the sense that if you're admitted to EECS, then as long as you don't screw up, you have your choice of almost any major at Berkeley. But if you're admitted to L&S, you can't simply decide one fine day that you want to transfer into engineering just "like that". </p>
<p>And for the sake of completeness, let's talk about some of the other Berkeley colleges to which you can apply to study as an undergraduate:</p>
<p>The College of Natural Resources (which offers undergrad majors like Microbrial Biology, Environmental Sciences, Molecular Toxicology, Forestry, etc.)</p>
<p><a href="http://www.cnr.berkeley.edu/site/index.php%5B/url%5D">http://www.cnr.berkeley.edu/site/index.php</a></p>
<p>The College of Environmental Design (undergrad majors include Architecture, Urban Studies, and Landscape Architecture)</p>
<p><a href="http://www.ced.berkeley.edu/%5B/url%5D">http://www.ced.berkeley.edu/</a></p>
<p>Haas School of Business (only takes undergrads at the junior standing)</p>
<p><a href="http://www.haas.berkeley.edu/%5B/url%5D">http://www.haas.berkeley.edu/</a></p>
<p>And of course Berkeley has a bunch of other myriad 'Schools' like the School of Optometry and the Boalt Law School that do not administer any undergraduate majors and are therefore not pertinent to the discussion at hand.</p>
<p>I think some of the data that the OP asked for can be found on pages 8-19 of the following document. It doesn't talk about the different stats of the different majors within L&S (because as said before, L&S does not admit by major), but it does talk about the different admissions stats of the various Berkeley colleges. </p>
<p>cool.that's really helpful</p>
<p>All applicants shows data for the average applicant, and number that applied to each college/major (you might have to play around with the search settings to get everything right). All admits shows the average stats of those admitted, how many were admitted to each specific major/college. </p>
<p>For freshman (not total), 311 applied for ChemE, 157 admits (could this be a typo? it seems rather high, but the other numbers are all accurate, ie total admit rate), for a rate of 50%. For Chemistry major at the College of Chemistry, 544 applied, with 175 admits for a 32% admit rate. The average total SAT score of the CoC is 30 points higher than L&S, though, so it is somewhat more self-selecting. The data on some of the main pages, such as the College of Engineering's fact page, is out of date (its 2001-2002), so it won't match up exactly with the data from the site above.</p>
<p>the information is really helpful. thanks so much, ohnoes.
hahahhah, i applied ChemE. hopefully i am not that 50% that got kicked out.</p>
<p>i think one thing you can do pertaining to eecs is to apply engineering undeclared adn then simply take all the EECS classes without any hassle...is that right? like say i wanted a Comp Sci degree from EECS i could apply Engineering undeclared and then just take the appropriate classes for a Comp Sci degree and it would be from EECS right?</p>
<p>Not exactly. You can take all the EECS classes without much hassle, that part is true. Then again, pretty much any student at Berkeley, even a Film Studies student, could take all the EECS classes if he really wanted to. </p>
<p>The issue is not whether you can take the classes, but rather whether the College of Engineering will allow you to formally declare a particular major. If you're not already in EECS (whether you're in the CoE but not in EECS, or whether you're in an entirely different College at Berkeley), you have to apply to declare the EECS major, and this is far from automatic. Many people apply and get rejected. Basically, every year, the EECS department is going to see how many spots they have available for 'switchers', and then they are going to take a look at how many people in all of Berkeley want to switch to EECS, and then they are going to fill whatever spots are available (and there's no guarantee that any will be available) with the top people who are making that request, as determined by grades in those lower-division EECS classes. The upshot is that you run the very significant risk of taking all the lower-division EECS classes and still not be allowed to declare the EECS major. </p>
<p>Now, it is true that if you are in Engineering Undeclared, you have a greater chance of successfully switching into EECS than, say, a student who is in the College of Letters and Science. However, the point is that it is still far from automatic.</p>