Hello, I was admitted to a really great school. I applied to this school because I liked their biology program so I applied for it. I’m a fairly accomplished student, I have earned associates’ degrees, completed an honors program, and have been getting good grades working in STEM classes over the last 2 years. Apparently, an academic counselor added an alternate major because I didn’t have 100% of the prerequisites for a STEM major so they could admit me for public health.
I’m pretty frustrated. Nobody told me about these requirements until months after I applied. What’s worse is this major has like the exact same lower division and a decent amount of the same upper division courses as the bio field that I had applied for. I called and asked them what this was all about and if I (because of the shared classes) would be able to transfer to the bio program. They said there was no guarantee of that, I would have to do well in those classes, then I would have to contact the bio department and work it out with them. When I asked them if I could get advising from the bio department for the ins and outs of such a mind boggling procedure before I commit to their university, they said no.
So basically I have to commit to a school for a major that someone else was denied because they decided to switch mine, and hope it works out alright? It doesn’t sound very promising.
Are you close enough physically that you can try and bypass admissions and go directly to the Biology Department, and ask to meet an advisor ? Drop in if you live close enough. They may be more helpful than what you were told.
That said, did you apply to other schools ? Do you have other options ?
What is your long term goal ? Could public health with lots of electives in Biology serve your purposes ?
Many schools have no criteria for a minor other than taking a series of courses and getting a min grade.
If it goes well, you have at least the minor, and likely could change majors.
If it does not go well, you probably did not belong in that major.
You need to have confidence in your ability to succeed in the Bio electives or accept that Bio is not for you.
Also note that most departments are not looking to turn people away, they want to attract good students.
Do well in your Bio electives and relevant Public Health overlaps and you’ll have no problems.
Without naming the college, other people may not be able to help you much beyond suggesting that you try a web search for “[college name] change major biology” to see what criteria there are to get into the biology major.
It looks like from your other posts that you are a transfer student at a California community college applying to UCs, correct? UCs with public health are UCB, UCSD, UCI, UCM. CSUs with public health are SDSU and CSUN. It looks like UCB, UCM, and some UCI biology majors are open (prerequisites complete and 2.0 GPA needed to declare), while UCSD, SDSU, CSUN, and a few UCI biology majors are selective.
Contact the college’s biology department to find out how to change major if it is not clear from the web site.