I was unable able to find specific information about how UCLA uses your choice for an alternate major. Is an alternate major only considered within each separate school or can you give an alternate major from another less selective school.
For example, I want to do engineering but also want the chance to go UCLA if I don’t get into Samueli. Should I put Mechanical Engineering (Samueli) as my first choice and Physics (L&S) as my second? Or will UCLA not consider an alt. major in L&S if my first choice is engineering? Do I have to put an alternate major that is within Samueli?
Thanks so much!
Q: IF I AM NOT ADMITTED UNDER MY FIRST CHOICE MAJOR, WILL UCLA REVIEW ME FOR MY ALTERNATE MAJOR?
A: Within the College of Letters and Science, the major an applicant chooses is not a factor in the review process at the freshman level. UCLA does not normally consider the alternate choices of applicants who applied to majors in the other schools (Engineering, Arts, etc.).
Yeah I saw that @Gumbymom . Does that mean I should just not include an alternate major? What is the point of an alternate major if it is not a factor in L&S (meaning you would just get your first choice) and is not considered in other colleges?
My understanding for Engineering is if you do not get into your 1st choice, you do not get in. You do notice that there is a qualifier in that “UCLA does not normally consider the alternate choices”, so it may be possible that you could get into an alternate major if your 1st choice is oversubscribed. It cannot hurt to list one if you want.
@Gumbymom@ElyStuart10 UCLA EE here! Gumby is mostly right. Major does not matter for L&S you are admitted to the school and are Pre-some major until you satisfy the Pre reqs with a certain GPA. For HSSEAS you are admitted directly to the major. Pro is you don’t have to worry about competing once you are admitted (Cs get degrees becomes partly true) con is it is much harder to get into engineering. HSSEAS requires the alt major to be in engineering and MAY consider it but usually if you don’t get your first choice you won’t get the alt. Also it is extremely hard to switch into engineering here. Spots open up only when people drop out and current HSSEAS students get a free one major switch and have higher precedence than L&S switching in.
This is not quite correct. For many of the more popular majors in L&S you have to satisfy a list of requirements once enrolled at ucla and only then can you apply to be accepted into the major.