I applied for Bioengineering/Biomedical Engineering at every UC. I know that UCLA doesn’t consider alternates and UCB doesn’t have them at all, but if I am not accepted into the college of engineering at a UC campus, will the rest of the UC’s give my my alternate major instead? Or will they not accept me at all?
UCSD will consider your alternate major but it should be a non-capped major. You could still be accepted but as Undeclared then you would have the very difficult and maybe impossible task of switching majors.
UCSB does consider alternate majors also but again it would need to be a non-Engineering major. You could also be accepted as Undeclared.
UCI does consider alternate majors but like UCSB/UCSD, you may still get an acceptance as Undeclared.
UCD will occasionally consider an alternate major but they admit by Major in the College of Engineering and you may not be accepted at all.
UCSC does not admit by major so you could get into UCSC and then have to take required pre-req courses before declaring an Engineering major.
UCR does consider alternate majors but it would need to be a non-Engineering major.
My son is applying to several UC schools as well (UCLA, UCSD, UCD, UCSB and UCR). He is not sure of his exact major but is considering biology, and computer science along with other STEM related majors. He is interested in bioinformatics as a way to merge his 2 biggest areas of interest.
Given all of these majors are impacted, any advice on what to list as majors, alternate majors @Gumbymom
Thank you!
@CaBeachMom: My suggestion is to apply to the most difficult major (CS) as a first choice major and then Biology or another STEM major as an alternate. The majority of the Engineering schools admit by major and do not consider alternate majors in the same college/school. CS can also be found in the College of Letters and Sciences in some schools such as UCB and UCD, so they may be a better way to go since L&S does not admit by major and could give more flexibility.
My advice is to apply to the major you ultimately want to study for the next 4 years.
UCLA offers a minor in Bioinformatics for undergrads.
http://bioinformatics.ucla.edu/bioinformatics-minor-course-requirements/
UCSC offers a BS in Bioinformatics
https://www.soe.ucsc.edu/departments/biomolecular-engineering/programs/bs-bioinformatics
UCSD offers several majors with a concentration in Bioinformatics:
Bioengineering
CS and Bioinformatics
Bioinformatics in the Chemistry/Biochem Department
http://www-chem.ucsd.edu/undergraduate/majors-minor/bioinformatics.html
http://cse.ucsd.edu/undergraduate/degree-programs/bs-computer-science-bioinformatics
Thank you so much @Gumbymom! I really appreciate your help! I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed at this point! i was a business major as a freshman at USC then got my MBA at UCLA. I knew what I wanted to do at a young age…and I don’t yet understand all the various stem majors.