<p>I heard that if you sign up for a certain major, you'd have a better chance of getting in. this doesn't mean it's necessarily good news though because if you signed up for a major you don't like, you might be stuck with it. for example, if i want to major in engineering at UCB, it'd be hard to get in because the major is very popular. but if i signed up for the major nutrition or something, i can get in and switch out later, problem is: is it that easy to switch out of that major and get into enginerering? would i be stuck with that major forever?</p>
<p>also is it better to sign up for undeclared or declared?
i am leaning mostly towards business but i don't exactly want to sign my name in blood for that major in case i might want to switch to science or something, should i be declared business or undeclared?</p>
<p>and I looked at the UCB majors, you can't exactly sign up for the business major yet, you have to be a junior to get into the Haas school of business. should i sign up for undeclared/business or economics or statistics or something that's related to business. will that be the same?</p>
<p>my understanding of how you switch in and out of majors is very small at the moment. if you have any other beneficial information please add. thank you</p>
<p>No. It makes absolutely no difference. All three of my kids were undeclared and three different colleges. Most students change majors, if they have declared, by the end of soph. year, when you must declare. The first two years can be for explring, if you are not absolutely dead set on a major. Again, even if you are, about 60% change. And admissions certainly knows this. Good luck!</p>
<p>When you put a major down on an application, it's not "signing up" for anything unless it's a separate program, like JHU's BME or Penn's Wharton. You're just giving the adcoms an idea of your <em>intended</em> area of study. Students usually don't declare a major until the end of their sophomore year. If you have some idea of a major, put it down. If you have absolutely NO idea, put undecided.</p>
<p>most of my high school career, i thought that i was interested in science so i took all these AP sciences courses and others related to science. it was just so sudden that now i decided what i want is really to be in business. will colleges disapprove (that word may be a little too exaggerated) of my passion for business but not taking anything related to the major?</p>
<p>Colleges do not care. They care about your taking the highest level courses offered and pushing yourself. They like the whole package. Majors change big time and they know it. Colleges even tell you to take the courses you enjoy - not the courses that are pre-law, pre-med, etc. It does not matter. What matters is your GPA, college interests, volunteer involvement, etc. This is what companies, non-profits, grad. schools, etc. look at. Admissions know this so they want a well rounded student who does well and has some commitments beyond grades, SAT's. You may find a very different interest in college and it may be a professor that attracts you to some other career area. The world is open to you at a liberal arts university/college. My son, as a freshman at Emory, has already considered 3 or 4 majors, and he has been there for 2 months. This is due to the new exposure and he does not have to declare until the end of his soph. year. It will all work out. Enjoy the process!</p>
<p>If you apply and are admitted to a particular college at a university, you are not automatically entitled to transfer to a different college. How one transfers (and when it can be done) would be explained on the university's web site. I think it would be foolhardy to apply to a college you aren't interested in, thinking you can later transfer into the one you want with no problem. I've certainly heard about problems doing so -- there are only a certain number of slots or no slots, a college GPA of a particular level is necessary in order to even be eligible, etc. And you are talking about transferring before you even attend the school; I don't know that anyone can do that.</p>
<p>I think the people who have answered here are thinking about situations where you are just switching majors within a college (usually free and open), rather than transferring to a different college at the university where one is admitted to the COLLEGE.</p>
<p>(At some places, like Stanford, you are admitted to the university itself, not a particular college. My understanding is that in these situations one can easily shift. But then the decisions to admit are made with that understanding.)</p>
<p>You wouldn't be stuck with any major you declare. But you may find yourself stuck in the particular college. If one college is harder to get into than another at a given university, the university isn't going to simply allow free transfers between them. It would defeat the entire purpose of separate admission decisions for each college.</p>
<p>I've even heard of people at Berkeley having problems transferring OUT of the engineering college. They don't have GPAs high enough.</p>
<p>Also, at some schools and with some majors, there are limits in terms of who can be in them. For instance, when we visited Berkeley, we were told that anyone who wanted to major in electrical engineering had to not only apply to the engineering college (that much was obvious to everyone there, I think), but to put down EE on the application. Someone who doesn't has no guarantee of being allowed into the program, even if admitted to the engineering college. (This example dates from several years ago -- my son is now a senior in EE at another college; I can't say how Berkeley treats EE at the present time.)</p>
<p>At UC schools it is almost impossible to xfer into engineering from another college. And even if you're in the engineering college it can be difficult to switch majors. I had a friend who didn't really know what type of engineering he wanted so he more or less said "eenie meeny miney moe" and put down ChemE. Turns out in college he realized what he really wanted was EE, but his GPA wasn't high enough to change majors.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Lots of dangerous advice from people who don't know how UCs work here. Scary.
[/quote]
Most posters know how UCs work- mostly because Californians flood the forum with UC-specific questions that should be limited to the UC board. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>The OP indicated an interest in business. Considering that one has to be a junior to get into Haas (with no guarantee of being able to do so), the OP should choose a major in which (s)he has interest- as I suggested. I don't believe engineering would be the best way into Haas, but I could be wrong. </p></li>
<li><p>Presumably the OP is not applying to UCB only. The advice in this thread holds true for the vast majority of colleges.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>dianeR and mikemac..thanks for your responses but you guys aren't answering what i'm asking. i'm talking about majors only, not colleges. i'm currently a senior in high school and is having trouble putting down declared or undeclared major on the application.</p>
<p>hoper, you don't seem aware of how universities are organized. They are composed of several colleges; engineering, fine arts, letters and science, and often a few more. Colleges are the administrative groups of a university. When people in the context of the your thread are talking about "colleges" they mean this, not some other place not on the Cal campus.</p>
<p>If you put down "undeclared" in a college that is not the engineering college at Cal, chances of later switching into an engineering major (offered by the college of engineering only) is about zero. The same is true if you pick any major outside of the engineering college. If you put down undeclared in engineering you may find that the more popular majors in the college of engineering (such as EE) are closed to you and you'll have to pick one that is available or pick a major in another college at Berkeley.</p>
<p>If you decide the winds are carrying you more towards business, you can pick any major you want or even undeclared. How your choice of major or undeclared affects your chances of admission to Cal is clearly explained on the Cal admissions website "UC Berkeley Freshman Selection Process"</p>
<p>ohh.. hmm my apologies then. i always thought that college was..well it's a place like a "school". i didn't know unversity and college have a huge difference. thank you mikemac.</p>
<p>alright i think i'm going to put down undeclared business for UCB.
as for the other UCs, i can vary can't i? like putting down biology major for UCD or psychology at UCI? (examples)</p>
<p>mikemac explained it well. People may use "college" and "university" interchangeably, but there is an important difference. At some universities you apply to the university itself and are accepted by the university itself. This leaves you free to attend any administrative division, i.e. college, there. At other places, you apply to particular colleges within a given university and it is the colleges themselves that accept you. It is frequently more difficult to get into the engineering college, say, than the arts and sciences one.</p>
<p>Neither of my kids ended up applying anywhere in the UCal system. But I believe you can put down different majors for difference universities; at least I recall someone on CC saying this. I guess the forms themselves would make it clear what you can and can't do.</p>
<p>The only school I know of where a major directly affects your chances of getting in is Cal Poly. And it is very difficult, almost impossible to change your major once you get in.</p>