<p>If a student is accepted into Penn for a certain major, how hard is it to switch majors? Does Penn expect a student to know what they want to do when they go in, or does Penn allow for exploration of majors for the first two years like some other schools do? For instance, I heard a Princeton rep state that 70% of Princeton students change majors.</p>
<p>My understanding is that you really have until the end of your sophomore year to nail down a major. You can probably change after that too but graduating in 4-5 years is a lot harder if you switch late.</p>
<p>In Penn’s College of Arts and Sciences, you don’t HAVE a major until you formally declare it by the end of your sophomore year. The intended major(s) you list on your application–assuming you don’t just list “undecided”–are merely advisory for the Admissions Office (so they don’t admit a class that’s, e.g., full of just English majors), but basically has no impact on the major you actually declare at the end of sophomore year. E.g., you won’t be asked why you’re declaring a History major at the end of sophomore year, if you had stated on your application that your intended major was Chemistry. At that point, nobody cares what you stated on your application. :)</p>
<p>So yes, Penn DEFINITELY allows–and indeed encourages–the exploration of majors during the first two years. </p>
<p>But could you move out of one school and into another in order to change majors? The three majors that would be of interest to my son would be music, DMD, and film. DMD is interdisciplinary and not straight engineering, so a student could move into DMD?</p>
<p>^ The DMD major is based in SEAS, although including courses in the Annenberg School for Communication and the College of Arts and Sciences. I believe it’s one of the few special programs at Penn to which students normally ARE specifically admitted during the admissions process. It’s possible, though, that the program also accepts a few students who are already enrolled at Penn, although more research would be required to confirm that. In other words, unlike the majors in the College of Arts and Sciences, a student cannot merely declare a DMD major at the end of sophomore year. However, there is a DMD minor that I believe any SEAS student who is not a CIS major can pursue. More information on both the DMD major and minor can be found here:</p>
<p><a href=“CG@Penn | DMD Program”>Majors;
<p><a href=“CG@Penn | DMD Program”>CG@Penn | DMD Program;
<p><a href=“CG@Penn | DMD Minor”>CG@Penn | DMD Minor;
<p>Of course, your son could always pursue non-coordinated dual degrees from both SEAS and the College. And if he were enrolled in either one of those schools, he could always take classes in the other school (e.g., a DMD major in SEAS can take Music and Cinema Studies classes in the College).</p>