<p>Hi CC. I got into PSU's School of Liberal Arts about a month ago. As of right now, my major is going to be Economics. I was wondering how and, specifically, how difficult, it is to change my major to get into the Smeal College of Business since I've already been admitted. Can I do that now somehow or do I have to wait until a declare a major in a couple years? Or possibly sometime between then? I understand that it is a highly competitve school, but I'm willing to do whatever I can to get in. Thanks for all the help.</p>
<p>I’m not sure how the procedure would work if you wanted to transfer now, but no matter what you will have the opportunity to get into a Smeal major at the end of your sophomore year, when you declare your major. A 3.2 GPA is required to get into a Smeal major, with the exception of the Finance major, which requires a 3.5 (most competitive major in Smeal). </p>
<p>Even if you do stay in Liberal Arts your first 2 years, the only thing you will be missing out on is some introductory business courses for each of the majors offered in Smeal: students accepted into Smeal also must maintain a 3.2 (or 3.5 for Finance) in order to get into their major- they are not accepted directly into their major just by getting accepted into Smeal as a Freshman.</p>
<p>You should also check with the admisdions office because i think there are very specific classes that you need to take to transfer into Smeal.</p>
<p>Yes, in addition to maintaining the required GPA, you must complete the ‘entrance to major’ requirements (about 8-9 business-related courses) by the end of sophomore year. This needs to be done whether you are admitted to Smeal as a freshman or starting as DUS (undecided). My son applied and was accepted as an engineering major, but wanted to switch to Smeal after his acceptance. He called admissions and was told his application would need to be re-evaluated because admission to Smeal was tougher than admission to the Engineering school.</p>
<p>I am in a similar situation. I came to PSU as an engineering student, decided it wasn’t for me and wanted to switch to business (something I’ve shown interest in prior to coming to PSU). However, courses in engineering are substantially more difficult than any in business and I did not have a satisfactory GPA to transfer into Smeal. Since they only evaluate your first year GPA and nothing else (no context) I was unable to change colleges even though I now have a GPA over a 3.3 in business. There is absolutely no way around this and I couldn’t even apply to be considered. I tried to talk to the assistant dean, Gus Colangelo, however it took him over a month to reply to my emails and when he did all he did was get angry with me and say rules are rules. So now if I want to study business, I’m basically being forced to transfer to another university, which I intend to do.</p>
<p>Also, class sizes are an issue here. I haven’t had one business class (at UP) with less than 150 students, the majority are over 200-300 students.</p>