<p>Hi, </p>
<p>I just finished my junior year, and the dreaded college search is really under way. I honestly do not have any sort of idea what I want to go into, except probably not engineering. (Sciences are not ruled out though.) My academic/extracurricular record isn't that bad at all I guess, so selectivity of a school hasn't been a huge limiting factor. I haven't really decided on big/small, rural/urban. </p>
<p>I was just wondering if there are any schools that are more helpful for undecided students. Would a school with an open curriculum or a curriculum with GenEd requirements be better? I've heard strong arguments for both. </p>
<p>On the other hand, are there colleges that are absolutely awful for students that don't know what they are doing? For example, I'm probably not going to an engineering institute or a school that focuses only on fine arts, but are there schools where it's difficult to go in undecided or change majors?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>The vast majority of schools allow people to attend as undecided. UCs don’t because they need to keep track of how many students are admitted for different programs (not sure if CSUs are the same).</p>
<p>UCs do admit many students undeclared (indeed, that is the normal situation in many cases, though not engineering divisions), but some majors are impacted and require applying to declare. However, many humanities, social studies, and science majors are not impacted at many UCs and can be declared automatically after passing the prerequisites.</p>
<p>CSUs admit by major and typically require applying to change or declare (for undeclared students) a major. However, not all majors are impacted at all campuses.</p>
<p>What an undecided student at any school needs to do is check on the prerequisites of all of the majors that s/he may choose and arrange his/her schedule to work toward fulfilling the prerequisites of all of the majors until s/he is ready to decide. This is particularly important if any of the majors has a long prerequisite sequence (for example, if there is a seven semester long prerequisite sequence, delaying any of those courses two semesters means graduating late).</p>