Hi, I turned in uc application already but I was thinking about emailing admissions and making a change to it. I declared that I wanted to apply to a physics major since I was the president of the physics club and I’ve easily gone through 1.5 years of ap physics. But I took the physics subject test without proper preparation and received a 640 which is far below what I expected and what my other tests were scored at. I was thinking of applying as undeclared or if possible (some schools have his option) undeclared science major. Would this be a good idea? My grades and presidency shows that I’m good/passionate about physics but my subject test (and my ap test since I received a 3) show that I’m not good enough. I think that if I changed my application to “undeclared science”, undeclared, or declare as some random science major I could better my chances of admission and then switch to physics one I get in. Is this a good plan?
I don’t think the major matters a lot during application because you don’t declare your major until the sophomore year for most universities. And simply don’t submit your sat physics score so that they won’t see it.
^ The major matters a great deal at the UCs. Contact them and ask to move to undeclared, but don’t think Physics is a bad choice based on one test.
Physics is usually in the College of L&S at the UC’s, which does not admit by major, so it should not make a difference but you want to research how difficult it is to switch from Undeclared into another major later on. Also some UC’s admit first into the University and then into the major. Agree with @Erin’s Dad ^^^.
http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/files/freshman-admission-matrix.pdf describes whether intended major matters for admission. Read the document carefully and check campus web sites to see if it is also possible to be admitted to the campus but not the major (if you apply specifying a major). Check the campus physics department web sites to see if there is an admission process to the major that requires a high GPA or some such if you initially enroll as undeclared.