<p>I'm so confused right now. I'm a rising high school senior right now planning to apply to college. As I've started looking into some specific universities I got quite a shock. Since the beginning of 11th grade I've had the impression that for schools such as Harvard and Stanford you do not need to select a major going in as an undergraduate but can rather select later in a year or two. I visited Stanford recently and they said that when you apply to the school you are applying to Stanford University and can select majors later on. So I was relieved but today as I was researching some schools I found out about the specific colleges in some schools you have to apply to. For example Vanderbilt has 4 colleges/schools that, by my understanding, you have to apply to separately. Upon further research I found out that almost every single school on my list has these colleges/schools including Stanford. </p>
<p>Now right now I'm pretty much undecided but my top two choices are either pre-med or computer science which are in completely different schools in every single university I've seen so far. Now again these are my top two choices but I'm fully expecting to take some classes and meet people that will maybe change my mind and I really don't think I'm ready to select one or two majors yet.</p>
<p>So I was wondering which of these colleges make you select a major or a school when applying:</p>
<p>-Stanford University
-Vanderbilt University
-Duke
-Columbia
-Cornell
-UCLA
-USC
-UC Berkley
-Yale
-Harvard
-Princeton
-Brown
-U Penn
-U of Chicago
-USF
-MIT
-NYU
-Dartmouth
-Cal Tech
-Rice</p>
<p>...and the list goes on. I know it's a long list but would appreciate it if someone just gave me the place on their websites or somewhere to find this info on my own because honestly, this might narrow down my list a lot. </p>
<p>Also which of these schools can I double major in possibly.</p>
<p>Thank you
(P.S. I know all of these are pretty much reach schools. Don't worry I have others :)</p>
<p>Most top-tier schools don’t ask for a certain major, they just want to see if you are a right fit for the school overall. I know for a fact Stanford doesn’t. I’m not about to search every single one for you. Just search on google, “does ____ admit by major?”</p>
<p>Alright thank you. I’ve been trying to do that but none of these colleges offer straight up answers for some reason. All of them have schools and inside those schools websites are criteria for selecting a major. But almost none of them say if you have to pick a school upon admission</p>
<p>At least these schools (maybe some others in your list as well) have divisions that you apply to (division = arts & sciences, engineering, business, etc.). In some cases (sometimes depending on the division), you may have to apply to a major as well. Selectivity may vary by division or major. After enrolling, changing to a more popular division or major may require an admission process or GPA higher than that needed to stay in good standing.</p>
<p>You may want to try looking up “change major” at each school’s web site. If an admission process is involved for enrolled students to change major or division, then that can be a clue that you may be applying to a division or major at the school.</p>
<p>Cornell makes you apply to a specific school, but you can apply to their college of arts and sciences as an undecided major (that college also houses computer science and you can do a pre-med track there, so it may be the best option for you anyway). Princeton and Brown I believe only ask what majors interest you, but you don’t actually declare one. I don’t know about any of the others.</p>
<p>Note also that, at Berkeley, you can major in CS either as an EECS major in the College of Engineering, or as a CS major in the College of Letters and Science (L&S CS). EECS is more selective than L&S at frosh admission, but EECS admits are in the major immediately, while L&S frosh all enter undeclared. CS is one of the few capped-enrollment majors, so L&S students need a 3.0 college GPA in the prerequisites to declare the L&S CS major.</p>
<p>Pre-med can be done alongside any major. Of course, if you want to do pre-med, pay attention to costs, since you want to avoid debt and save money for expensive medical school.</p>
<p>Yes I did some research and I just realized you don’t need to be a biology major to go to med school. It really surprises me that I didn’t learn of this before. Many people including my teachers and parents didn’t know that. So now I learned I don’t need to be a biology major to go to med school all I need is to take the 5 or so pre med required classes while pursuing a computer science degree. But let’s say I get accepted to Vanderbilt which has different schools for sciences and engineering/computer science. Does this mean I can pursue a computer major while taking my biology/chemistry classes in a different school?</p>
<p>Yes, you can take courses in a different division. Indeed, some courses required for the major may be in a different division (e.g. for an engineering-based CS major, courses like math, physics, and humanities and social studies breadth would be in a non-engineering division).</p>
<p>Oh ok cool. Is this true of any school? or just Vanderbilt. For example Berkeley or MIT. Also does the schools own financial aid not qualify you for med school financial aid. For example I know that Harvard and Stanford(and almost all the schools on my list for that matter) pay all demonstrated need. Does that not count towards Harvard Med or Stanford Med.</p>
<p>Financing medical school is completely different from financing undergraduate. Students typically pay for medical school with huge student loans, and/or whatever they manage to have from choosing cheaper undergraduate schooling. Obviously, having lots of undergraduate debt following you through medical school is not helpful.</p>
<p>At any school divided into divisions, it is typically expected that many students will take courses offered through departments in other divisions.</p>
<p>yes I realize for the UC schools that’s true. But all other schools like Harvard, Stanford, Vanderbilt, Cornell, and MIT meet all demonstrated need. I was just wondering if that is true for med school too.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus I have used the net price calculator on many of the schools websites and the EFC is always 0. Our income is near 35k per year so I should expect an EFC of 0 at almost all the schools on my list for UG schooling right (besides UC schools and other state schools) And yeah I just realized that the finical aid for UG and med school are definitely not the same</p>
<p>EFC = $0 does not mean that net price = $0. The schools will generally assume a student contribution (work earnings and/or direct loans); the net price will be that (or more if it does not “meet need”).</p>
<p>If you are not a California resident, the UCs will also have a $23,000 out-of-state additional tuition surcharge for which there will be no financial aid grants offered (though some top-end merit scholarships may cover it).</p>
<p>Yes of course but I don’t usually count student contribution because using the net price calculator all these schools expect me to work for around $4600 and this number is the same anywhere I’ve looked. The main part for me is the EFC which is still 0.</p>
<p>UC in-state net prices for (federal) EFC = $0 tend to be in the $8,500 to $10,000 range (federal direct loan + work). Other schools’ net prices for (usually institutional) EFC = $0 vary, so it is hard to believe that you got $4,600 net prices across all of the schools. USC even seems to have a small non-zero (institutional) EFC for students from very low income families.</p>
<p>Forget the UCs, you can’t afford it. That cuts your list down a bit. Not sure which USF but San Fran does not meet need. Drop that one.</p>
<p>You need to start a spreadsheet or something. more…</p>
<p>Brown does not admit by major, CS is in the liberal arts
Chicago does not have a engr school, so CS is not separated, and don’t think it admits by major
Cornell has CS in Engineering (COE) and Arts & Sciences (CAS)</p>
<p>Alright thank you. The reason those UCs are on there is because quite a bit of people get accepted from my area to UCs and and no one seems to have a problem. In actuality if I do end up getting accepted to just UCs I will take out a loan and work through college no matter how hard. Especially UCLA and UC Berkeley which offer top notch education, I think it is worth it to take out a loan and graduate from there. Again the other schools do offer me help in terms of grants and aids so I won’t have to take out loans but those schools are reach for almost anyone. @ucbalumnus Yes you’re right I was exaggerating a bit. But I just went on that net calculator you gave me and I got $4600 for both Yale and Princeton and $9600 for Amherst. I guess what I was trying to say is it doesn’t matter what my expected contribution is as long as EFC=0 and I’m not forced to take out any loans. (But I will if it is the only option left) </p>
<p>The list is really long because I like to maximize my chances and as of right now financial aid matters, but not as much as the admitting by major part (the name of the forum haha). I’m fully prepared to take out loans if I have to but if I end up being forced to study something for 4 years that I’ll end up regretting, that would be really unfortunate.</p>
<p>@BrownParent Thanks for the info. So when I’m applying to Brown do I need to apply to a specific program or school/college or do I just apply to the university as a whole like Stanford. I would love any school like Stanford where you apply to the University as a whole and are not forced to pick a major or concentration until Junior year. Same thing with Chicago; do they admit by school/college or is it like Stanford. I already know Cornell admits by school.
Thanks guys</p>