Both of mine went through an approval process when declaring, sometime toward the end of soph year. One knew from the start, the other was switching from her original intentions. It was a chance for the dept to both do a little advising/vetting and confirm each was on the right track, in terms of courses to-date.
Totally consider it. This is one of the strongest reasons one did not got to UCLA (other factors in play, but that was a biggie). Similarly, not getting direct admit into major is another factor we consider strongly. My third did not got to UW because AD told us 97% come in pre major and have to apply to the major as soph or junior (was admitted as “pre-Science”). They said CS was as hard as the med majors - typically a 3.8 was needed to get into major and still not guaranteed. Didn’t want to chance investing years and time and not getting major student wanted. Even though they loooved UW, too risky. Saw my nephew at UW finally get into business major as a senior after applying 3 times, so he will need an extra year to finish that major since he got in so late.
But then, if kid is as close to 100% sure of major as they can be, or at least certain of school (like engineering, etc.) then it is not an issue. Everything is easier when they strongly lean to a certain major and you don’t have to hedge your bets.
My daughter opted to attend a smaller LAC where they would save a place for her in their nursing program if she has a GPA of 3.5 at the end of her freshman year. It was part of the scholarship she received. Just a handful of students get that deal and she realizes it is a nice perk. Had she attended another school the GPA requirement was a 3.0 at the end of the freshman year, but that school was not affordable to us. As of right now she meets the requirement for her school, but things could change. You never know what might happen. Her nursing advisor told her not to worry about that GPA so much and to just do the best she could in all of her classes and it would all work out. That left her feeling like even if she’s a bit under the 3.5, she’s still very likely to get in. The advisor gave her some recommendations on when to take certain required classes to increase the likelihood that she’d have the 3.5 at the end of the year. My daughter said that a lot of students who said they wanted to study nursing are changing their minds after struggling with their cell bio class. One of the things we liked about the school she attends is that they offer a lot majors for a school their size. If she were to change her mind about being a nurse there are a lot of other options available to her.
In theory, any school (LAC or otherwise), could see a surge in interest in a particular major that exceeds the department’s planned capacity, in which case it has to choose (in the short term) between limiting the number of students in the major or doing things like increasing class sizes, hiring (more) adjuncts, hiring (more) TAs, stopping offering low enrollment electives to redeploy instructional resources to core courses in the major, and/or just not having enough class capacity in required or desired courses (example of the last at http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1556885-no-calc-101-for-you-p1.html ).
Here is an example of a public LAC’s impacted majors which require an admission process to change into, and which have higher admission thresholds for frosh and transfer applicants applying for that major at the school: http://www.sonoma.edu/advising/impacted
Yes, but you can’t just create these kids. This seems to be something that either happens or it doesn’t.
Both of my kids were as close to 100% sure of a major as a kid could be, and both ended up completing those majors. But my husband and I did nothing to foster this – and I’m not sure that there’s anything we could have done or should have done to create the situation.
OK, I have a total rookie question:
My son has his list pretty much narrowed down to a top 2, with an acceptance into one of those 2. He’s planning for a Sports Management major.
But let’s say he wakes up in a few hours (because there’s no way a 17 year old boy is getting up at 8:30 am on a vacation day 
) and decides that he wants to major in, say, Criminal Justice instead. Both of his top 2 schools offer that major.
How would we know about the difficulty in changing majors?
What if he wakes up NEXT December 28 with that decision? Or the one after that?
How can we determine how easy or hard it is to change majors from one school to the next?
@Pizzagirl, that’s true. Our kids wanted smaller schools, but if they’d been interested in a large university, the arts and sciences school at their chosen university would certainly have been a good option.
@bjkmom, all he needs to do is look at the graduation requirements for each major. If he has already taken a few of the requirements for Sports Management, say, then decides he likes Criminal Justice in a year or so, but has taken none of the required courses, he’ll just need to determine whether it is possible to fulfill the requirements for his new major and still graduate on time. That would be the hurdle.
But if he’s not applying to a specific “School of Sports Management” then he can change majors pretty easily. Most kids spend their first couple of years in college fulfilling distribution requirements, anyway.
Thanks @Massmomm for a logical and common sense answer.
@bjkmom -
I think you can begin by looking at departmental web pages. Most would have a flow chart for the major indicating which classes need to be completed and any classes that need to be completed in sequence, with slots for gen eds.
Note whether your S will be able to waive out of gen eds, leaving more room to explore the curriculum.
It is probably going to be difficult to change into a major with lots of course requirements specific to the major after two or more semesters have passed, especially if these will not double as gen eds. It can be difficult to catch up after changing into a major with courses that need to be taken in strict sequence, unless perhaps it is a very popular major and required classes are offered on at least an annual basis, or over summers, or in multiple sections.
So, I would check for this as well.
Anticipate that the school as a whole will have regulations that govern how late in the game a student can change majors, and how many attempted credits they are permitted before they are dismissed without possibility of a degree from that school (would affect late change to a credit intensive major.)
BK- you also need to understand the college’s nomenclature. The “statistics for Business” majors may not fulfill the “statistics for Psychology” requirement- which is more likely to be the stats class that a criminal justice major needs. I know a lot of kids who think “I’ve already taken statistics” when they try to switch departments, only to discover that the course requirements are different (social science majors often are required to take a more rigorous stats sequence than business- which is less rigorous than what engineering majors have to take, etc.) I know “super seniors” who are stuck retaking classes they thought they had passed as Freshman but which do not carry over. This is how kids end up taking five years to get a four year degree…
It is easier to switch from Econ to Business than the other way around (required courses are more rigorous for Econ, in general, even though the content will overlap). YMMV.
Never did. Perhaps the kids may have though. It worked/and is working out as they have done/ doing what they likef the most.
Bjkmom, not only what the requirements are for the major, but two extras: How often those needed classes or the pre-reqs are offered (this comes up on CC all the time.) And how any core/distribution requirements can get in the way when scheduling what the major needs.
My kid who changed had a complicated set of gen eds and a need for something akin to a minor. Fortunately, by the end of soph year, she had most of the gen eds out of the way.
This was not an issue that I knew to research and consider back at the start of DD’s search and application process. Having attended a LAC as an UG student myself, only some of the very specific art and music majors had different entry requirements than any other major. For the rest of the school switching majors was simple and only required completing the courses required for graduation in that major. Although I attended a larger university for grad school which was very compartmentalized, it still wasn’t an issue since by that time I was seeking a very defined degree and didn’t ever consider changing majors, if that was even possible.
Then we started to look into the kind of schools my D was and is interested in, all research oriented, medium to very large size universities and the issue of portability between majors came to light and became a factor in her search and determining her application pool. D knows she wants to work in a STEM/healthcare related field and possibly minor in something more humanities or social sciences oriented and has done a ton of shadowing, preceptor programs and summer programs trying different career paths on for size. In the course of a year before starting college next fall, she has already cycled from pre-med to pharmacy to biomedical engineering and back to pre-med. Although pre-med is not a specific major, she would like to attend a program that not only meets med school pre-reqs, but also gives her a solid clinical background before med school (also, giving her yet again a view of her possible future when she still has time to alter her plans to grad school or a different professional school).
Flexibility between majors has now become a major factor in ranking her school list, just one more thing we learned to appreciate through this process, with C being a big part of that.
Do a web search for “[school name] change major [new major]” and “[school name] declare major [new major]”. Then dig around the web pages to see if there are requirements to change into or declare the new major.
Of course, pay attention not only to any GPA requirements or competitive admission processes, but also the prerequisite sequencing. An undecided student should be advised to cover the prerequisites for all of his/her potential majors in the early semesters, so that s/he will be able to sample the subjects and not need any extra semesters if s/he declares any of them.
re post #41. It took me a reread to realize the poster was talking about U of Washington, not Wisconsin. Vastly different for CS at Udub than the UW I know.
@marian Agree you can’t create them nor should a parent pre-define them. But there are those kids that build things their whole life, solve puzzles and problems of all kinds, and have a need to know how things work - and frequently they go to college quite sure of their general destination and end up an engineer of some sort, even when neither parent (as in my house) is in the field or remotely close to it
@CADREAMIN, if I could have dictated my kids’ interests, I would have. We live in Montgomery County, Maryland, home of the National Institutes of Health and within commuting distance of Washington, DC. The opportunities for internships and other experiences in biomedical research and politics are fantastic, even for students who are not yet in college.
So of course, my kids had no interest whatsoever in either politics or biomedical research. One knew by 9th grade that computer science would be the field for him (and in fact, he is pursuing a career in that field now), and the other settled on economics while in high school, with the intent of getting an MBA later (and in fact, she is now a 2nd year MBA student).
@bjkmom – Most colleges have the catalog available online. If you cannot find enough information on the program specific webpages, check the catalog.
If majors that your child is interested in require students to take pre-requisites, and then apply formally to the major, it is worth contacting the departments to find out if there are caps on majors, or how many students are generally denied formal admission to the major. This info may also be available on the websites or in the catalog.
For example, where I teach students are initially admitted to the university, but not a specific major or school. Some majors (arts majors) require an audition, interview, portfolio review before a student can declare the major. Admissions is competitive, and most students apply as HS seniors. If not admitted to the arts major, students admitted to the university can still come as undeclared, or in another major. Other majors are completely open, so if you are admitted to the university you may declare that major. Other majors require you to declare that major before you can take in introductory major courses, but there are progression standards, and/ or a formal admission process sometime around the sophomore or junior year in order to be fully admitted to the major program… Business, Communications, Media Arts are a few of the programs that work like that.
Every university (and even colleges/ schools/ departments within) may work differently.
This is a huge deal at University of Washington in CS, engineering, and the Foster School of Business. About half the kids who go in desiring these majors end up dangling. We don’t know any nursing majors there, but do know someone who did not certify into nursing her junior year at Arizona with a 3.4, and another who lost her spot in her nurse practitioner program at Seattle Pacific with a 3.7. Both ended up transferring.
The days of the “gentleman’s C” and “Cs get degrees” are gone for our kids.
And @bjkmom, at least the schools I know of, Sports Management and Criminal Justice are among the least restrictive majors.