I have every intention to apply into engineering in UCs as well as some privates. I was all set for bioengineering up until I realized that it isnt a secure field and I became interested in Computer Engineering/Science however I have never taken AP Comp Science nor any subject related to Computer Science in high school- thus leading me to be undeclared. Does being undeclared in engineering matter? will it hurt my chances at the top UCs or will it not matter at all? I am a california resident, high school senior, and a girl if that matters.
Some UC’s admit by major, some admit by college and some admit to the school. Since any engineering major will be competitive, it is to your advantage to try and get a direct admit into the major of your choice. It can be extremely difficult and competitive to try and change majors later on in the process and many times impossible. If you know what you want to major in, go for it.
I agree, for the bigger schools with a lot of applicants, it is wisest to apply for a specific major if that is how they admit. For privates with smaller enrollment, it may not be so critical and it also may be pretty straightforward to switch majors later anyway.
Whatever, just don’t apply to undeclared engineering at Berkeley, it’s the most competitive major, more selective than EECS.
how competitive is it in berkeley? what type scores, gpa, ECs do you need?
Check out the Berkeley forum for EECS.
I think it is unfortunate that some colleges admit by major. Most high school students aren’t exposed to the various branches of engineering (or many other subjects for that matter). To make them decide as a high school senior is a great disservice to many students. To compound that problem, many of those same schools have “impacted” majors in the engineering fields making changing majors very difficult to impossible.
If I were undecided, I would definitely migrate toward colleges that admit to the school and let the students decide which major to go into without having them jump thru all kinds of hoops to do so. That will probably mean that many of the colleges that you would be looking at are private. Do realize that many private colleges do provide good financial aid. In many cases they will try to make their cost be about the same as the UCs. With the difficulty of really getting out in 4 years from a UC (for reasons beyond the student’s control), that could actually make the privates cheaper.