Does student need to specify school when applying to Rutgers?

When applying to Rutgers do you specify specific school such as School of Business or School of engineering or you just apply and get accepted to Rutgers in general and some time in or after freshman or sophomore year you apply to specific school and choose your major?

After talking to my rising HS senior daughter we all realized she does not know at all what she wants to study. So we cannot apply to any specific school and the best option we see is to get into Rutgers without any specialization if such option exists and hopefully she will choose school and major later while already in Rutgers.

You do have to choose your top 3 schools that you want but it is very easy to change majors/schools. There is an unspecialized school called SAS which is where a lot of undecided people go but there are also undecided people in every school, even engineering and business.

SAS is School of Arts and Sciences, it does no seem to be generic enough. What happens if student later wants to study business?

My twin sons applied for Class Of 2022 but are attending another school. One applied to Arts and Sciences and another to both Business and SAS (one may have applied to a third but not too sure). I remember the costs were a little different but the docs were not where I remember from last year. They likely have helpful departments if you call with questions. I would call Rutgers if needed and maybe their website has frequently asked questions.

@3sonsmom

When you said applied to “both Business and SAS” does it means he was admitted to an will study in both schools or he had to choose one specific school?

You have to choose to enroll in one school but you can easily transfer with a 3.0 gpa

@Al73 One son applied to both Rutgers Business and School Of Arts and Sciences and second son Arts and Sciences only. They got acceptances then financials for each since the schools have different costs and fees.

Neither is attending Rutgers but if they had chosen to go, they would have accepted at the specific school (for example Business school).

My ds20 made the mistake of misunderstanding this, so I hope sharing his experience will help others. Most of the large state flagships he applied to asked him to rank his school/major choices in order of preference. Therefore, he made the mistake of only applying to SAS, and listing his majors in order of preference. He now realizes that the top 3 choices at Rutgers were about school, not major.

Subsequent to receiving EA acceptance at SAS, he added the School of Business and is still waiting to hear. On his portal, it reads as “accepted” to SAS, and “Pending” at RBS. He would have applied to both originally if he had it to do over, but he both misunderstood and thought he had a better chance at SAS than RBS, and was afraid he would be rejected outright if he put RBS first. Live and learn!