SDSU is definitely a reach school for me (3.0 gpa, 1100 SAT), however I do want to increase my chances of getting in as much as possible. I know this school is especially known for their business and science majors so I’m assuming I should avoid those. I’m interested in Real Estate but I’m afraid that would be a hard major to get into. What about Hospitality? Honestly any information on what majors are most/least competitive would be helpful! Also, how hard is it to change your major at SDSU? I’ve heard it’s pretty easy to change majors at most Cal States other than Cal Poly Slo, is this true? Thanks.
You should assume that if a major is harder to be admitted to as a frosh, it will be harder to change into after enrolling.
At SDSU, business majors require a 2.9 GPA after completing 60 units and the 9 prerequisite courses:
https://cbaweb.sdsu.edu/bac/admissions
SDSU is an impacted campus meaning that all majors have more applicants than spots available including Undeclared. Also you enter SDSU as a Pre-major and have to maintain a specific GPA (varies by major) to continue into the upper division courses. I will give you a link and you can calculate the acceptance rates by major based on 2015 data. Most majors have around a 30-40% acceptance rate with the lowest being Nursing which is around 5%. Also do not count on switching majors easily at all the CSU’s. Many of the impacted majors/competitive majors have higher requirements.
Your Eligibility index at the moment calculates out to 3500. The lowest E’s I have seen these past few years have been from local in-service area applicants that were around 3900. You need to look for some more realistic options such as Sac State, SFSU, CSU Stanislaus, CSU Channel Islands, CSU Dominguez, CSU San Bernardino, Sonoma State, SJSU (depending upon major), Humboldt to name a few.
You are pretty unlikely to make it into SDSU regardless of major.
Take a look at the CSUs listed above as viable options.
Good luck
The data with the acceptance by majors is interesting, and it appears to provide an answer for the OP. While nursing seems to be an exception, most majors look like they reflect an eligibility index cutoff at the school or university level. I was curious and ran the percentage on some of them, – Women’s Studies 11 percent, Econ 42 percent, Mechanical Engineering 50 percent! As such, the chart seems to reflect the quality of applicants to each major rather than a pre-determined rate of acceptance for each major. In other words, a particular EI gets you in regardless of major (with some exceptions). But I am just trying to interpret the chart, and others might actually know how SDSU runs admissions.
@bookguy, I have no special insight to SDSU admissions but I agree that their EI threshold seems to be true University wide vs by major, at least with data I have collected the last few years. A 4100+ SAT EI and a 1000+ ACT threshold seems to predict the majority of acceptances but there are always exceptions. Many local applicants can get an acceptance with a mid 3900+ SAT and 900+ ACT EI. Some OOS applicants have been under these thresholds and this to probably get the extra OOS revenue. Nursing is definitely the exception with much higher EI’s starting at around 4300+.
Only choose a major you want to graduate with as you’re unlikely to be able to switch.
In any case our EI isn’t high enough for sdsu.if you want Southern California, what about calnstate San Marcos? Sonoma has a beautiful campus and while not in the same area, would be a good match.
I don’t know where you guys are getting the idea that it’s hard to switch majors. One of my friends just recently switched her major from Arts to Engineering. If anything, those majors are very different and don’t fall in the same college. All she did was talk to the right people and they told her to make the change on a certain date.
Now unless you’re talking about the real major as in you’ve finished all the requirements and have done the necessary step to go from a PRE-MAJOR to the MAJOR. However, the person asking the question wasn’t asking that. I’m sure it’s simple and easy to switch from pre-major to pre-major, which is what the OP is probably wanting to do.
I just don’t want people to get confused about this.
SDSU used to be my dream school. Now it’s still on my list but kinda in the middle. I don’t think they admit based on major. Like it’s considered but unless it’s something like…say Asian Studies then it will be just as difficult.
Not bashing Asian studies… It’s just an uncommon major.
@Jmliguid: OP is trying to find an “easy” way to get into a school that they are not qualified for in the first place. I agree that switching majors may not be that difficult at many schools, but for some it is difficult. Basically posters are trying to dissuade OP from taking the “easy” way out and apply to schools that are realistic.
My son picked up a brochure from SDSU, and it says, “During admission, we rank applicants within each major rather than overall.” It also says that nursing applicants get a more rigorous set of rankings. Nevertheless, as we discussed above, the data does not show that they accept the same percentage in each major but rather that the percentage varies for each major and is probably affected by an overall EI. My takeaway from all of this is that the OP should just apply to a major of interest and hope for the best.
My nephew applied to an “easy” major at Cal Poly to get into a more brand name college, but was not allowed to change majors. (CP is tough on that). Having graduated his major has not helped him in his job search in spite of the CP diploma.