<p>I have many questions about these programs! Some background on myself: I am a prospective freshman out-of-state applicant from New Jersey interested in studying at UC Berkeley in one of these three programs. </p>
<p>1) From what I understand, one applies to Haas after two years in the College of Letters and Science, is this true? Until then, is one an undeclared-prebusiness major or can one be pursuing another major before one applies to Haas? </p>
<p>2) From what I understand, the Economics major is capped. Do I apply to it in my freshman application, or do I declare the major later on (like a semester later, year later, etc.)?</p>
<p>3) Is the Statistics major capped? Do I apply to it in my freshman application, or do I declare the major later on (like a semester later, year later, etc.)?</p>
<p>4) I want to either go into something like front-office investment banking or something like public economic policy/analysis (very different things, I know, but I will figure out what I really want to do soon enough)- which program among these 3 would best for each one of these two career paths?</p>
<p>5) Can I start out as an Economics or Statistics major and then apply to Haas?</p>
<p>6) How likely is admission into Haas if you are applying after all the prerequisites are met well (A to B+ range, applying from within UC Berkeley)?</p>
<p>I can answer only part of your questions with near certainty: if you want to go into public policy, you’ll want either an Econ PhD (best) or a Masters in Public Policy (not nearly as difficult but lower reward). For Econ courses, depending upon your interests, some combination of public finance, labor, development, and economic history would be useful. Don’t overlook the last: it’s very useful in terms of mining data from past experiences to indicate how various contemporary policy options would play out.</p>
<p>Regarding your questions 1, 2, 3, and 5, if you enter as L&S (all frosh enter L&S undeclared), you can take courses to prepare for various majors and then declare one (or more) that you like (and can be admitted to if capped).</p>
<p>You do (but there is a choice of “undeclared”), but for L&S, it mainly affects pre-frosh advising if you get admitted and attend. Of course, it may indirectly affect frosh admission based on your essays’ consistency with the indicated intended major.</p>
<p>For transfer admission, your intended major does matter in L&S or any other division.</p>