<p>Hey I am looking for an undergrad degree in a good US university. i have heard that the education system there is very liberal and in most colleges u don't have to declare your major by the end of the year. Now the thing is I am looking for studying social sciences majorly, but I am interested in engineering as well. Suppose I go to a college which has strong programs in both social sciences and engineering(say Princeton) to study SOCIAL SCIENCES . Midway through my first year, suppose I realize that social sciences is not my thing and I want to switch over to say Princeton's mechanical engineering program. Will Princeton allow it?
p.s.: 1.i do not want to do a double major.
2. i have a very good academic record in science, but zero EC in it. Most of my EC is to do with debating, writing, social service.</p>
<p>Princeton will allow it, most people switch majors at least once during their college career.</p>
<p>Majors are typically not declared until sophomore year. So in your situation, where this happens your first year, you wouldn’t need to do anything other than planning differently from your original intent.</p>
<p>While it’s generally easy to change majors at U.S. colleges and universities, this is not always the case with engineering. Because most engineering programs are more demanding and structured than other courses of study—with, for example, required foundational courses followed by specific sequences of upper-level courses—many students find the only way to complete an engineering degree in four years is to enter the program as a freshman. As a result, there tend to be more people transferring out of engineering than transferring in. Also, at many universities engineering is in a separate school from arts & sciences, and admission to arts & sciences doesn’t guarantee admission to engineering, for which the admissions criteria might be different (e.g., more demanding math & science standards); it’s not as simple as declaring or changing a major within arts & sciences, which is usually as simple as filling out a form. </p>
<p>I don’t know how any of this works at Princeton, but you should investigate carefully before leaping. At schools I’m more familiar with, like Michigan or Berkeley, I’d say if you’re torn between engineering and social sciences, you’re probably better off applying to the engineering school as a freshman, because if you end up changing your mind part way through it will be easier to transfer from engineering to arts & sciences than to go in the other direction.</p>
<p>“if you end up changing your mind part way through it will be easier to transfer from engineering to arts & sciences than to go in the other direction.”</p>
<p>Yes, that is good advice. Princeton has only one undergraduate college, so that an internal transfer is not necessary if you change majors. It might be smart to concentrate on universities that are organized that way, rather than by separate colleges.</p>