How easy is it to change major in MIT?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1

<p>My declared major is Chemistry. However, I am having second thoughts .... How easy is it to change to business major (Sloan)?</p>

<p>Suppose, I want to try out business major while I am in Chemistry, how easy is it to take classes from Sloan?</p>

<p>Thanks,</p>

<p>Shopaholic2</p>

2

<p>Generally changing majors is pretty easy -- you just fill out a form and get some signatures.</p>

<p>It's a little difficult for non-Sloan people to take Sloan classes, as I understand, just because there is a lottery system for getting into Sloan classes (<a href="http://sloanbid.mit.edu/)%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://sloanbid.mit.edu/)&lt;/a>. The best bet for trying out Sloan classes, I would think, would be to apply for the Sloan minor (or, alternatively, just to switch to Sloan and be able to bid for classes while still taking classes toward the chemistry major, then switch back if you discover that you like chemicals better than businesses).</p>

3

<p>while the sloan prioritization system seems absurdly complicated, it is usually possible for non-sloan students to bid into sloan classes unless it's intensely popular. It's just that you have to go into the thing at the right time, and there are a lot of subtleties to it. (the minor is an awesome idea though, i second the recommendation to try it.)</p>

4

<p>OK, I just read another thread and realized you're an incoming freshman.</p>

<p>You don't need to worry about "changing majors" -- the major you write down on your application doesn't mean anything once you get here. Freshmen are not considered to have a major. You don't need to commit to a major until at least April of your freshman year (although many people take longer).</p>

5

<p>I never quite knew how to answer the question "what's your major?" till now because I couldnt declare even though I would of in a heartbeat</p>

6

<p>well. when we ask frosh what their major is, we know they haven't declared, we just want to see what they say, whether it's "oh, i'm course 6" or "well, i'm looking at these departments" or "um, i don't really know, i might look into it next term...what're you?"</p>