Hello all. Going through the UC app with my DD this weekend. Each school asked for a major and some an intended minor too. While my daughter has a vague idea of what she wants to do, she’s not fully committed. Most of the majors she’s looking at are in the College of Letters and Sciences.
Are these intended majors really important? Do admissions people look at this even? Or do you just apply to the specific college (letters/sci) and then are pooled with all applicants in all majors?
Thanks!
My goal was to get into one of the UC’s most competitive majors at their most competitive school, but I applied to different majors at 3 other UC’s. My essays were specifically for the university and major I wanted to get into … and I got into every program I applied to … even though my essays were about another program and major at a different school.
It might depend on how much each schools weights the essays, I guess, but I got into UCB, UCSD, UCSC, and UCD all with essays saying how much I wanted to get into UCB.
briank82 you were a transfer student and had some very unique life experiences that might have shed a different light on your application.
@kath00 every UC we toured said that mentioning a specific program at a specific UC restricts your application. Some schools accept based on College and some accept based on major. Look at each UC she is applying to and see what selection criteria they use. http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/freshman/how-applications-reviewed/
As stated above, you need to see how each UC admits and if it is by Major like Engineering, then intended major is very important in the admissions process. Several schools also have capped or impacted majors and suggest you select a non-capped/impacted major as an alternate in case you are not selected for your first choice. If an alternate major is not selected, you could be admitted but as undeclared. As an Undeclared, for many majors it is extremely difficult to switch into later.