<p>I'm applying as an engineering student to rice, but if I change my mind and want to do something else, in general, how tough is it to switch to a different major?</p>
<p>You don't officialy declare a major until the beginning of your junior year. By applying within a certain college you are stating our current preferences, but with the exception of the music and architecture programs, which have very specific application procedures, you really aren't committing yourself to anything at this point. Don't worry- you are fine.</p>
<p>Agree with everything jym said - it's easy to change your major except into music or arch. However, your divisional advisor will be (at least at first) an engineer. But you can change that. Just to be clear though, you must declare a major by the end of your sophomore year, although you are free to switch even after that.</p>
<p>Sorry for bumping this thread.</p>
<p>So it wouldn’t be difficult to switch into engineering? I’m currently undecided about whether I want to major in the humanities or engineering.</p>
<p>Well, there are two different interpretations of this question, and thus there are two different answers.</p>
<p>1) How hard is it, bureaucratically, to change your major? </p>
<p>Really easy. You just go to the major advisor and have him sign a form. You could even declare a major the last week of your senior year, though I wouldn’t recommend it.</p>
<p>2) How hard is it, academically, to change your major?</p>
<p>That depends on a handful of things. Engineering has a pretty rigid path, and if you haven’t been following it from day one, you’ll have to start over. Natural sciences is a little less rigid, and it’s more likely that AP/IB credits will exempt you from some of the intro classes, but it’s still harder to begin your sophomore year. Humanities and social science majors only require 30–36 hours, so you could feasibly complete one of these majors in only three semesters, although that is a terrible idea and goes completely against the core principles of the liberal arts.</p>
<p>Now, the engineering majors don’t really start differentiating themselves until second semester sophomore year, so if you decide to change from one engineering major to another, you’re pretty much in the clear. Same goes for natural sciences. The humanities and social sciences encourage you to take a wide variety of classes, so it’s likely that you won’t have really chosen a major until your sophomore year anyway.</p>
<p>But that only really applies to switching within departments. It’s harder, academically, to switch between departments, only because it means that you haven’t started on that department’s path. It’s easier to switch from engineering to humanities, but it means that you’ll have to take more classes in your major per semester, and you won’t get as diverse of an academic experience, which is really important to the humanities.</p>
<p>I’m not trying to discourage you from being undecided; undecided is a great place to be. I came into Rice thinking I wanted to be a physics major, but I wound up in English and political science. Take as much variety as your freshman schedule will allow. The engineering department will try to convince you that you can’t deviate from their set path, but there is always room for a creative writing or introductory political science course. My first-semester freshman schedule had a physics course, a math course, a philosophy course, a political science course, and a freshman seminar. You have more academic freedom than you think. Use it.</p>
<p>Thanks for the very thorough response. One more question :). Is it possible to switch departments before school starts?</p>
<p>Ex: If I applied as a humanities major, could I switch to the engineering department before school started?</p>
<p>There are two ways to go about this. One is the more formal way of contacting the Dean of Undergraduates’ office. They’ll probably be swamped with other questions this summer, though. Another is to contact your Orientation Week coordinators once you find out what college you’re in, and ask them to have the PAAs at your college (Peer Academic Advisors) set you up in an advising appointment with the other department. This is not as formal —<em>you will still be officially recognized by Rice as part of the humanities school —</em>but it is probably more efficient and deals with the immediate problem of making sure you get the right academic advising during O-Week.</p>
<p>I was technically part of the School of Natural Sciences until I declared my English major second semester of sophomore year, but I still went to humanities advisors until then.</p>
<p>I would also just ask your oweek fellows/advisers for help. They can help you register for classes. A lot of intro classes are standard without much leeway or space for error in terms of missing out on a class/scheduling conflicts etc.</p>
<p>The PAA’s are pretty useless, in my opinion</p>
<p>During O-Week, PAAs most certainly aren’t useless, since they’re your link to the academic advising office. They spend hours upon hours making sure that you’re connected to the right people.</p>
<p>PAAs, or Peer Academic Advisors, are NOT useless. I’m not a PAA but I will say that they’ve spent hours being specially trained on how to advise freshmen about scheduling, certain classes, majors/minors, etc. They know a lot of information that your O-Week advisors might not be aware of.</p>
<p>That said, your O-Week advisors are always fantastic resources, especially if you can find an advisor in your college whose major most closely aligns with your prospective major.</p>
<p>I applied to Rice as a Natural Sciences major and knew I wanted to be a Social Science major. I didn’t both changing it before O-Week and it really wasn’t that big of a deal. Sure, my meeting with my divisional advisor was pretty useless, but it was like 15 minutes of my time and I really don’t think changing your division before O-Week is worth the hassle. </p>
<p>CAVEAT: If you’re thinking of switching INTO engineering, that is a whole other story. I’m not an engineer so I don’t really feel qualified to discuss that but the best advice I can give you is talk to upperclass engineers! Also, this is basically the Bible of academic planning for engineers:
<a href=“http://engineering.rice.edu/uploadedFiles/School_of_Engineering/Current_Students/Undergraduate_Students/Advising2009.pdf[/url]”>http://engineering.rice.edu/uploadedFiles/School_of_Engineering/Current_Students/Undergraduate_Students/Advising2009.pdf</a></p>
<p>good luck!</p>
<p>For my time there (4 O-Weeks) I have been extremely disappointed by their lackluster performance. The academic advising office leaves much to be desired as well.</p>
<p>That being said, I dont mean to scare anyone. There are more than enough great resources for freshers to get help. RA’s, masters, advisers, other O-week members are a great help. Just walking into the department and speaking with a few professors helps a lot.</p>
<p>I walked into the office, met with Dr. Chapman, who sold me on Chemical Engineering. He helped me formulate a schedule and other professors helped me fine tune it as time went on.</p>
<p>I am sure there are many good PAA’s, its just in my experience, they haven’t been the most useful resource</p>
<p>Honestly, I can see how PAAs are not immediately useful to students. However, as a former O-Week coordinator I can tell you that they are invaluable. PAAs are not there for the advice that they can give; they are there to ensure that every single student receives the academic advice that they need from the people who can give them that advice, whether it be from themselves, O-Week advisors, divisional advisors, or Brian Gibson himself. Maybe Wiess’ PAAs have been subpar the past few years, but in all four of my O-Weeks (3 at Lovett, 1 at Will Rice) the PAAs have been superb. It helps that Lovett has the Student Director of Academic Advising as one of our PAAs, though.</p>