<p>So recently I got really interested in going to Penn(I'm a junior) and I was looking at the admissions page on the university's website and it seems that, if you want to apply, you have to apply to a specific school. Is this the way it is for all colleges? I was thinking about applying to Wharton, but I might also want to major in a cognitive science. I know major-wise we can go in undecided, but it seems like you're kind of forced to at least decide on the area your concentration will be in. Is it hard to transfer schools within a university if the area of your major changes?</p>
<p>It’s not like this for all colleges. There are 2 ‘blanket’ types of colleges. Here’s a basic rundown:</p>
<p>Universities:
*When you apply to a university, 90% of the time you are applying into a specific school within the college (Like Wharton in this case, or EECS at UC Berkeley). Many times, if you are accepted, the university will admit you for that particular school (sometimes they might put you into your second choice major). That being said…</p>
<p>*Switching schools will depend on how difficult it is for an applicant to get in. I can imagine it will be very difficult for a Penn student to transfer into Wharton because it is so difficult to get in in the first place. Boston College’s business school doesn’t accept transfers (maybe like 5 people, but that’s it). I know transfering into EECS at Berkeley is also extremely difficult.</p>
<p>*Some schools will have different admission quota. I’ll use NYU here. If you want to apply into Tisch (school of Arts), you’ll need to send in portfolios of your work, videos of your performances etc. if you want to be considered. Getting into Steinhardt (Business school) is another difficult school to get into because the average applicant has extremely high stats. </p>
<p>*Graduation requirements are a little bit different: You’ll have university requirements, which will include getting some language, math, science etc. under your belt in order to graduate. You’ll also have school requirements, which will require you to take more classes related to your major (like math for an economics major). And you’ll also have major requirements, which are the classes you’ll need in order to complete your major. </p>
<p>*Pros:
-If you apply into a strong school at a University, you’ll get an excellent specialized education for what you want to study. It’s good for people who know (at least roughly) what they want to do.<br>
-Fewer broad (university-wide) gen ed requirements. </p>
<p>*Cons:
-There are a lot of high schoolers who have no idea what they want to do. Some students need the broader gen. ed. requirements in order to figure out what they want.
- At all universities, the schools are not strong across the board. For instance, Harvard has an amazing business program, but if you wanted to pick up a second major in CS, there are many schools with stronger CS programs than Harvard. </p>
<p>Liberal Arts College (LAC):
*With these kinds of schools, you apply to the college as a whole. They won’t accept you by your major, so if you choose to switch at some point, I can imagine it’ll be much easier. </p>
<p>*You won’t have any school-specific requirements to complete, giving you more time to explore your options. </p>
<p>Pros:
-like I’ve said, you get some time to explore your options and figure out what you want
-LACs often have departments of similar strength across the board, so you’d be getting a similar strength education in your math classes as you would in your english class
-LACs are known for giving a lot of individual attention to the students and having professors that really interact with their students. </p>
<p>Cons:
-For someone who knows what they want, having to deal with broader requirements that they can’t necessarily skip out of is a pain.
-Most of these schools are tiny, and don’t have a lot of access to things like science research. You might not have graduate level classes to dabble in if you want to do that. </p>
<p>Technology Schools (Not one of the blanket types, but still prevalent enough to mention)
*kind of like a university, but with a lot of focus towards STEM.
- Gen. Ed requirements are much more STEM heavy and specific (MIT wants their student to take a minimum of 2 semesters of Calculus, 2 semester of calculus based physics, 1 semester of chem and 1 semester of bio, along with a couple of semesters of humanities based classes).</p>
<p>Pros:
-These places are a boon to kids who want to study engineering and science. Many of the resources, research, activities and opportunities are geared toward kids going into STEM. </p>
<p>Cons:
-If you’re not a STEM kid, run as far away from these schools as possible. </p>
<p>Hope this helps!</p>
<p>There are also some universities which use a mixture of the university and LAC policies mentioned above.
For example, at Johns Hopkins University applicants apply to the specific school (arts and sciences, engineering, etc), but are not bound by their choice -they don’t have to declare a major until sophomore year and have the freedom to switch majors, double major, minor, so long as they’ve talked to their adviser.
The only exception to this policy is the BME program -which is about as (maybe slightly less) selective as Berkeley EECS. High school seniors apply directly to the BME department and must be accepted by both the university and the BME department to major in BME. Transferring to BME is extremely difficult and is contingent on how many spots are available. </p>
<p>For Wisconsin Madison, you do indicate your intended school and major in the application, but you can switch to other school easily at registration.</p>