Hey, I took a tour recently at UCI, and my tour guide said that there’s no “impacted majors” at UCI, meaning that you don’t need higher stats to get admitted to the school if you’re applying to a competitive major like BioMed or Computer Engineering. They look at your application first and decide whether you’ll be accepted, then if you’re accepted they look at your major and give you other options if they decide that you don’t make it into that particular major. For example, if someone applied under BioMed, UCI will accept them, not caring about their major at all at that point, then after they accept them they’ll give you an alternative if BioMed is too competitive.
Is this true? Because I want to apply under Computer Science.
UCI is saying that they admit into the University first, then into the major. If you do not select an alternate major when applying and you are not accepted into your first choice, you will be placed in Undeclared. From Undeclared, you will have to transfer into your choice major by completing pre-req courses and maintain a certain GPA.
Minimum of 2.7 GPA overall
Minimum GPA of 2.0 in the quarter immediately preceding the change of major
Course grades
Completion of the following courses:
ICS 31
ICS 32
One or more of Math 2A, Math 2B, ICS 6B, ICS 6D,
A minimum GPA of 2.7 and no grade less than a C in ALL courses taken from those listed above.
Here is a link to show that UCI’s average UC GPA for CS/Engineering majors is higher than other majors.
Thanks for the reply. From recent stats I’ve seen, Computer Science has become very popular over the last few years, while Computer Science and Engineering has decreased in popularity greatly? Is there any reason for this, and would it be smarter to apply under CSE rather than CS so my chances will be higher?
If you look at the average GPA’s for each major, there is little difference in enrolled GPA of 4.09 for CSE to 4.11 for CS. Popularity wise, I have no idea why more applicants prefer CS to CSE and I really do not know if your chances would be higher by applying to CSE. CSE will be more hardware based while CS would be more programming based, so I would pick which major you prefer. You could always have CS as your first choice and CSE as your alternate major.
Thanks, one more question. If I do get admitted, when they decide if I’m good enough for CS or CSE, is GPA the only thing they will look at, or will they look at my whole application?
Below is a link on the selection criteria for UCI. From the common dataset for UCI, GPA/Test scores/Essays/EC’s/Level of Interest/HS rigor are very important. Important is Personal character qualities and Class rank (ELC eligible). Considered is State Residency, First Generation and Geographic location.
“UCI is saying that they admit into the University first, then into the major. If you do not select an alternate major when applying and you are not accepted into your first choice, you will be placed in Undeclared. From Undeclared, you will have to transfer into your choice major by completing pre-req courses and maintain a certain GPA.”
Want to see if there is any other useful info there.