For example, if you apply to a school in admissions with a major like English but want to change it into a completely different field later on like computer science, would that be possible? Thanks in advance :))
It depends on whether the new major is “full”, meaning that the number of students fills up its department’s capacity. If it is “full”, then changing into that major after enrolling is likely to require high college grades or GPA or a competitive admission process. For example, at UIUC, changing into the CS major requires a minimum college GPA of 3.75 just to be eligible to apply to a competitive admission process. However, changing into English at UIUC requires only a 2.0 college GPA (no competitive admission). (The majors also require prerequisite courses to be completed.)
If the college does frosh admission by major, those majors that tend to be “full” also tend to be more competitive for frosh admission.
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It is extremely variable depending on which college you attend.
I’m not saying that you are trying to do this but it is frowned upon to apply into an open/easy major with the intent of transferring into a closed/competitive major after you are accepted.
Also, if transferring from a humanities major to a STEM major, the sooner you can make that change, the better. STEM majors have a lot of lower division pre-reqs (ex. a year of bio, chem, physics and math). If you don’t start those classes right away, it will likely take more than four years to graduate.
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At some schools, certain majors may also be part of a different “college” (College of Arts & Science vs School of Engineering). Depending on the majors being considered, it may be relatively straight forward if they are under the same umbrella. In other cases, you may need to apply to transfer to another college within the university.
Agree that applying to a less selective major with the hopes of transferring into one that is more competitive is not a good idea. If your application is denied, either because of grades or space, you may end up out of luck.
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If you know CS is very competitive major for the college you are applying to and you question your acceptance possibilities to CS, why do you think that college would let an English major transfer in if entrance to cs is so competitive in the first place?
It is very college dependent. But if you wouldn’t be accepted from the start into cs, it’s more unlikely they would let you transfer in.
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Just in case you are not aware already and you mention “English”: There are colleges where you don’t apply for a certain major, but rather apply using the most popular major of all: “Undecided”.
In fact, a significant percentage of students who apply for a major will have a change of heart in their first year and “switch” majors anyway.
Usually, you won’t have to “declare” a major until half-way through sophomore year.
Naturally, there are some majors that have a long list of specific course requirements, making it necessary that you’re pretty much on “that” track early on, or risk not graduating in 4 years.
Where schools admit by major, and there are significant barriers to enter a restricted major - CS and Engineering being the typical examples - transferring from Undeclared can be just as difficult as transferring from English or another major.
Some schools don’t admit by major except for those specific majors. And transfers are similarly differentiated.
University of Washington is an example. There are Open majors, majors with minimum requirements, capacity constrained majors, and then there’s engineering (“there are opportunities to apply at a later date, but admission to engineering majors is competitive, and space may be limited.”) and CS/CE (“If you’re not admitted directly as a freshman, it’s unlikely you’ll be admitted to either computer science or computer engineering as a UW student.”)
As noted, check your specific college but also your specific degree.
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