<p>On their websites, they say it doesn't affect admission but on every other website, it said it does. According to the Wikipedia's definition, "an impacted major is a major for which more students apply for than the school can accommodate. It is a classic example of when Demand exceeds Supply. When this occurs, the major becomes impacted and therefore is susceptible to higher standards of admission." My school counselors also say that it does. </p>
<p>And if you go undeclared and run out of room for a certain major, are you pretty much screwed? Do colleges only accept a limited number of undeclared's?</p>
<p>Also, is getting accepted into the actual school and getting accepted two different things? Can you get into accepted a school but not the major?</p>
<p>Yes. Some schools may admit a student undeclared or into an alternate major if there is not enough space in the student’s first choice major. Typically, changing to the impacted major after enrolling requires applying and showing a good college record taking the courses needed for the destination major. An example of this is University of Washington with respect to the computer science major.</p>
<p>In other cases, all freshmen students entering the school (or a given division within the school) enter undeclared; those intending to major in an impacted major must later apply to the major after completing the prerequisites. An example of this is University of California - Berkeley’s College of Letters and Science; some of the more popular majors like economics are impacted and require applying to declare after one has entered undeclared.</p>
<p>In still other cases, you are applying for the major, and are admitted or rejected only to that major. An example of this is University of California - Berkeley’s College of Engineering. Note that “engineering undeclared” there must be specifically applied to; it may be more selective than other engineering majors and gives free choice of choosing an engineering major later (in all other cases, changing engineering major requires applying to do so).</p>
<p>The UCs take major into account for some colleges such as Fine Arts or Engineering, but not for majors in Letters & Science when you applying as a frosh. So depending on what you pick it may affect admission.</p>
<p>Next, and many HS students may not realize this, there is a secondary screening for hi-demand majors at many UC campuses once you are an enrolled student that may prevent you from getting into that major. As an entering frosh they put you in the “pre-X” major, where X is an impacted major, but you are not accepted into the actual major until you’ve completed a set of prerequisites with a given GPA. At UCLA, for example, look for the footnote “1” on the list of majors at <a href=“http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/Majors/lsmajor.htm[/url]”>http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/Majors/lsmajor.htm</a> If you don’t make it over the bar then you’re still an enrolled student at the UC campus, but you’ll have to find some other major. </p>
<p>So to answer your question, there is no issue about running out of room. If you are thinking of a major in Letters and Science at a UC it really doesn’t matter what you put down. They will ignore it when they decide whether to accept you or not, and listing the impacted major you want or listing anything else makes no difference because everyone who wants an impacted major has to satisfy the pre-major requirements to be officially accepted into the major. You can take all the pre-req classes no matter what is listed as your current major, whether its pre-biz-econ or zoology or undeclared.</p>
<p>ah okay. Thanks so much for the help! And mike, no I didn’t even know about pre-majors! Thank you for the great information!
But how is it then that some students with really high quality GPAs, SATs, EC’s, get rejected and those with mediocre stats get accepted? I thought the whole impacted major thing would explain it but I guess not…</p>
<p>Different divisions may have different levels of selectivity compared to the College of Letters and Science at Berkeley or UCLA. For example, at Berkeley, the College of Engineering is generally considered more selective, and within the College of Engineering, selectivity varies by major. While Berkeley College of Letters and Science freshmen all enter undeclared, most in the College of Engineering enter declared in a major (a few apply for and are admitted as engineering undeclared, which may be more selective and gives the advantage of free choice of engineering major to declare).</p>