Is it too late to change my major?

Hello, I’m a third year community college student looking to transfer to UC Irvine for fall 2021. Originally my major was computer science but last year I realized I didn’t enjoy programming whatsoever. I had a realization “Why the hell am I majoring in this if I don’t like it???!!!”. I don’t want to dig myself into a hole doing CS when I hate it.

Anyways long story short I still want to major in something tech related with less coding so that lead me into the two majors that I thought about. Informatics, and Business Information Management. Both of these are offered at UCI. I would have all the major prep for informatics but for business information management most likely I won’t have all the business classes completed by spring. Would I still have a shot for business information management? Or should I just apply for Informatics? Spending a 4th year at community college is not an option for me. Thank you!

You will have a much easier time transferring out of CS than into it.

Agree with @Groundwork2022 but UCI’s Business School is equally competitive so check out the requirements to change majors once you are at UCI vs at your CC.

https://merage.uci.edu/programs/undergraduate/business-administration.html#:~:text=Change%20of%20majors%3A%20For%20current%20UCI%20students%2C%20our,plan%20to%20complete%20all%20the%20program%20prerequisite%20requirements.

so when I fill out my uc application what should I put my major to be?

Put down your true first choice major and then your second choice major. Don’t try to game it because switching to an impacted major later might not be possible (or may be possible, but very difficult).

I agree with them. However, what I learned from studying in an international school (https://reedleyschool.edu.ph/international-school-manila/) is to let go of things I am not happy about. If you’re not into coding and so on, you can try other course that you think you enjoy the most and find yourself doing it for a long time.

UCI Informatics is a great program. As long as you’re sure about burning the bridge on the CS major, this seems like your best option. As you say, further extending your time in community college to take business prereqs is not a win, and trying to apply to UCI’s business school with prereqs missing also doesn’t sound like a win either. If you do the “Organizations & Information Technology” track within Informatics, you’ll be in fine shape to take your career in a business direction. If you have time and have a strong enough record to get into one of the competitive business minors for non-majors, you could consider adding one of those, but really there’s no reason that the Informatics degree can’t be a perfectly fine platform for a business career.

If you really feel strongly about seeking an option for a business-specific degree, add UCR to your UC application and apply to their business school. (They have Information Systems and Business Analytics tracks within the undergrad Business major.) If you get in without having all the prereqs, then you can weigh the relative merits of that program vs. UCI Informatics. If you don’t, then at least you won’t have sunk your overall admissions chances at UCI by applying to business there!

I really love your thoughtful response. Thank you!

I would choose Informatics, because I understand how difficult it is to pull off what you want.

I do not think that there is any large problem with changing your major at this point.

I know people who graduated with a bachelor’s in CS, worked as a software engineer for two or more years, and THEN changed their path in life. Having some CS background can be helpful in a wide range of careers, ranging at least as far as from mathematics to law. It also seems clearly quite valuable for a business major.

I am not familiar with the UCs. However it seems to me that you should apply to the major that you want, and see where you get in. You should probably also ask the admissions staff at the schools that you will be applying to, probably starting with UCI.

In terms of “is it too late?”, it depends on how well you will have the prerequisites covered for the other possible majors, if you have a hard limit on the number of semesters or credits you can take at your community college.

From ASSIST.org, it looks like UCI informatics has a much smaller list of prerequisites than UCI CS, and many of the prerequisites for UCI informatics are in the UCI CS list (so you may have taken them already). But UCI business has a mostly different list of prerequisites.