<p>When you apply to UCB, is it irrelevant what you write as your intended major, even if it is capped?(excluding Haas)</p>
<p>If you apply as a math major and are admitted to the CL&S, you're not officially a math major. You have to apply for the major you want after being admitted. You could choose to apply for any number of other majors, capped or uncapped, such as sociology, economics, psychology,etc. if you have the pre-reqs completed. Is this correct?</p>
<p>If so, what is the point of even writing that you intend to choose a capped major like psych or econ on your application to UCB? Aren't such applicants scrutinized more in regards to GPA? Couldn't you simply apply to the major you want after transferring, regardless of what you stated in your application?</p>
<p>Actually thats exactly how it works you can really exploit the system if you wanted to. If your major is economics I would apply to some random major like rhetoric in the humanities that is not nearly as competitive as economics. Then just declare econ when you get here.</p>
<p>The only problem I see is if you get rejected from the major you apply for. Then you're stuck. If you really want to be an economist or psychologist down the road, this advice is best avoided.</p>
<p>If you are going on that rational then do not apply to Cal in general because regardless if you have all the prerequisites done for economics but apply to a different major and get accepted, your chances are exactly the same as if you did apply to econ off the bat. No one in L&S is accepted into the major you have to apply to econ regardless if you were accepted as that major. So no this information is not best to be avoided because it will not hurt your chances anymore than normally applying to that major.</p>
<p>Wait. Loads of Econ and Psych majors were rejected with 3.8+, whereas those who applied with the intent to major in English or Philosophy were accepted with much lower GPAs.</p>
<p>I would just write your doing another major, and apply for econ, assuming you have the math and econ pre-req done you should be more applicable either way. GPA resets, you can get a 4.0 your 1st quarter at Berkeley and apply to the Econ program.</p>
<p>So an English major who wants to switch to psych or econ after being admitted is screwed, due to English being in the Humanities division, and the other two being in the Social Science division? What if one applied to the SS division with a less competitive Social Science major(say, Anthro or Sociology)? Could they more easily switch into econ or psych than the English or philosophy major? </p>
<p>This is all terribly confusing to me. There are people saying that the intended major written on your app is irrelevant, and you are only competing with others who are applying to the same division, not the same major. What, then, explains why some majors in the Social Science division seem to be admitted to UCB with lower GPAs(anthro and soc) than others(econ and psych)?</p>
<p>OK let me explain this, 1) you are admitted to Berkeley by division so there really is no easier major to be accepted to because all the applicants in that division are just lobbed into a single pool. For example econ is just as easy to get into as anthro, with the exception being that it is critical to complete your prerequisites for econ and psychology. 2) Even though you are admitted to a division you really have no affiliation with that division, you are just admitted to L&S so you can declare whatever major you want as long as you have the prerequisites done. I myself applied to humanities and am now a poli sci major.</p>
<p>From the UC counselors website linked in above post:
"Applicants to majors in the College of Letters and Science are admitted to the division that administers the major; once on campus, they are expected to formally declare a major in that division."</p>
<p>It's the "expected to formally declare a major in that division" that I'm curious about. Was there any difficulty in you applying as a poli sci major? Did you have to jump through any hoops or explain yourself, or was it as easy as applying? If you were so inclined, would it have been more difficult for you to apply to an impacted major in the SS division?</p>