I’m a high school senior who has applied to UT Austin and been accepted through auto-admit. However, I initially selected music performance as my intended major, and I’ve decided now that I REALLY don’t want to do that anymore. If only I had figured that out before December 1st.
Regardless, I now want to switch my major to mathematical sciences in the College of Natural Sciences. I called admissions, and they first told me there was no way I could do this – but, surprise, I emailed an admissions counselor for my area and she said I could submit an appeal to change my major.
My question is, how likely is it that this will be approved? I am desperately hoping that it will be as I don’t want to waste any time in college doing music courses if that’s not what I want anymore. I tried to look up information about any similar experiences other high schoolers have had, but I found nothing. Just people asking about major change appeals if they were rejected from the college. That’s not my case, though – I’ve already been accepted to the university.
I’m including a long, well-written explanation in my appeal and also a really good, math-oriented letter of recommendation from my junior year AP Calculus teacher. Will this help my chances? What can I do to get my appeal accepted? And if it’s rejected, what are my options if I really want to major in math?
If your appeal gets denied. Here is a possible scenario: You will be denied your first and second majors from the school of music because you will not schedule or attend an audition (audition still required for Music Ed?). You will be offered the list of majors that still have room available. CNS Math will not be on the list. Likely no majors from CNS will be on the list. Pick one that is as general as possible. If they still have General Studies or Liberal Arts Undecided, go for something like that. Meet with an adviser within your major and share your intentions. Meet with an adviser in CNS if you can swing it. Don’t take either adviser’s advice at face value. Do your homework on the transfer process, timeline, prerequisites and historical GPAs that have been accepted. Take the classes that are prerequisites to transfer into your desired major in CNS, make good grades, keep a high GPA overall. Submit a transfer request at the appropriate time (after first semester or second, depending on what CNS takes). EC’s do not matter much if at all in the internal transfer process. Work hard to protect your GPA to ensure a successful transfer.
For now, continue to follow up on your appeal. Lean on the Area Admissions Counselor that directed you to submit an appeal and make him/her your ally. It would make it easier on you and them if they would get your application in front of the CNS Math admissions folks asap so you could avoid the internal transfer process.
You are one of over 50K applicants, so be patient and polite, but persistent.