<p>Since applications for UC transfers began so early, we basically only took 1 year of courses which is the regular calc+chem for most science majors. I didn't really know what i wanted to do yet at the beginning of this school year and other people had convinced me that earth science/ geology would be a great major for me to work in. </p>
<p>However, after a couple more courses of physics and earth science/geology courses, ive figured out that i like more math oriented classes rather than classes like biology or geology (mostly reading and memorization). </p>
<p>I've been accepted to UCI and UCSD so far and still waiting on UCLA and UCB. Does anyone know if any of these schools allow transfers students to change their majors? (mainly just uci and ucsd because ucla has a special concentration for geology that im interested in)</p>
<p>Im fairly sure that chemistry would be a great major for me now but i believe that most schools have an impacted chemistry department. Would i still have a chance to swap over to an impacted major?</p>
<p>Ive heard that your grades can make a difference on whether or not you can swap over to a different major as well. Is this true? What kind of grades would count as good enough to let me change to a different major?</p>
<p>thanks, i completely forgot about the FAQs.
looks like its gonna be quite difficult for me to swap majors but i guess it may be possible if i can get good enough grades on the pre-reqs</p>
<p>I know of people who were denied a change of major. So they declared a double major instead, and later dropped their original major. That’s always a work around if you are willing to spend an extra quarter/semester</p>
<p>@ThugFish I have contacted UCLA about switching from psychobiology to neuroscience (my alternate major). The neuroscience advisor says that they play it case-by-case, and only for people switching from another life science major. The pre-reqs involved, the similarities between the majors, and your stats as an applicant will all be factored into their decision. They don’t give too many specifics before you are admitted as they probably don’t want to waste their time, so contact them after being accepted to get the ball rolling. Good luck.</p>
<p>thanks for the advice
im gonna be taking the ochem series this summer so if i do decide to try to petition for a major change, maybe having all my pre-reqs done would be helpful.
Ill be sure to contact the school im transferring to so that i can get a direct answer from them</p>
<p>For most uc you can actually change your major within the same college before you turn in your SIR, otherwise you’ll have to wait 2 quarters later.</p>
<p>Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2</p>
<p>The UCLA Geology department is one of best on the whole campus. what major did you apply to ucla as? Im in the geology department and it’s not all memorization like the CCC intro classes. You spend alot of time on field trips, if you like chem then UCLA has a big Geo-chem presence, there is memorization but its also conceptual and usually somewhat math intensive. we spend a fair amount of time with microscopes if you like that type stuff. I would recommend you take a few classes in which every major your interested in before committing to the change.</p>
<p>i applied to the ucla geology program too. Ive been looking at their concentrations and was originally going for their natural resources (for oil & gas company jobs) but im thinking of going towards geochemistry. Im just not sure if its a good enough major to land me a good job after graduate school too. I like some of the geology conceptual stuff but im just getting tired of these lower div earth science courses that are just 100% concepts and no math oriented labs or work at all.
If i end up getting into ucla ill most likely just do the geochem concentration, but if i dont get in then i may think about swapping majors because other schools dont have that special concentration that i like.</p>
<p>danm it dude i just wrote a long ass reply and the browser erased it… Ya geology is pretty laid back compared to most the other south campus majors. The professor’s our incredibly smart and most are leading experts in their field, yet there down to earth and like to get the students involved. The workload is high but not unmanageable, there is a fair amount of memorization in classes, but also alot of time spent looking at the microscopes as well as mapping and differnt math/phys related problems. Field trips our always fun, we always take beer and have a good time, its not super uptight or anything. if you like research, there is a ton and most all of the professors our experts in some specific field. I really like the department because you feel at home in such a huge campus, i just transferred last fall as engineering geology major so im no expert or anything. ya and also its fairly easy to switch into non-impacted majors(most).</p>
<p>Oh i applied as an engineering geology major too, but im probably gonna just change it over to geochem or something
is it ok if i pm you any questions i might have? (if i get accepted this week) maybe ill even see you in the department next year (hopefully)
one of the things that attracted me towards geology was the relaxing classes. They pretty much let you do your own thing as long as you finish what youre supposed to finish</p>
<p>its very much like that, we have our own microscope assigned for upper div classes and pretty much 24 hour access to the class rooms and our own computer lab and library. Engineering geology is basically half civil engineering and half geology, i like it but it is kinda specific to a certain job. Geo-chem looks to be pretty hard, you’d be taking classes like isotope geo-chem that are very specific and more of a chem based class then a geo class. The Geo-chem division seems to be a popular focus among the professor’s and graduate students more so then i hear about undergrads. The Geo department is pretty small, so you’ll most likely have the same group of people through out your core classes which is kinda nice, and most all of the grad students and professor’s are nice and helpful, I hear far more positive comments then i do negative and most all the geo majors i know are happy with the program. Thats pretty rare for UCLA.</p>