so can someone explain exactly what and how the major you choose affects your chances of getting into a school? from my understanding, you have a better chance of getting in if you pick a very unpopular major as there’s less competition to contend with? if this is true, why doesn’t every try this? from what I have heard from multiple UC tour guides, it is pretty easy to change your major once you have been accepted into the school. and what does an “impacted” major mean?
Each school admits applicants into the majors differently. Some schools such as the Cal states admit directly into your major although you can select Undeclared. Some schools like UCSD will accept you into the university first then into the major. The highly popular and competitive majors are very difficult to switch into later and usually require a specific GPA in required courses to allow the change that is why selecting an easy major and trying to change later does not always work (back dooring).
Impacted or capped majors are majors that have more qualified applicants than spots available. If you want to get into these majors, it is always best to select the major as your first choice and have a non-impacted major as a second choice.
Engineering, Biological sciences, Psychology are the common impacted majors.
There are several Cal state campuses where every major is impacted such as SLO, SDSU, CSULB, SJSU and CSU Fullerton.
Changing majors from a competitive/capped/impacted major to a non-impacted major is always easier than the other way around. My advice is go for the direct admit.
is picking undeclared a popular choice among applicants? is it as competitive (I’m guessing a lot of applicants choose undeclared) a choice as the other popular majors such as engineering, biological sciences, and so on?
Undeclared can be popular more so at Cal states than the UC’s. Several CSU campuses do not over this option. Undeclared usually does not affect your chances at the UC’s but switching into competitive majors later may be difficult.
http://www.calstate.edu/SAS/documents/impactedprogramsmatrix.pdf