<p>The only colleges like that are super-strong Core Curriculum colleges, like Columbia (but only the College, not the separate Engineering school, or Barnard) or St. Johns (the LAC in New Mexico or Maryland, not the university in NYC). Maybe some other tiny LACs. </p>
<p>Even the University of Chicago, which has a strong Core Curriculum, doesn’t make everyone take the same things first year, except for one course (and people can choose which version of that they want). Many/most students probably take half of their courses in the Core their first and second years, and some may do an all-Core first year, especially if they plan to major in a lab science (since their intro science courses will count toward the Core) or want to go to medical school. But not everyone, not by a long shot.</p>
<p>I asked on the Berkeley forum whether this common claim was true. The response from current students was that it was not.</p>
<p>As noted above, the economics major has enough “slack” in it that getting the required courses should not be an issue if one plans ahead (and not wait until the last possible semester to start the major). The course registration system also gives priority to economics majors.</p>
<p>One wrinkle is that the economics major is a competitive admissions major, and is also used as a backup major for those applying to the business major (an even more competitive major). So students who did not get into the major may be scrambling to find any other major they can squeeze into their remaining semesters.</p>
<p>Even at Columbia, which one of my kids investigated (but did not end up applying to), the Core Curriculum takes up only about half of a student’s time in the first two years. For students who plan on certain majors that must be started early, some of the remaining classes must be those that lead into the major. For example, Columbia freshmen who plan to major in either chemistry or biology are expected to take chemistry as freshmen.</p>
<p>What you’re looking for may not exist, except in specialized schools (such as St. John’s or Caltech), and students who attend those types of schools are not the sort who check “undecided” on their application forms.</p>
<p>At St. John’s, the core curriculum is the entire curriculum, so the question of choosing a major is irrelevant.</p>
<p>Schools where the freshman core curriculum contains math and science courses suitable for those majoring in those subjects may be the only ones that meet the criterion of having a freshman core curriculum that ensures that the door is open for most or all possible majors. But such schools tend to be STEM-focused schools (MIT, Caltech, and Harvey Mudd, though MIT does have a significant number of non-STEM subjects that one can major in) and the military service academies.</p>
<p>Most of the other core curriculum schools allow students to choose non-majors’ science courses, which could cause them to shut the door on the possibility of majoring in science early on. While this may be fine for someone who is certain to major in a non-science subject, an undecided student who might major in a science subject needs to be careful to choose the science courses that will allow the potential science major of interest.</p>
<p>Specifically, ABET accreditation for engineering bachelor’s degree programs requires that they include humanities and social studies breadth courses, so Brown’s ABET accredited engineering bachelor’s degree programs have breadth requirements in that area, even though Brown how no breadth requirements otherwise.</p>