<p>Apparently, everyone admitted to Berkeley's College of Letters and Science is admitted without a major, and you have to 'declare' your major after completing certain prerequisite courses.
So the question arises... why does the UC application ask for major for Berkeley L&S if it doesn't matter? Or does it matter? In the admissions process, am I competing with all L&S applicants, or am I competing only with the people who selected the same major (computer science) as me? Also, I've heard that, at least at many other colleges, people with a particular major get registration priority for their required courses over those who do not have the major. How does this work at UC Berkeley L&S?</p>
<p>If you are admitted and decide to attend, you may encounter different advising based on your major of interest.</p>
<p>I don’t know the answer to your first few questions, but you bring up some really good points.</p>
<p>As for registration priority, once you have chosen (and been accepted into) your major, they save spaces in classes for those students so they can be sure to get the classes they need to graduate. They also hold spaces for undeclared students so they can take classes and figure out what they want to major in. Even if you are a declared major, you need to register during Phase I if it’s a popular class.</p>
<p>If they are asking for it, it matters. Does it matter very much? I doubt it. </p>
<p>Is picking something less ridiculously popular than CS gonna make the difference in acceptance? Well, put it this way, if you feign interest in something else and have a change of heart back to CS after you arrive on campus, you surely won’t be the only one.</p>
<p>I do not know for Berkeley, but for some other schools, this information is used in planning/projecting facilities and faculty requirements trends as well as perceived course strengths of the campus, and has nothing to do with admissions. Its just the place to gather the information as an “early indicator.” Its not always all about you.</p>
<p>By the way, in case I wasn’t clear, I meant that once you have completed all your lower division requirements (it generally takes 2-4 semesters), have applied, and been accepted into a major (ie, you are officially “declared”), THEN you get priority in classes for your major. </p>
<p>since EECS majors are admitted directly into their major while L&S CS is not, and they both share lower division requirements, how does course priority work for that?</p>
<p><a href=“Getting Into Computer Science Classes - Google Docs”>Getting Into Computer Science Classes - Google Docs; describes enrollment priority for CS courses. EECS and first and second year L&S undeclared students have priority in the lower division CS courses.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>I’m currently a UC Berkeley freshman. I don’t think it matters for the 61 series, but CS70 apparently has priority for EECS students before L&S students.</p>