<p>Are almost all, or all, students coming to UW as a freshmen admitted into general studies? If so, do students choose their major (if they want to declare one right away) during SOAR?</p>
<p>To declare a major you need specific grades in certain classes, so no. You aren’t “general” studies, you’re admitted into a certain school (for most it’s Letters and Science) but you’re undecided. You cannot declare a major right away.</p>
<p>so everbody’s undeclared at first and freshmen grades are what gets (or not) you into a specific major, right?</p>
<p>Not necessarily freshmen grades, it’s specific classes you have to take for your major. You might not make the grade or even be able to get in the classes freshman year. You can take those classes whenever. Why don’t you Google the program you’re interested in? It should have the major requirements laid out nice and neatly for you.</p>
<p>This where it really starts to pay to get into the depths of the UW website and start learning all the rules. The UW site is your friend and you should get to know it inside out. Nearly everything you want to know about UW from the academic side is in there. Average grades in a certain class, number of students per class, major requirements, do you need to apply later to that major, pre-reqs to apply. Everything. Your counselor should know most of this but might only know about the school he works for. So an L&S guy won’t know all about the B School or Engineering rules.<br>
Knowledge is power and knowing the rules will avoid many problems later.
The answer to nearly every question posted on this site about UW can be found on the UW site.</p>
<p>Also- there should be a ton of information at SOAR. Many may have an intended major but won’t be admitted to that major until they meet its specific entrance requirements. Declaring a major is supposed to be done by junior year although not necessary until you want to graduate. It is helpful for your advisor if you have a planned major so you and s/he can work out the best courses to take freshman year. As barrons said, learn the UW info on its website. The more you know the easier it will be to understand what’s going on when you register and you can come up with questions for your advisor. They also assign advisors based on intended school/college- if not known/decided you get the cross college advising service advisors like most of the students do. There are also Honors advisors. Remember this is YOUR education- take charge of it.</p>
<p>Thanks for the helpful replies. I went to the school website and found all the pre-requisite classes I need to take to apply to my intended major.</p>