Perhaps the more important concern is whether computer science is a limited enrollment major, and whether it is difficult to switch into. Since you did not name the school, it is hard for anyone else to look around the school’s web pages to see if s/he can find out any information on that.
If computer science is not difficult to switch into, and the introductory computer science courses are not difficult to enroll in for undeclared students, then switching to undeclared and later entering the computer science major is an option at this school. But if it is difficult to switch into the computer science major (e.g. needing a 3.5+ GPA and/or similarly competitive secondary admission process, as is the case at some schools), then it may be too risky to attend that school with the likelihood of not being able to get into the desired major.
I can understand separating nursing and engineering from the rest since they are quite structured programs, but I am generally a bit uncomfortable with dividing schools into too many separate fiefdoms. (My one quibble with Carnegie Mellon, though it worked out very well for my son.) I would be leary of any school where there’s no guarantee that you’ll be able to major in CS if not admitted as a freshman.
In any event, I hope the OP will let us know what happened. It seems likely this is a screw up on the school’s end.
In some cases, the admission by major and/or secondary admission to the major for those not directly admitted to the major is due to capacity limits. Schools which are not particularly well endowed, particularly public ones who may have a mission to serve as many in-state students as possible, may need to enroll to capacity rather than reserving extra capacity in each major as a buffer against rising and falling interest in the major. Even well endowed schools may have some majors which are capacity limited due to not being willing to expand capacity for whatever reason (e.g. visual environmental studies at Harvard). But this means that a popular major relative to its capacity may not be able to accommodate all interested students, so higher standards at admission, or a secondary admission process, is used to determine who gets into that major.
I agree with everyone urging the OP to contact the school. It could simply be a mistake. It could also be an accounting thing-if the school is fluid with respect to the majors. I also agree that I would advise against students attending schools where they have been excluded from the major they want even if there seem to be ways to get into that major. it is too much pressure to put on freshman. They should not be under the gun still, for grades, but should be freed up to actually learn and choose classes that may be a stretch for them. That can’t happen if the student will be scrutinized before being able to enter the desired major. Sounds like the OP’s student has other choices anyway. So, there is nothing to lose by calling.
Some schools try to fill the ranks of unpopular programs this way. I know some schools that switch students for the good of the school not the student. I can understand rejecting a student whose credentials don’t reach those needed for a particular program but I can’t understand offering students an experience that is, from a pedagogical standpoint, harmful to students. Some students are so stuck on particular schools they will accept offers to programs that are inappropriate for them. That is a shame!
While I can (barely) understand not naming the school, I think it’s reasonable to at least name the major. If nothing else, it gives us additional context.
Or at least if the major may be “off by one” from computer science (e.g. comparative literature, comparative religion, etc.). If “off by one”, it may be that either the student or the school made an error when selecting the major on a web site.
There was a parent posting here last year full of anger because her kid wasn’t accepted to the desired major at their flagship U but was accepted to Arts and Sciences. We went several rounds until it was revealed that the desired major required three SAT 2’s (one in a science and one math) which the kid didn’t have, AND required calculus which the kid had not taken because of scheduling difficulties (his HS offered it- but he opted not to take it).
OP- can you go back and verify that your kid met each of the requirements for the major applied for? It strikes me that this is either a clerical error which will be cleared up with a phone call, or an actual missing link in the application. All the pre-req’s taken? The right scores submitted? recommendations written by the right people (if they ask for a teacher they mean a teacher- not the choir director at church or the boy scout troup leader).
So 5 years from now, instead of your son heading out to the Silicon Valley making $150k working for Google, he’ll be heading out to East Africa providing voluntary humanity services for the less fortunate. I don’t see any problem with the University changing the major. Congrats & Good Luck !!!
This happened to my D at University of Minnesota. They congratulated her for admission to the wrong school, one she never applied for. I called the admissions office hoping that it was a clerical error and could get my money back (since the didn’t process her application correctly). Apparently THEY felt that the school of humanities was a better fit for her than science and engineering.
In my household, we call that chutzpah. It was a rejection (actually a waitlist followed by D rejecting the school since she had an ED to her first choice).
@DarkStar904 “So 5 years from now, instead of your son heading out to the Silicon Valley making $150k working for Google, he’ll be heading out to East Africa providing voluntary humanity services for the less fortunate. I don’t see any problem with the University changing the major. Congrats & Good Luck !!!”
@HRSMom - that’s not true. Both of my kids went to Cornell, never had to declare a major until Junior, same with engineering and other colleges within Cornell. You can also transfer from one school to another quite easily. You may need to indicate your interest, but that’s it. Cornell is no different than other Ivies. It is much harder to transfer from Columbia’s engineering school to A&S than it is at Cornell. Columbia treats it as an external transfer.
We have a family friend whose son experienced something similar last year. He applied to a tech school for engineering. Was accepted but only as a math major (not a well respected program at this school) and was told that it would be nearly impossible to switch into engineering. The reason for not being admitted to engineering–you guessed it, he was not strong enough in math. He still went though because it was the best school he got into (and he did not apply to enough schools) but it has not been a great experience.
Those are schools within Cornell, and for each of those schools there are different majors. No, we not saying the same thing.
As an example, one could major in biology or business administration in CALS. The are 20+ majors in CALS, and there are 7 majors in HumEc.
If you want to major in business (AEM), you must apply to that major, but if you want to major in Econ in CAS you do not need to declare that when you are applying. This is no different if you want to go to Penn’s UG business school.
It’s true that for CALS the major choice on the application is significant, and you are accepted to a particular major (which may or may not be the one you chose). Some HumEc majors require specific portfolios to be submitted with the application, so it’s clear you have to apply specifically to those majors, but it’s not so clear it matters a lot which other major you choose. They all have different first year requirements, however, so you clearly have to have a declared major on Day 1 in HumEc. The Hotel School and ILR each has only one official major, so it’s both true and misleading to say you have to select a major at those colleges.
Cornell’s application says specifically that your application may be considered, and you may be offered admission, by a college other than the one to which you applied. There is no place on the application for a second-choice college or major, so if that happens it’s anyone’s guess whether you would think the offer was appropriate or not. What happened to the OP’s son could clearly happen to a Cornell applicant. You could apply to the Engineering School, with an interest in Computer Science, and be offered Entomology in the College of Agriculture and Life Science, or Industrial Labor Relations.
