I know it may be very late to think about this right now, but my dream college is UC Irvine. Decisions haven’t come out yet, and I am considering changing my major from computer science and engineering to software engineering or data science right now. I have heard women have a slight advantage when it comes to being admitted into engineering fields, and I am a women going into an engineering field. Without needing to know my stats, is it easier to get into one major over another? If yes or no, please try and explain why. thank you!
It mostly depends on the school you are applying to. If the majors you are deciding to switch to are not part of the same school, the admission rate will vary. Particularly for Engineering schools, especially UCs, the EECS schools will have significantly lower rate of admission.
If you have already applied, it probably isn’t wise to request a change in major since decisions are likely going to be released relatively soon. Obviously, given your wish to not discuss statistics, it is difficult to predict what likelihood of a change in admissions decision. UC’s want to see more women in all STEM fields, so changing from one discipline to another isn’t going to overwhelmingly change your chances one way or the other. The scores and extra-circulars that corroborate your penchant for computer sciences and data sciences are going to be same. It would be best to not rock the boat and get in first before worrying about changing major. It sounds like it hasn’t been your life’s goal to become a data scientist or software engineer since this whim recently arose within the last six months. As I’m sure you’ve heard, college students change their intended majors very often, so don’t worry too much about what major you applied under. I applied as a history major to UC Berkeley last year and am likely going to end up as a Econ or energy major. Good luck.