<p>Hello, I just got my letter and it says
"
Dear Zed456: </p>
<p>The Purdue Admissions Committee has carefully reviewed your application. Unfortunately, because of the
competitive nature of the applicant pool, we are unable to offer you admission to Chemistry. However, the
Committee recognizes you are a talented student and would like to reconsider you for admission if you are
interested in a major for which the applicant pool isn’t as competitive. </p>
<p>I’m writing to ask that you contact the Office of Admissions to discuss academic options that may be available to
you on our West Lafayette campus. The following form will allow you to officially request reconsideration for an
alternative major after you have discussed options with an Admissions counselor. </p>
<p>If you are admitted to an alternative Purdue major, we cannot guarantee that you ever will be able to switch into
the major you originally requested on your application. To switch majors, Purdue students must meet the
established academic requirements of the respective major; as a rule, majors that are more competitive at the
admission stage also are more competitive for current students seeking to switch. </p>
<p>I appreciate your interest in our University and hope that you will contact the Office of Admissions to discuss
other options to pursue a Purdue degree."</p>
<p>Purdue is my dream school, by a wide margin so. The ACT(23) and grades (2.4>2.8>3.2 currently ~3.6) they have are bad. I am going to be retaking the ACT today and have been getting solid 29+'s on practice ones, so I feel confident I can switch majors latter on.</p>
<p>My question to you all is what should I write as my Requested alternate major? Is it worth going through this trouble or should I just go to my backup school, Texas Tech? I will be calling their admissions office, but I am also very interested in CC's opinion. </p>
<p>if purdue is your top choice you should definitely go through “all the trouble” to go there. you must have a second choice major that you’re interested in? if you are 100% completely sure that you need to have your first choice major, then I think you should go to texas tech if they have your first choice major. but really, consider that alternate major.</p>
<p>How competitive do you think Biology or Biochemistry is? I am really interested in power(PetE and NucE both are big wants but also big reaches at the moment at Purdue…) but a part of me wants to be an Oncologist(hence the Chemistry/Biology).</p>
<p>I have a couple friends that are in biology, and I don’t see it as being horribly competitive. You can also consider interdisciplinary science as well.</p>
<p>Thanks! Interdisciplinary Science actually seems pretty cool. I think I did quite good on the ACT however, so I will see what the admissions counselors say about that. It should make me a good bit more competitive than the lousy 23 I sent them, that is for sure.</p>
<p>Alright I called and emailed- which may have been a bad idea. When I called she talked to me and explained what the Exploratory Studies program is, which is what the committee recommended I do so of course I did, and she told me all I need to do is fill out the alternate major request form and fax it too them. Then I check my email and I get a email from a counselor, a different one then whom I spoke to I believe, saying I need to fill out both the alternate major request form and a application change form, which makes no sense because it requires “compelling evidence” and can not basically have the same stuff I sent them the first time.</p>
<p>More interesting information is on my letter, on the second page, which is the alternate major request sheet, has steps listed, and I quote:</p>
<p>"Because of the highly competitive applicant pool, we cannot admit you to the major you originally requested. However, the Admissions Committee has determined you may be admissible to other Purdue programs of study and invites you to use this form to request admission to another program of study. "
And then it states the steps being:</p>
<p>Please complete the following steps to be considered for another major:<br>
Call the Office of Admissions at 765-494-1776 to speak with an admissions counselor about alternative academic programs that may be available to you. He or she can provide guidance on the best choice based on your interests and goals.<br>
Visit [Purdue</a> University :: Purdue Majors](<a href=“http://www.purdue.edu/majors]Purdue”>Majors at Purdue - Undergraduate Admissions - Purdue University) to learn more about your suggested majors and the college/school in which they reside.<br>
Complete this form and fax or mail it to the Office of Admissions. Be sure to sign and date it.<br>
Check your online application summary to verify we have received and processed your request. It may take 4 – 6 weeks to process this request before it will appear in your online application summary.</p>
<p>Is it safe to assume the counselor who emailed me was wrong? I emailed her back, but it could take a couple days to get a reply back and I need to do this ASAP. I am faxing the Alternate major request form tomorrow. Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>Just a quick update(just in case anyone else goes through this, be it this year or another) the email was WRONG, all I had to do was fax. So I should receive my updated decision within a week or two.</p>
<p>Zed, My son is following the same route as you…unfortunately he was one of the last to hear from the EA group. When you sent your change of major form in…looks like it took 4 weeks for an answer. The counselor on the phone said 2 wks and the form said 4-6…did it take the full 4 wks for you? The Exploratory Studies sounds like a great option.</p>
<p>One of my teachers offered to fax the form, which she supposedly did on the 18th. However, Purdue never received it, so I faxed it personally on the 11th, my myPurdue updated on the 13th and I received my new decision on the 14th(shockingly fast).</p>