<p>ucbalumnus, zetesis quoted from the CPSLO website a few pages back, and I’d put it in the quote box if I could figure out how: </p>
<p>“Explore and choose a major to which you will apply since Cal Poly requires applicants to declare a major on the application. Applicants also must thoroughly educate themselves on their intended major’s offerings and requirements for degree completion prior to submitting an application for admission (major changes are not allowed after an applicant has been selected).”</p>
<p>I admit an appalling lack of knowledge about the subject, but aside from a couple kids from son’s high school who are attending, the parents and close friends of our son never even discussed it, although there was endless talk about UCs and other CSUs. My son nixed it immediately because he’d heard (apparently rightly) that you become locked into a major immediately. Those that are there now give glowing reports. So maybe it’s just hidden to us whose kids ended up at LACs because they had no clue what they wanted to study.</p>
<p>Basically, a current student wanting to change major must apply to do so, with the following criteria considered by the target major:</p>
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<p>Note that other universities under budget pressure may also have limitations on declaring or changing major (this includes the UCs, including Berkeley with respect to some majors like art practice, business administration, economics, psychology, social welfare, public health, media studies, and engineering). Well endowed universities may be more able to afford to keep excess capacity that budget limited universities cannot, so an undecided student needs to consider how difficult it is to change major, or declare a major from undeclared status.</p>
<p>OP of the original “Brag About Your Lesser Known School” thread…</p>
<p>Not really sure how this thread is any DIFFERENT than the thread I started - people don’t tend to put specifics unless you ask…but, with that said…</p>
<p>The school I started “Brag” about is worth mentioning again in this thread - Ohio Northern University. D graduate in May and had a near perfect college experience. </p>
<p>Very small town (Ada Ohio) but growing campus. Now boasts about 4000 students I believe. Known for its pharmacy and engineering programs but she was a Comm/PR major and had stellar, nationally known profs and experience up the wazoo in terms of national conferences, internships, leadership, etc.</p>
<p>Housing is almost all new or renovated. Major of kids live on campus but have the option of apt. living for sophomore year and up and it is very nice. Some state of the art buildings. D3 sports. Nice honors program that kept her involved all 4 years. Expensive, but offers quite good merit and fin aid. </p>
<p>If you’re looking in Ohio and don’t need a lot of town perks, take a look at ONU.</p>
<p>For Engineering:
Worcester Polytech Institute in Worcester MA. I heard about it as a hidden gem from another “southern” mom whose son was thriving there. Underrated engineering school with more of a LAC feel. (he had small classes and got to know profs personally starting from freshman year.) My son felt it was too small for him, but I thought it was definitely a gem for the right students. (and a pretty, friendly campus)</p>
<p>Speaking of Tech schools, another “hidden gem” category that I have encouraged students to look at more are the “Tech schools” with great liberal arts depts for those majors. Had a friend who was an English Major in the acclaimed English dept at MIT. Another friends daughter got full scholarship as a Spanish major at Carnegie Mellon. (and loved it so much that after she finished law school went back to practice law near there.) PS, for female students the M:F ratio can be a plus!</p>
<p>Note that the H/SS majors at MIT do need to be strong enough in STEM fields in order to take the “heavy duty” STEM courses in the general education requirements there – there are no “physics for poets” type courses that are commonly offered at other schools for breadth purposes. But that can be a good thing, if a well rounded liberal arts education is desired (though a student at some other school could still take rigorous out-of-major courses even if they are not required).</p>
<p>A school not well known out of it’s region, but worthy of consideration would be Western Washington U in Bellingham, somewhat Cal Poly SLO in feel, it is on the coast, small town, but big enough, near enough to Seattle and Vancouver for both large airports and fun city culture. My UC DD took some classes there and was impressed with the calibre of the instructors, the fact that the profs taught the classes, not TAs, profs were NOT ESL (it was rough in some of her UC science classes when the profs were as difficult to understand as the concepts being taught) and I think they participate in the western tuition exchange.</p>
:D</p>