When you apply into the college of engineering, is it possible to get rejected from the college but accepted to Berkeley as a school? I’m a little confused about this. I have a friend who said he was rejected from Cal because he applied into Engineering, but is it not possible to apply undeclared?
You apply to a college within Berkeley (so you’d apply for UC Berkeley CoE undeclared).
No.
It’s very clear. There should be no confusion.
http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/files/freshman-admission-matrix.pdf says that “Berkeley does not consider alternate major.” I.e. you may be admitted to the division or major you apply for, but not admitted to some other division or major.
For the College of Engineering, you may apply either to a specific CoE major or to CoE undeclared. CoE undeclared lets you choose your major within the CoE later. However, CoE undeclared is probably more selective than most of the specific CoE majors.
Note: it is very difficult to get into any CoE major if you initially start as College of Letters and Science undeclared, although the EECS and IEOR departments offer the L&S majors in CS (need 3.3 GPA in prerequisites) and ORMS (need 3.2 in prerequisites) respectively.
@unicornforsale Everyone gets one try, if you don’t get in CoE, you don’t get in. They don’t consider you for another college. Also, if you want to do engineering and you apply to an easier college, you won’t be able to transfer out. As transfers are usually held to an even higher standard, if you don’t get in as a freshman, you aren’t going to get in as a transfer.
The transfers I know are ones who could have got in CoE as a freshman but didn’t realize their interest in engineering and applied to a different college instead.
Aghhhh okay thanks guys.