You can double major in a capped major, You can petition to transfer in. But it is major specific. Each department sets its policy. You just can’t declare a capped major as a freshman coming in undeclared. CS has its own rules which are very strict. They should be clearly outlined on the department website. UCSD is very bureaucratic in this way. Everything is spelled out.
As @kristiekam mentioned, looking up professors on RateMyProfessor helps a lot (UCLA has Bruinwalk). Not only will you see if a professor is easy or difficult to understand but, often, students will elaborate about course requirements (ex. weekly quizzes, 20 page paper, final is worth 70%, etc).
I tried looking up professors on RateMyProfessor, but there was not very much information for most of the professors in my kid’s prospective department. But then I was reading in the Master Post - The New Student Guide - Google Docs (document linked on reddit) that more information is in UCSD’s own review platform, CAPES, which also has grade distribution information? (It looks like CAPES requires log in, though.)
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Sounds like Bruinwalk (which doesn’t require a log in).
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Son got into biology major UCSD with chandler scholarship and UCLA without scholarship, he can’t decide which one is better, any suggestions?
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I suggest you start another discussion thread on the College Search and Selection Forum and ask posters their opinion about the 2 schools.
I believe you mean the Chancellor’s Scholarship. Also as a Biology major what is his ultimate goal with that degree?
https://fas.ucsd.edu/types/scholarships/chancellors-scholarships-for-entering-freshmen.html
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He has great stats. What major did he apply for UCSD?
How do you define competitive? If it meant the students tried their best to get good grade and study a lot, then yes. But it is not a cut-throat environment. Students are quite nice and helping each others out, at least from what my son experience it so far. The competitiveness to get in labs and assistantship is normal for the research institution like UCSD, but there are plenty of opportunities as well. I don’t see it as overly competitive as in term of students trying to cut down each others for the job. Thanks @kristiekam to clarify about the grading. My son always checked Ratemyprofessor before he signed up for classes.
Just for the record, my son hates the overly aggressive/cut-throat type of environment. He prefers the collaborative environment and so far I haven’t heard him complained about UCSD within his major of stufy
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Word of mouth is good too, once they get there.
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The task right now is figuring out if he wants to go there and study with those professors, though 
UCSD is as good or better than UCLA for biology. Is there a specific program or professor at UCLA? If not, take the money and go to UCSD for sure. I went to UCLA, worked at UCSD.
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In that case, I would look at the research the professors are doing and the specialties in the departments. Go where the topic and the research are interesting. When you chose topics you love the grades come very easily. Professors like students who like what the professor studies. It’s pretty much that simple. Shared interests and shared goals. RateMyProfessors isn’t a great platform for that.
If you get in undeclared and would like to get in CSE, it is impossible now. They changed the eligibility that only students got in before 2022 could declare the major (still through the lottery). Very sorry. If you are accepted CSE somewhere else, please go there.
https://cse.ucsd.edu/undergraduate/cse-capped-admissions-program
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I’m interested in music performance but I listed music as my secondary major because UCSD’s music major seems to be more theory/composition based (from the website and a friend’s experience).
Thank you for your insight. I didn’t know about UCSD’s emphasis on the PIQs. Perhaps mine were unclear because I talked about my dual interests in math and music, sort of 50/50. It may have come off as unclear or indecisive. Ideally I’d want to pursue a dual degree but I can see how that would be confusing to an AO.
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Oh I wouldn’t worry about your PIQs not being clearly major related. I read somewhere that the PIQs don’t necessarily need to point toward major interest. UC knows teens in high school don’t usually already know their major when they choose their ECs in high school. For example, what does running 4 years of cross country have to do with biomedical engineering? Not much. And of COURSE you are interested in math and music–they go hand in hand! UC would expect nothing less 
My DD is also second guessing herself now (waitlisted to UCLA, UCSD and rejected from UCI) but honestly I think her acceptances/waitlists/rejection are all about “fit” (not how her PIQs matched her major or not) and they’ve been spot on (in retrospect). I do think her three Bs in high school (oh the horror!) hurt her chances with UCLA where 60% of students have an uw 4.0, but then again that’s also about “fit.”
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Just checked UCSD about this scholarship, there is so many advantages he is interest in, better preparation graduate school and work as research assistant at least 10 hours per week and so on…, no sure if those are true, but so impressive, he might choose UCSD.
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A post was merged into an existing topic: UC San Diego Freshman Class of 2027 Waitlist/Appeal Thread
My daughter, who was accepted for structural engineering, was also assigned to Seventh. She also requested Warren and Muir as her top choices. I don’t know anything about this, but could they be trying to move more engineering students into Seventh? My daughter is leaning towards Cal Poly SLO, so it doesn’t really matter.
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Good point. I always believed that the waitlist was for the benefit of the university and not the students. That helped a bit … 