How competitive is the Microbiology major as a freshman applicant for UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara, and UC San Diego? How many people apply microbiology to these majors? Is it a very popular major?
UC Davis:
Microbiology is in the College of Biological Sciences which admits into the College so you are competing with all majors in that College which are selective/impacted.
UCSB:
Microbiology is in the College of Letters and Sciences which does not admit by major. You are competing with all applicants in that college and if admitted will be placed into a Pre-Biology major before you can declare the Microbiology major.
** Students interested in graduating with a major in any area of the biological sciences enter UCSB as a pre-biology major and take a subset of this key preparatory coursework in introductory biology, chemistry, mathematics, and physics. Once the pre-major requirements have been completed students may petition to declare one of the full majors. Note: Grades earned must meet the grade prerequisites for the full major.**
UCSD admits into the University first then into the major. All majors under Biological sciences including Microbiology are capped/ impacted so a non-capped major should be selected as an alternate.
All Biological Sciences majors will be capped to restrain continued growth in the number of Biological Sciences majors so making them selective. Students planning to declare a biology major should be aware of specific screening criteria to be considered for admission into a biology major. Admission criteria can vary each year and will apply to all students regardless of admit year.
do you know approximately how many apply for this major?
For the 3 campuses listed, there is no applicants by major data although Biological science majors are always in the top 5 of most applied majors at all these schools.
UC Davis states the 4.8% of the students enrolled in the College of Biological Sciences are Microbiology majors but not how many apply nor how many change majors after being accepted.
If the schools do not admit by major (which is all the above), the # of applicants to that specific major is meaningless since students can change majors within the college later.