<p>This is my first thread, so please be kind if I am doing something wrong here. :)</p>
<p>I am working on my UC application and I have a few questions about choosing your major. I had originally decided on choosing a major such as "Statistics" or "Economics" on my UC application, but my dad has told me that it is better that I apply as "Undeclared" in the College of Letters and Science section. Would this be okay? I just want to make sure I can change my major later in college. </p>
<p>Also, can someone tell me the differences between Undeclared-Fine Arts, Undeclared-Humanities, and Undeclared - Social Sciences? (These are all the "undeclared" majors in the College of Letters and Sciences). Because I am leaning towards a Statistics or Economics major, which one of these undeclared majors should I choose?</p>
<p>I know this is a silly question, but I would still appreciate the help!</p>
<p>For Berkeley, all L&S applicants are considered in one pool, and all who are admitted are admitted undeclared. If there is any difference in the various undeclared options (arts, humanities, social sciences, etc.), it is probably in initial advising during frosh orientation. You declare your major after completing the prerequisite courses, usually in your second year. Note that Berkeley economics is capped, so you need at least a 3.0 college GPA in the prerequisites to declare it.</p>
<p>Other campuses may differ.</p>
<p>If you are considering economics and statistics, your first semester or quarter schedule should be fairly simple:</p>
<ul>
<li>Introductory economics course.</li>
<li>Math course based on math placement recommendations. If you are considering using AP credit to skip one or more frosh calculus courses, it would be a good idea to review the old final exams of the courses that you may skip to ensure that you know all of the material well.</li>
<li>Other courses for breadth requirements.</li>
</ul>
Dad is just guessing about what sounds reasonable to him. And indeed it sounds reasonable. Unfortunately it is also wrong, so far as I know.</p>
<p>Go to the admissions website of any UC you are interested in. Look at what they say about how they evaluate admission for various majors in Letters & Science. You will quickly see that they don’t even look at your intended major in L&S, at least not at all the campuses I’m aware of. Being prudent you should check every campus you are considering.</p>
<p>Since this is an advice forum, some advice. Time to take ownership of your future. Much of the info you need about the basics (Does admission depend on major? Can I change majors? What do I need to do in order to be an Econ major? How do I get a space in the dorms?) is readily available online. You can look it up yourself and know its correct because you got it right from the UC website. Or, you can poll your friends (or dad). More convenient, maybe, but if they give you wrong advice guess who is the one that gets stuck? You can see that someone who undoubtedly cares deeply about you is still willing to make wild guesses and pass it off as fact; you follow such advice at your peril.</p>
<p>I’m not trying to be hard on you or your dad, but if you’re considering a UC you need to understand that with 20K or more students they just can’t give a lot of personal attention. You need to become self-reliant, and the expectation is going to be that you’ll do the legwork to find out the answers to common questions just about everyone has, that they’ve put on the web so they don’t have to repeat the same thing 20,000 times.</p>
<p>Edit: eh, forget what I said. I see you are willing to pass off the same kind of speculation as facts to others, so maybe its just the way you like to run. Give and get, only fair.
There</a> are no pre-med or pre-pharmacy majors at UCLA…</p>