<p>What would happen is someone were theoretically competitive enough for L&S but not competitive enough for a more competitive major (CoE of CoCh) but applied for the more competitive major? Would he/she be rejected from Cal or would he/she be relegated to a less competitive major/college (such as L&S undeclared)?</p>
<p>It’d be the former.</p>
<p>Yeah, at Berkeley you apply to the college/major you want and either you get admitted or you don’t. And in case you were wondering, no, if you get rejected you can’t appeal for a different college/major.</p>
<p>If you don’t get into your first choice major at UCSD, I believe they still consider you for your second choice.</p>
<p>Really strange policy on UCB part, kind of arrogant.
Other UCs at least allows to enter a second major.</p>
<p>“Arrogant”?</p>
<p>Interesting choice of word.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s arrogant at all - Berkeley frequently claims they want to admit stories, not numbers. How is admitting people into majors they expressed little to no interest in their essays upholding their admission policy?</p>
<p>So whats wrong in allowing a second preference for the major, just like other UCs and also lot of other top universities do.
Its pretty normal for some one to be interested in either bioengineering or chemistry or biology major (all in three different colleges). So if the do not find credential/essays good enough for bioengineering, why not give the candidate a chance in biology if credentials/essay make the candidate well qualified for biology.
I am sure they are also loosing some of great candidates because of this strange policy, who would a preferred a biology degree from USB rather then a bioengineering from some other university.</p>
<p>Generally speaking, it’s a good policy. You want your students to love what they’re studying, you don’t want programs to be full of people who got their second choice. That said, some majors are pretty similar and it’s kinda annoying… like EECS vs L&S CS, where the two majors are essentially equivalent.</p>
<p>If the purpose of this policy is to push high school seniors to be certain and passionate about their studies then I think that it should be scrapped because it achieves the exact opposite. By limiting applicants to one major they are encouraging students to select majors with higher acceptance rates instead of what they actually want to major in. </p>
<p>Now, being a Cal student I understand that colleges L&S admit all as undeclared (major not taken into consideration) and that freshmans can switch within and sometimes outside of their college, but this policy just sends the wrong message. Just my two cents.</p>
<p>DS is frustrated by this policy. He thinks he wants to declare Mech Eng. but is not 100% sure. It is such a tough major and many switch out, but you really can’t move into it from another college like L&S. So he has to basically gamble on admission into Mech E when honestly it may not work out after a year. He has a 4.37 weighted GPA and a 2010 SAT. Great stats, but a reach for engineering at Berkeley. If he could select an alternate major, that would give him the option to weigh the opportunities that come from attending a school like Berkeley with the career potential of an engineering degree from a different university.</p>