<p>So a couple of the majors I'm considering are LEP. Criminal Justice is, although it's not "competitive" (that is, as long as you meet the requirements, you're in). But business is a competitive LEP, AKA you have to actually compete for admission just like getting into university.</p>
<p>So what happens if you don't get into one? What do you do then? I sure as hell would feel like I wasted the last two years of my life if I didn't get into the major I wanted simply because I wasn't in the top 20% of applicants.</p>
<p>I mean, large state schools suck like that.</p>
<p>There are too many kids that want to do certain programs…if they let all kids who would want to do a certain program in, the quality of the program would suffer tremendously. They do not have the money to hire the profs and get the adequate facilities. The only way to do it? Don’t let some people in. </p>
<p>In certain cases you can probably beg and plead. Speak with advisors and then the head of the department, if your advisors aren’t willing to stick their neck out for you (sometimes they are, if you convey your passion for a certain field). Maybe they will make an exception. In other cases the policy will be pretty strict and you won’t have much luck at all. Business is probably a good example of it being fairly strict. You don’t know until you try to beg, but be prepared to feel like you wasted 2 yrs of your life for sure.</p>
<p>It is so scary. What next the kid can do? Are there any options? Transfer?
Additional: I did not see Computer Science in LEP list, what is requirement to get in CS?</p>
<p>Well, it’s not the end of the world. Do really well in the major you do get into and then go to grad school. A lot of the LEPs require graduate work anyway for a full career. DS is in the Architecture LEP. The Assistant Dean acknowledged to us right up front that most folks who go to graduate school in Architecture do not have an undergraduate degree in Arch…but you have to go to grad school to get certified unless you are in a five-year program like Virginia Tech, but even most of them go on to get their Masters. The place to find all this out is the University Career Center. Go there, talk to them, be sure you have a four year plan and it’s workable. They can give you the best advice about majors and alternate routes to end up with the career you want.</p>
<p>Right, they actually want MORE comp sci majors, so no doubt it is not an LEP. </p>
<p>I mean, you’re SOL more or less. Like I said sometimes people in the department will take an interest in you if you show a strong desire to do something despite it being against the “rules” or you not being exactly up to par. But sometimes they draw the line. Many folks get rejected from the business school outright and just end up having to do econ or math or some other businessy type thing to get by. Some go on to get their MBAs and whatnot but some don’t, because many firms are glad to hire an econ/math major for certain positions.</p>
<p>So I wouldn’t say you’ve wasted two years per se, because quite frankly college is about getting As and getting a degree, not about learning the business trade, the engineering trade, or any career specifically. But it’s definitely a frustration to be barred from your course of study of choice. Similar to how its frustrating to be barred from your college of choice or job of choice or anything. But you just gotta have a fallback and do better next time, eh?</p>
<p>Indeed. Well, I talked to my adviser today and she said I need to narrow down my major choices to 2 at most. I think if I was between Info Systems and Criminal Justice, I’d be able to use CJ as a fall back since I’ll already be able to apply for it after Spring semester (I’ll take CCJS105… and I KNOW I’m gonna do better than the requirements to get in). I’m also gonna talk to the Business LEP admissions guy to get an idea of that and the information systems major, since it’ll also fulfill the exploration requirement for LTSC.</p>