When I went to school in Canada, universities employed option A, direct admit, but with differing admission requirements depending on program demand. Now that I am starting to research options for DS15 I am starting to see more and more schools that have switched to a form of option B, admit to a specific faculty with pre-major status but with a general first year (sometimes plus required pre-requisities depending on intended major and other times the same general first year for all students admitted to the same faculty) and a required GPA for program admittance in second year, even for non competitive programs. I suspect the move to approach B is not to restrict entry to competitive programs (generally those still remain direct admit) but as a general field leveler as we do not have standardized testing in Canada. By employing option B, universities neutralize any grade inflation and variability in quality between high schools.
I’m wondering however if a student has their heart set on a specific major, are they better off going to a school that employs Option A, direct admit based on high school grades, or risk a school that employs option B, which relies on grades achieved in the first year of university? Is it better to take the risk of not getting into the major of choice at schools employing option B in favour of delaying having to declare a major just in case the student changes their mind? It would seem risky to me to pin your hopes on a specific major and then not get accepted after first year where you would have been accepted had you chosen a different school.