<p>where do we go?? is it the deparment advisor or the advisors helping us with classes?</p>
<p>Are you looking to declare or to change your proposed major?</p>
<p>To plan out a schedule for being on track to declaring a major (especially if it is prereq intensive), go to the department adviser. However, your college adviser can change your proposed major in the system. They just can’t declare you.</p>
<p>change my proposed major do i do it at the college advising meeting?</p>
<p>You can ask. Also, I’m not even sure your proposed major matters that much unless you’re involved with impacted majors like art or psych, or maybe if you’re an engineering major.</p>
<p>Ask your counselors.</p>
<p>If you’re an incoming freshman, your proposed major literally means nothing (even “impacted” majors). You don’t have to see any college/department advisor because your proposed major is just a way for UCSC to track its students. You formally declare your major during your 2nd year and that’s what actually matters. I had friends who came to UCSC as proposed economics majors but they ended up declaring health science or psychology. There’s really no advantage/disadvantage of having a proposed major, haha.</p>
<p>If you’re a transfer student, then you go see a department advisor. You will have to fill out a form for them with classes you’ve taken at your CC and what you plan on taking. They will then contact your college to have it changed on your forms.</p>
<p>Actually, it does matter, because with impacted majors many classes are closed except to proposed majors. For instance, Psych 10 is restricted to pre-psychology majors.</p>
<p>Technically the system will still allow you to enroll in those courses if your proposed major is still within the college. One of my courses last year only allowed economics and legal studies majors to enroll. However, there were freshman who were able to enroll just because they were Undeclared - Social Sciences.</p>
<p>Of course that won’t work for my earlier example (econ and health science), so it will depend on what exactly his proposed major is listed in his portal and what types of classes he’s trying to take. Also it will depend on what major he’s interested in because there’s really not that many lower-division courses with those types of limits (only for some impacted classes).</p>
<p>Not entirely correct. There are some classes for even not impacted majors that are limited to those proposed in the major (or minor if it’s a choice). Not a huge issue for a frosh from what I’ve seen so far since they have a lot of other options to take, but anyone who is a transfer definitely has to make sure their proposed major is correct in the system.</p>
<p>It would be better to make sure the proposed major is correct when you have the chance rather than waiting until you might forget and the be unable to register in those restricted classes later. As a transfer, I ran into a lot of issues because UCSC had the wrong second major listed in my portal and I took my sweet time getting it fixed. I should have just done it at orientation.</p>
<p>Yeah, but if their proposed major is something such as Undeclared- Social Sciences, they can technically still get into the courses if the requirement falls under that college. This is mostly the case for freshman because most transfer students start with more of a specialized major (Undeclared - Economics rather than Undeclared - Social Sciences).</p>
<p>Transfers really see that problem because the system won’t allow an Undeclared - Econ student to enroll in a psych class, but an undeclared - social science student can. In the end, you might as well change your proposed major but it really doesn’t make too much of a difference for now. Maybe I’m just lazy? haha</p>
<p>I’m mostly just speaking with my experience enrolling in econ, comp engineering, and physics courses though. I haven’t run into any issues at the lower division level with those courses about any limitations due to major, but you’ll definitely see them later with some of the more advanced upper divs.</p>
<p>I say this in good fun amusement and not to tease in a mean way, but your first two paragraphs contradict each other XD</p>
<p>The first paragraph indicates being able to show undeclared in a more specific major rather than a discipline, yet the second mentions that transfers can’t have “undeclared” at all in the portal. Technically undeclared is a potential option to apply for transfer ;). However, it’s just, from what I’ve seen, never offered. When you look up which campuses are accepting transfers, it lists what years they are accepting and what majors. “Undeclared” is an option, just one I’ve yet to see available (at least for the typical transfer… perhaps it’s available for sophomores sometimes?). But yes, for the most part, transfers cannot be undeclared in anything in the same manner that frosh are.</p>
<p>That said, your second paragraph is more of the truthful one. Transfers accounts do not show as “undeclared.” They show as “proposed” and then list the specific major they applied with. There is that happy fun little link that says “how to declare,” though :B.</p>
<p>Anywho, yeah, I’m more on the arts and humanities side of things at UCSC. I’m really missing math and science classes at this point, but that’s a whiny tale for another day. A lot of the classes are limited to in major only even of the lower divisions. Sadly, the ones that should be usually aren’t, though. Capacity controlled classes that only have 30 spots and are required lower division work for certain majors should not be open to the general student body not in those majors.</p>
<p>It really is just easier to get a proposed major changed as soon as possible.</p>
<p>Actually, in my second paragraph I never said “transfer’s can’t have undeclared at all in the portal.” I even wrote that a transfer student’s major would be something such as undeclared - econ instead of a freshman’s undeclared - social science (even though both are interested in the same major). Basically I meant transfer students will have more of a specialized major rather than a vague one like freshman, which would restrict them compared to what a freshman can do.</p>
<p>But yeah, I actually meant proposed and not undeclared for transfer. I just say undeclared because technically you haven’t officially declared, but transfers usually end up majoring in their proposed major. </p>
<p>I really think it depends on your major. Of course I’ve only taken one psych class so I don’t know about their lower divs, but I’ve literally never seen a lower div class (other than a lit one) that said “for proposed -insert major- only.” So I could totally be missing out by looking at any of the arts or humanities, but haven’t really seen anything like it for econ, physics, or CE.</p>
<p>I thought if a frosh was proposed-something else, then they couldn’t take classes closed to pre-majors?</p>
<p>hey midnightgolfer ive been reading alot of ur posts about econ and internships so i think you might be able to answer a lot of my questions. im an entering freshman to UC santa cruz at college 9.</p>
<p>im interested in going into marketing or maybe sales operations when i grow up…maybe even finance if i take more classes and begin to like it. one question is what major would make more sense for marketing or sales operations? what about finance? i know santa cruz offers econ, business man econ, and global econ so i kinda want to know your take on it. i emailed the econ adviser and she just sent me a pdf that repeats itself -____-</p>
<p>i also saw that you got alotta internships and youre even transferring. how do you do it? my brother is a business econ major at uc irvine and he cant even get a decent job with a 3.7. this really made me worry cause i do have older friends who go to santa cruz who have graduated with econ and out of 5 of them… 1 works at hitachi and the rest are unemployed or taking regular retail jobs. do you suggest majoring in something that gives a stabler job?</p>
<p>sorry about all the questions. im getting really worried cause i didnt apply myself in hs and i really want to get a good degree so i can have a good job later in life. sorry to be creeper status too. i just really cant get my questions answered over the summer. thx</p>
<p>@jonat: You might want to PM me later if you need help, I don’t want to miss one of your posts haha. I think the biggest question is do you see yourself going to grad school or not? That’s going to impact some of your decisions in respect to major.</p>
<p>If you’re just interested in marketing or sales ops, economics will provide you some background with either of those. If you are looking to go a little further and gain a better understanding, I’d suggest going business econ for either of those positions as well as for finance. Economics provides students with economic theory and will be pretty good for most jobs because it’s so broad. Business management economics requires a few more classes, but focuses more on “management” through economic/accounting theory. Global economics is just economics more on the global level. You have a language requirement and you study more about outside economies (can also study abroad). </p>
<p>UCSC is a great school for accounting because most students can get recruited by the big 4 firms. It’s not guaranteed and you still need to work on your CPA exam, but the accounting program is pretty good. However, if you’re not interested being an accountant then your possibilities are more limited. Everyone and their mother majors in econ now, so there is pretty fierce competition with jobs/internships at the top companies. You can’t just bank on a good GPA, you REALLY need to post a great resume. Sadly enough, students get overlooked just because of the school they go to, so gaining that initial resume experience will be difficult (while VERY crucial). </p>
<p>I basically got involved as much as I can on campus. I was a tutor, I graded for professors, I was very active in my clubs and held positions, got on-campus economics/finance internships, took part in undergrad research with a professor and grad students, and etc. I added all of that and just started applying everywhere freshman year summer. I soon found out it all was worth it because I started to get interviews with financial firms and large companies. I finally picked a firm I never thought I’d get and I’ve been working there for over a year now (full time summer and part time school year). So if your friends just graduated with econ and had minimal experience, that’s probably the reason they are unemployed. </p>
<p>I REALLY suggest majoring in something that will make you happy, not about money/job stability. If you like it enough, you’ll find a way to succeed in life. Majoring in econ doesn’t equal a CFO salary, it’s how you work and how motivated you are with your career. In all honesty, I see so many students UC-wide that major in econ because they think it’s the same thing as business OR they think they will become RICH after graduating. Take a look at your classes and see what interests you. I say this because if you go in interested in econ and then you realize you don’t like all these advanced upper-div courses, you will really be at a disadvantage. I know 5th and 6th year students that switched majors later in the game because they simply were lying to themselves for many years saying they liked their major.</p>
<p>WOWW thx for the reply man lol. i dont know about grad school yet. if i did id either get a MBA or a masters in econ…you think a masters in finance is even worth it? im thinking about majoring in business management econ OR double majoring econ with something really useful like stats or comp sci. is that a good idea?</p>
<p>can you give me some tips of finding these kind of experiences? or should i email you privately for that??</p>
<p>wait what firm do you work at?! i forgot what website i was looking at but it listed all the universities the interns attend and i kept seeing TONS for stanford, u penn, columbia, and other top schools, and then i saw UC berkeley listed for like 2 interns, ucla for 4 and uc santa cruz listed for 1. was that you? LOL. i wanna say it was goldman sachs or jp morgan or morgan stanley… but i cant find that pdf file now. wanna hook me up :]</p>
<p>Haha, no problem. You got time to think about grad school, so you should be fine. I personally don’t think a Masters in Finance is worth it. You’re better off getting a MBA with a concentration in finance. A masters in econ is completely different and you’ll be focusing purely on economics courses, so given the jobs you listed earlier, you don’t really need one. For the undergrad level, both of those work. I’d actually side with the econ/comp sci because there’s actually been a large demand in the large tech companies (apple, microsoft, hp, etc) for business students with technical skills. You might also want to check out the ISM major/minor because it will be an easier course load for a econ student (classes overlap).</p>
<p>Just get out there, be proactive, find things you are passionate in and try to gain leadership experience (VERY important). When OPERS has its clubs day at the start of the year, I highly suggest going there and taking a look at all the groups/clubs available. If you don’t find anything there, you can always join them later in the year.</p>
<p>I try to keep anonymous on here, so I can’t really say which one lol. You’re probably on the right track though because during one of the intern fairs they gave us a pamphlet that posted “Where our interns come from…” and I was the only UCSC student and almost the only UC student. You might want to gain close ties with some of your professors though if you’re interested in networking/job hook ups. Most of the econ faculty as UCSC are very experienced and come from places such as the World Bank, IMF, councils from the White House, and etc. They will sometimes recommend you for an internship and even give you a great letter of rec/point of reference. I still list one or two of my references with professors I’ve interacted a lot with at SC.</p>
<p>Hey MidnightGolfer, you sound very knowledgeable on this subject and if you don’t mind I have a few questions. So on the UC application I selected a different major than what I want to major in now. I applied under Undeclared System Management and I was actually looking to major in Computer Engineering. Is it tough to switch? I keep reading that it is impacted. I have no interest whatsoever in majoring in my proposed major. Now that I have to pick courses to take, I want to enroll for classes that would help me in CE and not my proposed major. Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>You should be fine switching if you are a frosh. I really don’t know about the restrictions (if any) for switching into an undeclared impacted-major, but it shouldn’t be too difficult because you aren’t actually declaring. Except if you are a transfer student, then you have to actually declare comp engineering and make sure you have taken the required courses. You should call up the comp engineering department and ask them.</p>
<p>hey midnite do you have AIM or gchat that i can use to contact u with further questions? i saw the ISM major and i think it sounds perfect for an econ/comp sci major. also one more question: how are the upper division courses at ucsc? im not sure how many you have taken but i always wondered how they compare to places such as irvine, sd, and la. how difficult and how interesting are they? </p>
<p>i think thats it with the questions for now so THX for all the help so far. it really makes a difference because i cant really chat with an econ advisor face to face.</p>
<p>Thanks MidnightGolfer. I’m an incoming freshman. I guess I can just ask a few questions at orientation tomorrow.</p>