Hello, My daughter is applying to Berkeley this year. She has a very wide variety of interests, and isn’t sure which major she wants to apply with. Can anyone tell me which of the following majors is easiest to get into Berkeley with? All positive responses are welcome and appreciated!
Global Studies
History
Global Management Program
Legal Studies
Interdisciplinary Studies
Global Environmental Politics
Justice and Sustainability
US Environmental Policy and Management
Thank you!
For those majors which are in UCB’s College of Letters and Science (L&S), it does not matter for frosh admission, since all L&S frosh applicants are considered as undeclared applicants, and all who enter L&S are undeclared. L&S students declare major later, usually in the second year after completing prerequisites. A few L&S majors are high demand ( https://ls.berkeley.edu/advising/planning/schedule-planning/choosing-major/high-demand-majors ) and may require a GPA higher than 2.0 or grades higher than C in the prerequisites to declare.
Frosh admission to other divisions (College of Natural Resources, College of Chemistry, College of Engineering, College of Environmental Design) may have different levels of selectivity compared to L&S. In the College of Engineering, selectivity does vary by major, unlike in L&S.
More UCB information:
Most selective majors:
Majors in the Colleges of Engineering and Chemistry are the most selective. Details on the admitted student profile at Berkeley can be found at https:// admissions.berkeley.edu/student-profile.
Division (L&S, CNR, CoC, CED, CoE) matters for admission selectivity.
Within CoE (but not the other divisions), major matters for admission selectivity. Changing majors within the CoE after enrolling is not guaranteed, unless one is CoE undeclared.
Note that L&S admits students as undeclared; admission to capped majors (e.g. CS, economics, psychology, ORMS, statistics, art practice, and a few others) is by college GPA in prerequisite courses (and portfolio for art practice) after attending for a few semesters.
The business major is in a separate division and admits students in a competitive holistic process. Frosh intending business majors begin in another division (usually L&S), take the business major prerequisites, and apply (usually in their second years). They also need to take prerequisites for a backup major in case they are not admitted to the business major.
All students who apply to UC Berkeley and select a major within the College of Natural Resources are evaluated based on their application, not on the particular major they select.
2018 UC capped weighted GPA averages:
UCB: 4.23
25th-75th percentile of admitted Freshman 2018:
SAT: 1360-1540
ACT: 30-35
Regardless of major, UCB should be considered a Reach school due to the low acceptance rate.
For those majors you mentioned above which are all in L&S the major selection is irrelevant since all L&S applicants are considered as undeclared and complete within the same single pool
Thank you for your comments. However, the application still makes you choose a major that you are applying with. So, they must look at it to some degree? Especially for those that are impacted or capped, like Economics.
Officially, for applying to L&S, you are applying to the school and not to the major. Unofficially, there probably is some consideration of the major for people who put down high-impact majors as their major. This is just a rough educated guess of mine, based on some stats from kids who made it in and/or didn’t make it in from my kid’s HS last year.
Interdisciplinary Studies is a major that you apply for once you’ve been accepted. There are some prerequisites that need to happen first.