sakky

Well, I wouldn't go so far as to say that it would include ALL of the public schools. After all, there are literally hundreds and hundreds of public schools out there. I'm quite sure that among that set, there has to be some that don't have issues with impaction.

To some extent, yes. For example, I know that Cornell does not allow free movement between individual colleges/schools. For example, you can't get into the Cornell Arts & Sciences College and then just decide one fine day that you're going to switch to the Cornell College of Engineering. You have to apply to transfer between colleges, and the approval process is competitive.

Nevertheless, I think Berkeley is a quite extreme case as not only does it restrict movement between college to college, but, in the case of engineering, Berkeley also restricts movement from major to major. Other schools may restrict movement into their engineering college, but once you're into the engineering college, they usually won't restrict switching from one engineering major to another.

The takehome point is that people should carefully investigate just how much flexibility you will have at any particular college. You don't want to end up in a situation where you may be forced to stay in a major that you don't want. Or at least, if that might happen, then you should know that that might happen and then plan accordingly.