California Admissions

[ucbalumnus]

@fluffles

From those of you speaking from experience what majors do you recommend I apply for in order to increase my chances of admissions and is there any specific outlier that likely will prevent me from getting admission.

If you enroll as undeclared or in a non-competitive major, it may be very difficult or competitive to change into a more competitive major later. In general, if engineering is of interest, it is best to start college as an engineering major, so that you can follow the sequenced curriculum more easily with assistance from engineering advising.

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1947599-faq-does-intended-major-make-it-easier-or-more-difficult-to-get-into-a-college.html

For general UC admission rates by GPA (unfortunately not available by intended major), see:

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1903428-faq-uc-historical-frosh-admit-rates-by-hs-gpa.html

For past SJSU admission thresholds, see:

http://www.sjsu.edu/admissions/impaction/

@fluffles

Please speak from your own personal experience, as the more I talk to people I hear completely different opinions and end results, from overqualified students being rejected, to under qualified students being accepted.

UCs and CSUs generally do not use level of interest. However, their admissions processes tend to emphasize GPA over test scores, and the effect of intended major is often underestimated, resulting in apparent surprises that are not really surprised after these factors are taken into consideration.