Does it matter what my intended major is?

ZooeyKing
Fri, 26 Nov 2010 19:23:15 +0000

As a current Berkeley student, I can tell you how it works (or how it seems to work)

-Yes, what major your list CAN determine your acceptance. If you apply to the College of Letters and Sciences at Berkeley, your major has no affect at all. However, if you apply Engineering (to any of the UCs) it does. Applying to art based majors that require portfolio/audition, such as at UCLA, obviously your acceptance is highly dependent on that. Also, I think Pre-Haas majors are more difficult to get into.

Regardless, just remember that unless you’re applying to Engineering, it doesn’t matter. After you are accepted, you have to declare your major. If you don’t get assigned a major that you listed, changing to another major is can be done as long as you haven’t started school and as long as it’s not impacted. HOWEVER, transferring into another major once you are actually at a UC can be very difficult but doable as long as A) It’s in the same college or B) You don’t want to transfer into Engineering OR an art major. But transferring out of an art major is doable. If you want to transfer to another college (like L&S to Haas), it can be difficult and takes a lot of paperwork, signatures, nagging, and time.