So my kid is filling in her UC major choices and all but UCLA require a major an and alternative major.
Q1. Do all UCs treat the selection of the major and alternative major the same?
Q2. How is the major/alt used in practice?
Q3. If your kid has two majors of interest and one major is impacted and the other not. Should the impacted major be the major and the non-impacted the alternative as a strategy? Or is there a better strategy to maximize chance of being accepted.
How about choose majors of interest.
Too many out school over major. I think it’s a mistake. You want to study what you want to study. Not try and game the system.
I’d pick exactly what I want to study. There are many great schools in this country. In all your posts, you seem tied to a few high end UC schools and in my opinion, it’s a mistake. I get it - you see value in the in-state schools but what value is there in not studying what directly interests you?
Why study PPL or Poli Sci, etc if your true desire is political economy ?
You seem to be tying UCs to automatic success that can’t be obtained elsewhere and it’s simply untrue.
It’s like kids that want to study finance but will settle for Econ for a name I get the rationale but it seems crazy to spend four years not studying what you desire.
If it’s me, I’d put down what my student wants as the top major and not game the system. If you end up at Arizona or Colorado, they can be every bit as successful or not successful as a UCLA or UCB grad - which also have both….successful and not successful grads.
Good luck.
Here is the UC campus alternate major summary:
UC Berkeley:
If interested in applying to a High Demand major in the College of Letters and Sciences, that major needs to be your 1st choice. Alternate majors will be considered in there is room available usually during the waitlist process. UC Berkeley only guarantees review of your primary major.
UC Davis:
Applicants are encouraged to list an alternate major, but not in the
same area as the primary major (e.g., Computer Science Engineering with alternate Computer Science in the College of L&S). Occasionally, applicants are admitted to the alternate major.
UC Irvine:
In the case that UCI is unable to accommodate all qualified applicants in their first-choice major, those students who indicate a valid alternate major may be offered admission in that major or Undeclared. Nursing and Business Administration would not be considered as alternate majors.
UCLA:
UCLA only guarantees review of an applicant’s first-choice major.
UC San Diego.
Alternate majors are considered and selective majors are highly competitive. Also note: Selective majors require additional pre-req courses and specific GPA to be able to qualify if changing majors. Also if applying to a capped/selective major, it is recommended to select a non-capped major as an alternate.
UC Santa Barbara:
College of Engineering: Students are selected by major for all engineering and computer science majors. Only applicants with a solid background in advanced high school mathematics will be considered for admission to engineering. This includes high grades in all math courses through grade 11 and enrollment in pre-calculus or higher in grade 12. A student not selected for their first choice major will be reviewed for admission to an alternate major outside of the College of Engineering if one was selected (College of Letters and Sciences). CCS applicants are also encouraged to list an alternate major in the College of Letters and Sciences.
UC Santa Cruz:
Important Note for Prospective Engineering Students: Choice of major does not influence the selection of first-year students, except for those applicants interested in a major offered by the Jack Baskin School of Engineering (BSOE). Freshmen who are interested in a BSOE program should be sure to indicate a BSOE proposed major. Students who do not indicate a BSOE program or who apply as undeclared might not be able to pursue a BSOE program.
UCR and UCM:
Admission by major but alternate/2nd choice major will be considered if applicant does not need their first choice admission standards.
If you read the original question, the applications REQUIRE an alternate major to be chosen. OP is simply asking for a good strategy on this.
Yes but I took it as how can I game the system for admission vs choosing a desirable one.
It’s how I interpreted anyway.
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Depends on the campus, as to whether the second choice major is considered for initial admission. Post #4 lists campus-specific practices.
However, note that, after enrollment, a student in a more competitive major is more likely to be able to switch to a less competitive major than a student in a less competitive major is to be able to switch to a more competitive major.
For UCSB CCS specifically, we are a little unclear on how this works.
If a student lists a CCS major as one of their two choices, and is subsequently admitted to CCS, are they only offered admission to one of the two majors, or are they offered a choice to enroll in either the CCS major or the other major? It’s particularly confusing if the other major of interest is in engineering.
The CCS web site says,
When selecting two majors on your UC Application, you should list your preferred CCS major as one of your choices (preferably the primary), unless you are also applying to the College of Engineering (CoE). CoE requires Engineering as your first-choice major, so CCS can be your second.
So if the applicant wants to major in the College of Engineering, then they need to select that specific major as their 1st choice/primary major and then a CCS major as an alternate although both majors would be selective??
Which I agree does not match the information listed on the website since it refers to a non-selective major as an alternate.
I am also assuming the applicant would be only offered the COE major or the CCS major, both majors would not be an option. You might want to message @ccsfaculty whom often posts on CC if they could answer your question.
In their area there are lots of very similar majors (i.e. Micro biology vs Molecular Biology vs Bio-Chem). They’d be happy with any of them and most 17 year olds don’t really think of it to that depth.
And, as the UCSB video details, similar areas of study might be referred to as different majors at different schools. Ask your student to look at the requirements for each major at each UC. Also look at which department/college their major is housed under. They may find that biochem at one campus doesn’t interest them as much as biochem at another campus.
Thanks you are going straight to heaven! See questions inline.
The kid’s majors are all very similar (i.e. biochem vs molecular biology) and they would be happy with either. Then judging from your informed responses. Then shouldn’t you choose the major that is easiest to get into as the first/primary one for Berkeley as they only guarantee the first major is looked at?
It’s clear that UCD/UCM/UCSC and UCR look at both the main and alternative majors.
But it isn’t clearly (at least to me) if UCI/UCSB/UCSD look at the alternative major at all.
How did you interpret post #4. It’s very thorough but I interpreted as UCB only considers the first choice and that UCD/UCSC/UCM/UCR look at both.
But it isn’t clear to me if UCI/UCSB/UCSD look at both.
Which specific majors are you talking about for Berkeley? Are you just referring to the different emphases within the MCB major in L&S? MCB is a non-impacted major and it would seem logical to simply apply for that one if that is where the student’s interests lie, but maybe I’m missing something (like, is your student also considering chemical biology in college of chemistry)?
If there are multiple majors offered by the same department (like CS/CS+Business/DS) then you can apply to the major that is easier to get in. Usually changing the major within in the same department is easy.
Edit: In these cases the core curriculum is the same and you do not necessarily have to change the major.
UCI and UCSD will consider alternate majors and may even admit as Undeclared if an applicant does not meet the alternate major threshold .
For UCSB the College of Letters and Sciences does not consider major choice for admission so alternate majors are normally not considered. If any applicant is applying to the College of Engineering or CCS, then an alternate major will be considered. If no alternate major is listed for COE or CCS applicants, then they may be admitted Undeclared.
UCSB has three colleges - L&S, COE, and CCS. COE and CCS are relatively small. Everything else (from Physics to English to Dance) is in L&S. It is very easy to change majors within the College of L&S at UCSB.
Most UCSB CCS majors have similar majors in L&S. However, the CCS computing major is most similar the CoE computer science major, not any L&S major.