political science at ucla

dannylee451
Sat, 31 Jan 2009 04:18:39 +0000

Alright, here’s the deal. Theres seems to be alot of confusion and unnecessary complexities over this very minor issue. When I initially transferred to UCLA, I was a religious studies major. I had done none of the prereqs for philosophy, and wasn’t sure if i could switch majors. I first went to my academic counselor, and asked them. They said they weren’t exactly sure how the process was done and told me to ask the counselor in the philosophy department. I went there, told her I wanted to switch, they gave a list of classes I needed to take, and basically sent me off.

I later wanted to switch again from philosophy to political science, so i basically did the same thing. I went to the counselor in the political science building (Bunche) and talked to James (there are 2 of them, i never actually talked to Kathy). He basically gave me the list of classes I needed to take, put me in as PRE-POLITICAL SCIENCE and told me when I get all the prereqs done, I would get into the Political Science degree program; only stipulation was that I maintain a 2.0 gpa in all the prereq courses. With that said, I went to work, finished the classes and was subsequently put in. Very easy, very straightforward, at least for me it was. There may be different stories of how hard it is, but for me it happened as soon as I asked, and i’m sure it’ll happen the same way for you.

I think the reason it was easy to switch majors was because religious studies/philosophy are in the college of letters and science (humanities), therefore reducing any messy crossovers. You should be fine. My only advice is to steer away from any humanities subjects if you don’t attend to go to law school. You want a marketable major, where all the heavy competition will in the end be worth it. (If you do plan on going to law school, I strongly advise philosophy, since after you graduate you should have a pretty good handle on the lsats). Any other questions, feel free to post!