UC Berkeley’s Public Health is a High Demand major so you need to select that major as your first choice. If not admitted into the major as a Freshman, then the student will need to go through a Comprehensive review to change majors later and it is not guaranteed.
Thanks for your response . My son is open to both Public Health & Cognitive Science . So what is the best strategy for admission to L&S ? Apply in Cognitive Science ?
Does he want to study Public Health or Cognitive Science? Changing into a High Demand major is not guaranteed so he should select the major he wants to study for the next 4 years.
Leaning more towards Cognitive Science at this point . Lots of ECs which make his profile a good fit for Public health though .
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Thank you for the reassurance!
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Aw this is super reassuring! Congrats to you and your daughter 
I have a question about two undeclared options within L&S. Both are of interest to my kid -
Undeclared Social science (can focus on Sociology, etc), or
Undeclared: Interdisciplinary studies.
UCB is a reach for my kid ( based on GPA but very strong EC). Any insights on which one would be a better option purely from an admission chance perspective. ? the intent wont be to switch to a high impact major. (understand that its possible but very hard). Even just regular Interdisciplinary studies major is good to know the chances (if thats better than Undeclared social sciences, or sociology).
Also, are there any data for admit rates for Sociology within L&S. thanks
Question regarding alternate majors.
In UC app, for UCB (unlike UCLA) it gives an option to enter the alternate major choice.
However, in the quick reference guide, it says UCB does NOT look at alternate major (says, only the applicants first major choice is considered at this time).
Can you help clarify if alternate major is considered. thanks
Major selection is not an admission factor for the College of Letters and Sciences except for the few High Demand majors.
Students are admitted as Undeclared and then need to complete the required courses to declare their major.
I have no admit data for Sociology, sorry.
UC Berkeley will consider the alternate major during the waitlist and appeal process but not during the regular admission process.
So the applicant has to get into wait-list and then during clearing the wait-list time they will look at primary major first and also look at alternate major if there is room there ?
But if the applicant doesn’t get into wait-list then alternate major is irrelevant ?
Yes, when an applicant is on the waitlist, they will consider both primary and alternate majors when accepting off the waitlist.
If the applicant is denied, they can file an appeal and then the alternate will be considered.
UC Berkeley only recently allowed listing an alternate major (Fall 2023) but I have seen very few alternate major admits from the waitlist.
I found this last night while my kid was trying to figure out their major. Though late, maybe it is helpful to others? (Difference between CS, 4%, and math, 20%, is compelling. Though maybe math is a harder admit than the broader discipline?) Freshman admission by discipline | University of California
Please note there is a big disclaimer at the top of the page!
Also note the CS admit rate listed is for 2023. For 2024 Freshman, the CS admit rate was 1.9%. Again, this data is informational so you cannot draw any specific conclusions from this data other than CS is a tougher admit than Math.
Keep in mind that if your student applies to math and is admitted in that major, it is highly unlikely that they would be able to switch to CS. There is a process for changing to this major called “comprehensive review,” but it is expected that only very few students each year will be allowed into the CS major, and that the process will be extremely competitive.
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Yes, my child aware of this. Thank you!
They were about to submit the application but as part of the review, saw this in the high school section:
"Before you enter information about your courses and grades, we need to know about the high schools you attended, including any summer schools or online schools.
You’ll need to enter all schools, regardless of how long you attended the school or the grades you received.
It’s important to give us accurate information in this section — providing incomplete or incorrect information may jeopardize your UC admission or enrollment."
They have taken many “Art of Problem Solving” Courses. Do they have to list the courses they have taken? They never got credit for these courses and list AoPS as an extracurricular activity (w/o listing each course because of word count).
“Art of Problem Solving” is listed as a high school in the drop down menu but I figure it might be for home school students? But the above wording sounds very stern so we are wondering…
If they were taken for no credit, I don’t think you can include AoPS as a high school attended. I understand about word count limiting what can be included in the activities section. If the student wants to list specific courses, they could be listed or summarized in the additional information section.
My S23 had taken several college classes that could not be included in the course listing section because they were only 1-2 units. So he listed them in the additional information section. This way, he felt that he was able to accurately report everything, according to that stern statement that you quoted.
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Thank you! They had put it in the additional information section and based on your reponse, will leave it in.
Will be so glad when the application is submitted.
I wouldn’t waste time listing these courses on the XC section, just describe AoPS as a simple bullet - the likely more effecrive way to use this info is to work references to it appropriately into the relevant PIQ should it be applicable to the major being applied to. The UCs care specifically and a lot more about classes your student took in high school (summer after 9 through 11) or letter grades, and whether those classes were AP/Honors or not.