Hi I want to apply to the college of letters and sciences, and major in gender and women’s studies, because I have a passion for learning history and gender diversity over the years, (especially being a woman myself, raised with traditional Indian cultural customs). I would eventually like to combine this with a minor in history, or even philosophy. However, I am wondering if this is a hard, competitive major to get into, or if my chances are good. Please let me know. Thank you!
UC GPA? Test scores? EC’s?
I am in the application process of applying to uc Berkeley and want to select this as my major
Cannot chance you if you do not post your GPA, test scores or EC’s. There is no way of knowing if you are a qualified applicant without this information. All majors at UCB are competitive and UCB does not accept by major into the College of Letters and Sciences, so you need your stats to be on par with all the other applicants.
GPA: 4.3 (weighed) GPA 3.8 (unweighed)
President of SIFMA (a finance/marketing club)
Treasurer of color guard
Vice President of open arms club (hosts ethnically diverse events on campus)
Vice President of HYPE (helping youth persue education)
SAT : 2040 ACT: 30
I have taken 8 ap courses and have scored 4s and 5s in all my AP exams. I have over 300 hours of service at the local Animal Shelter and am an ambassador of the D.A.R.E program.
You look like a qualified applicant, but it would help to bump up your test scores into the 2200/32 range.
UCB: High Match/Low Reach
Outstanding essays may boost your chances.
Good luck.
Thank you. But please answer my question if that is a competitive major or not.
There are no specific statistics for each major other than what is stated on the UCB website:
All majors are competitive and require academic performance beyond UC minimums.
http://admissions.berkeley.edu/studentprofile
To be a competitive applicant, you want to at or above the posted averages for GPA/SAT/ACT and have outstanding essays and EC’s.
Note that L&S applicants are not selected by major at frosh admission. All L&S frosh enter undeclared. L&S students declare their majors after completing the prerequisites. Some majors requires higher GPA to declare due to being filled to capacity. None of GWS, history, or philosophy is such a major (some of the majors which do require higher GPAs are economics, psychology, computer science, statistics, and art practice).
Does it mean that someone with a lot of AP credits can declare major earlier?
@Ballerina016, it depends on the major. For example, for CS, the old pre-requisites were Math 1A, Math 1B, Math 54, CS61ABC, CS70, but most people had AP credits for Math 1A and 1B.
Some departments may not take AP credits. For example, College of Chemistry will not let you skip out of the intro chem requirement no matter what your score is on AP Chemistry, most likely because it’s relevant to the major and AP Chem is not rigorous enough.
Only if the AP credit includes that which is accepted for subject credit for the prerequisites of the desired major.
For example, if a student has a 5 on AP calculus BC (which is accepted in place of Math 1A and 1B by the math department), then the student can take Math 53, 54, and 55 in the first semester and then declare the math major in his/her second semester, instead of waiting until his/her fourth semester to declare the major. But if his/her intended major is something else where that AP score does not count against any prerequisites, s/he will not be able to declare that major any earlier.
@ucbalumnus thank you. What about CS under L&S?
http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/csugrad/#petitioning says that L&S CS accepts AP calculus credit for Math 1A (3 or higher) and 1B (5 on BC). But you still need to take CS 61A, 61B, and 70 in order to declare the L&S CS major.
I doubt that “gender and women’s studies” is a competitive major. Competitive majors tend to be things like business, engineering, …