Would this be possible?

Pre-College Topics High School Cafe
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<p>I was talking to someone about a guy who graduated from my high school last year and is studying Theater at Northeastern University. Because the Theater program at most schools relies more on your talent and artistic ability than it does your academics, he was able to get in with a really generous financial aid (merit) award and a year of study abroad despite a 3.1 GPA and a 1700 SAT (whereas kids at my school, b/c it is heavily represented at NEU, get rejected with 2100+ SAT scores). </p>

<p>My friend wondered if you could just switch out of the major, thus getting a spot in a pretty elite school with lower standards and having the major of your choice after you enroll. Like - would it be possible to get into a school for a program like Theater or any other Art and then decide your Sophomore year - “I want to go into Petroleum Engineering.”</p>

<p>Because that actually seems like a pretty sweet deal. I told her that I imagined you’d have to reapply to the school to do that so you couldn’t just change your major (if it was an art to a non-art, not like changing from Poli Sci to Int’l Relations or Chem Engineering to Civil Engineering.)</p>

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<p>Hm, I’ve always wondered about this too. I know at some schools, like Columbia, you have to apply separately to the engineering program and the general college. So you could get accepted into the engineering school, but if you wanted to switch into Columbia College, you’d have to re-apply (at least from my superficial understanding :P).
I would assume that most schools have some kind of similar measures… but then, I can think of many instances where people changed majors completely.
So my guess would be if you apply to a specific program, you have to re-apply for general admission. Idk though.</p>

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<p>At the same time, if you got into an elite school (say, Harvard U for instance) and you were studying theatre and you were accepted based solely on talent (you were a mediocre student academically in high school) even if Harvard let you go into Engineering without readmission, chances are you wouldn’t do too well, anyways.</p>

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<p>Then there’s the question of whether you would actually be successful in the program you transfer to.</p>