UC Application How-To Guide, Part I: Pick Your Major
This is the first installment of a four-part series. See Part II: Additional Comments for examples of information that should be included in the two “Additional comments” sections of your UC Application; Part III: Personal Insight Questions Tricks for tips on how to quickly shorten and improve readability of your responses; and Part IV: Application Fee Payment for a detailed explanation of the fee payment options and fee waiver.
Wondering how your choice of major will affect your admission to the UC campuses? Here’s how you find out!
Pick a Major for Freshman Admission
How the UCs explain the effects of major on freshman admission evaluation can feel really convoluted. This is because the freshman admission evaluation process is constantly evolving (what happened last year may no longer be applicable this year) and the effects of major can vary greatly between the UC campuses and different major clusters (such as College of Letters and Science vs. School of Engineering) or specific majors (such as some highly selective majors within the College of Letters and Science) at each UC campus.
If you need detailed information on how major choice affects your chance of admission, purchase a back issue of my July 2024 freshman newsletter for a complete, campus-by-campus explanation, that also includes a guideline for how to rank the UCSD colleges ($25; remain on the payment page after you pay and you will be redirected to the PDF – please note, purchase of a digital product is NONREFUNDABLE).
Considering engineering majors? Keep in mind that applying to engineering is all or nothing at Berkeley and UCLA (you either get in with engineering or not at all), and engineering admission is exceptionally competitive at both UC campuses. The rest of the UCs screen for engineering preparation and that can affect admission (most UCs have also moved away from considering alternate major).
Here’s a list of campuses that publish freshman admit rates by major if you want to try to guess your chances:
- Berkeley – Undergraduate Admissions
- Irvine – Admissions Selectivity and Yield
- UCLA – First-Year Profile
- Merced – Undergraduate Applicants, Admits, and Enrollments
- Riverside – Undergraduate Admission – Fall Terms
- Santa Cruz – Admissions Funnel
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Pick a Major for Transfer Admission
On pages 48-49 of the Quick Reference Guide to UC Admissions, look at the columns “Does the campus admit students to a specific major or to the campus?” and “Does the campus admit students in an alternate major if they cannot be accommodated in a first-choice major?” Keep in mind that, for most UCs, transfer admission is major-specific and the admit rate can vary widely between majors. Take the time to understand how competitive your major is and prepare for admission accordingly.
Don’t want to slog through the scattered data? Purchase a back issue of my July 2024 transfer newsletter for a complete, campus-by-campus explanation, that also includes a guideline for how to rank the UCSD colleges ($25; remain on the payment page after you pay and you will be redirected to the PDF – please note, purchase of a digital product is NONREFUNDABLE).
To find transfer admit rate by UC campus and major, look at the Transfers by Major data table from the UC Information Center; see my post here for detailed instructions on how to dig up the information.
Know someone who can benefit from this information? Share the page with family and friends using a button below!
Help support this blog by making a contribution by credit card (processed through Stripe) or through Zelle (to ) today! Any amount is greatly appreciated!
