As you complete your college application and later the supplement questions, most colleges would ask you to indicate your \u201cintended major,\u201d \u201calternative majors,\u201d or something as simple as \u201carea\/field of interests.\u201d There are countless myths about what to put down and whether your answer affects your chance of getting in. Every school can be different when it comes to undergraduate admissions: some schools have requirements for different colleges within the school, while some wouldn\u2019t look at intended major at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because UC Berkeley has a prestigious undergraduate engineering program, it might be harder to get in. Therefore, when applying to these programs, be sure to have everything ready and apply to other schools for alternatives. Also, what if you get accepted as a non-engineering student and would like to switch over? Now, this really depends on the school. Some schools are easier to switch majors between two different colleges while some are extremely hard. Go to the school website and look for \u201cinternal transfer\u201d or \u201cswitch major\u201d to acquire more information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the other hand, if you really have no particular area on interests, it\u2019s okay to put down \u201cundecided\u201d first and choose less competitive majors as your secondary options. Typically, social sciences and humanities are less competitive than STEM majors. After all, colleges use the information you provide to have a better understanding of their applicants, so showcase your strengths whenever you can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As you complete your college application and later the supplement questions, most colleges would ask you to indicate your \u201cintended major,\u201d \u201calternative majors,\u201d or something as simple as \u201carea\/field of interests.\u201d There are countless myths about what to put down and whether your answer affects your chance of getting in. Every school can be different when it comes to undergraduate admissions: some schools have requirements for different colleges within the school, while some wouldn\u2019t look at intended major at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"As you complete your college application and later the supplement questions, most colleges would ask you to indicate your \u201cintended major,\u201d \u201calternative majors,\u201d or something as simple as \u201carea\/field of interests.\u201d There are countless myths about what to put down and whether your answer affects your chance of getting in. Every school can be different when it comes to undergraduate admissions: some schools have requirements for different colleges within the school, while some wouldn\u2019t look at intended major at all.","_seopress_robots_index":"","is_share_social_media":0,"is_publish_medium":0,"language":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2231,2125],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-admissions-en","category-college-courses-en"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blog.ivy-way.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/images-6.jpeg","views":{"total":63,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1776355012},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.ivy-way.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.ivy-way.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.ivy-way.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.ivy-way.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.ivy-way.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.ivy-way.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.ivy-way.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.ivy-way.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.ivy-way.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.ivy-way.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Applying to a Specific College<\/strong>
Some schools would require their applicants to put down specific colleges they\u2019re applying to. In some cases, requirements are also different so be sure to find information on school websites. Take UC Berkeley, for instance. If you plan to study engineering, you have to put down \u201cCollege of Engineering\u201d in your application so that when you\u2019re accepted, you would already be an engineering student (undeclared) and may begin to take engineering pre-requisite courses for your intended major.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Applying without Choosing Your Major\/College<\/strong>
Most schools in the U.S. do not require their applicants to choose a major or college before their arrival. They offer undergraduate admission, and once accepted, you would explore the majors and course in your first year and eventually apply to the major you want after finishing pre-requisite courses, usually as a sophomore. Even if you\u2019ve already put down your intended major, it\u2019s certainly okay to switch as long as you you meet the minimum grade requirement in pre-requisite courses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Specific Major vs. Undecided<\/strong>
If you have a particular intended major in mind and have demonstrated strong interests and stellar academic performance in the field, putting down a specific major could help contextualize your experience. If the application offers more than one blank for intended major, feel free to put \u201cundecided\u201d in the first one and the major you\u2019re the most interested in next. This tells admissions officers that though you have a major to study in mind, you\u2019re open to other options and willing to explore different majors once accepted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n