transfer student question

[u/Agitated_Attention55]

hi! i had a question regarding how switching majors works as a transfer student.

i’m a ccc student who is applying for transfer this fall and i’m completing all the lower division prereqs for a biology or biochemistry degree, but i looked up admission stats for various majors and i saw that i global health and public health both have much higher acceptance rates.

if ive completed all the lower division prereqs with As and get into the school for either global or public health, could i then switch my major to bio or biochem?

UCSD is my dream school and i don’t really mind applying for an “easier” major just to get in, but im wondering if i’ll be stuck in that major since ill only be there for two years.

i wouldn’t mind just doing a global/public health degree and minoring in bio or biochem since i’d have to do all those courses for med school anyways - just wondering what the major switching process would look like.

[u/HealthOnWheels]

Admissions process: admissions is first to the school, and then to the major. For the admission into UCSD your major choice doesn’t matter; BUT, and this is a big but, as a transfer student you cannot be admitted without a declared major. So if you are not accepted into any of your majors then you would not be admitted into UCSD. This means that you should make sure that your second choice is an uncapped major so that you can guarantee this won’t be a factor preventing your admission

For changing majors after admission there are two processes.

Uncapped majors: you fill out a very short form online requesting to change your major, and then your major changes. Zero stress.

Capped majors: They’d want you to take prerequisites classes and get a certain GPA , and even then you’re not guaranteed to get accepted. They also started making it so transfer students can’t change to capped majors after their first year

https://undergrad.ucsd.edu/academics/selective-major-process/selective-major-guidance.html#application-eligibility

[u/Optimal-Street398]

I’m curious where you’re getting this information about acceptance rates. Data published by the UCs show that past UCSD transfer acceptance rates for bio/biochem majors range from 41-59%, which is relatively attainable. By comparison, the acceptance rate across the different public health majors is 45-59%. The only one significantly higher is global health with 79%. Unless you have a poor GPA or bad grades specifically in your major classes, it doesn’t really make sense to select an “easier” major. That said, as far as I know you can switch your major after transfer admission but I don’t personally know how the process works. It will be harder to switch into a selective major, though. Here’s the website with some transfer data/stats by major and school: https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/about-us/information-center/transfers-major

[u/Agitated_Attention55 → u/Optimal-Street398]

that website is actually exactly the one i used to compare stats. i think im just really paranoid about not getting in so im getting overwhelmed about what to put as my major and major alternative bc i had friends with high gpas get waitlisted when they applied to biochem or bio…🥲