After my daughter enrolled as a UGA freshman several years ago, my wife joined several social media groups for UGA parents. She was more of an observer/reader than an active participant, as she knew our last name might trigger someone to ask if she was related to me. The range of discussion topics on these platforms is very wide, from football tickets to academic programs, social organizations to university policies, and of course admissions. She was always very good about sharing any questions/comments that came up about admissions, and it was interesting to see what information was correct and what was total conjecture. Side note: A big thank you to all the parents on these forums who have quoted me and my posts and have referred people to my blog! One of the topics that comes up several times a year, and especially around the dates that we release decisions, is the idea of how an applicant’s major impacts a decision. Some comments have even mentioned that while I have said UGA does not limit admissions offers based on major, they are not sure if they really believe me. I have gotten over the pain, but it took many hours and quite a bit of chocolate.
Every college is different in how they handle a student’s major in the admissions process. I suggest you research each college you are interested in and how their admissions process works concerning majors. Most colleges are very open about this issue and will generally communicate this to the applicant on their website and on their application. For example, Clemson University and NC State University both say that an applicant’s choice of major does impact a decision as some programs have limited space, and students are encouraged to select two different majors on their application in case a student is not admitted to the first major. In addition, most colleges who have limitations on admission to majors have a very strict process on how an enrolled student can change their major. Generally, these institutions have different admissions standards and review processes for the different colleges and majors to make sure they enroll the correct number of students to fit the programs.
UGA, on the other hand, does not have any space limitations on admission to any specific major. We only ask for one intended major on our application, and we are fine if a student selects undecided as a major. We also allow deposited students to change their major before they even enroll, as we want students to pursue the academic field in which they have an interest. Within the admissions process, we do not have a different review or different groupings for different majors. Here is what we do look at: In our admissions review, we do look at a student’s major in our review for how prepared a student is for their area of interest, but we do it for all applicants and their majors, and our focus is to make sure a student is ready for whatever major they choose. If you want to go into engineering, have you taken a strong STEM route with Calculus and Physics to prepare you for the field? If you want to major in International Studies, are you taking advanced courses in World Language, English and Social Studies so you are ready for your future coursework? We also look at the application to see how a student has prepared themselves outside of the classroom, with a focus on activities, clubs and part time work that has ties to an academic area. Things such as 4-H, robotics, investment clubs, science research, work at a local school or other major based activities will be looked at within the review, especially for majors without AP/IB options (horticulture for instance). Whatever major you select, we want to make sure you are prepared for the coursework ahead. But again, we do not limit the size of our admitted group by major or UGA college, so if a larger number of students are admitted to business than the year before, that’s okay, and the University will adjust to handle the growth.
Neither of these policies are better than the other, they are just different and fit each institution’s academic plans.
While I have written mostly about the freshman admission holistic review process, the transfer holistic review process is similar, only we focus on college coursework that ties to an intended major. Just like with freshman, we do not have limitations on admission to UGA’s colleges and their majors. In the holistic review, we are looking at not only the transfer GPA and hours, but are also looking at college courses/grades in prerequisite courses for whatever major you select. If you are looking at studying Spanish at UGA, are you taking Spanish now and doing well in these courses? If you are looking at Accounting, are you taking Pre-Calc, Accounting and/or Econ, and how are you doing in these classes? Again, the focus is on how you are preparing yourself for whatever major you want to go into at UGA, and not on limiting the number of students within a program.
I hope this helps give more insight into our process.
Go Dawgs!