Change of Major

If you are considering changing your major, take these next steps:

• Visit the UCI Change of Major Criteria website for a listing of specific change of major guidelines for our majors. (Note that we do not make exceptions to policy. Also, most majors have a unit cap, and an AP exam score is not accepted as a grade for change of major.)
• Change of Major criteria applies to students with 120 units or less. Please see UCI’s change of major guidelines for additional information. (Per campus policy, students cannot change their major over 120 units, excluding AP/IB units and/or transfer units taken in high school.)
• Change of major is not automatic. If you are eligible to change, submit a Change of Major Application online through by going to Student Access> Applications> Change of Major. (Note that to apply, all of the Change of Major Criteria must be completed and grades must be posted on your transcript.)
• Applications are processed in the order in which they are received. Allow for 3-4 weeks processing time.
• Please be aware that submitting an application does not guarantee that you will be admitted.  Should your application be denied, the application will have a comment explaining the reason for denial.

Note for ICS Undeclared students: As ICS Undeclared, students would receive priority registration into ICS courses. ICS Undeclared students also have access to our ICS counselors if they have questions about declaring an ICS major.

ICS Undeclared majors are provided the same resources and opportunities as an ICS declared major. Placement in the ICS Undeclared major provides students with the opportunity to take programming courses and make a more informed decision when deciding on a major in the future. We expect our ICS Undeclared majors to determine the right major for them at the end of their first year experience in the program.

• Visit the UCI Change of Major Criteria website for a listing of specific change of major guidelines for your intended major.
• Meet with an academic counselor or peer advisor in the school of your intended major; they can help you create an academic plan that will help you meet your goals.

• At present, ICS is not accepting pre-admission change of majors.
• Students interested in our program must matriculate into their major of admission and meet the change of major criteria for your intended major.

• Please contact your admissions counselors via the Message Center on your UCI Applicant Portal page to find out if you can change of majors prior to the May 1 SIR deadline.
• Students interested in a specific major must find out if they willl have to matriculate into their major of admission and meet the change of major criteria for their intended major.

We do not make any exceptions to change of major policies listed here.

Our courses are restricted to majors only to accommodate our new admitted students in the fall. (To see when our restrictions lift, please visit our course updates page.)

• This information can only be provided during summer orientation.
• All students must go to mandatory summer orientation. Course registration will also take place at this time.
• Students interested in changing their major to an ICS major must go to the summer orientation of their school. We are unable to review your coursework and provide advising.

Please visit our Peer Academic Advisors. They are students in our majors and can give you some great advice.

• Transfer students are encouraged to accept admission to a computing major they are directly admitted into (instead of pursuing a change of major) and make efficient progress to degree.
• If a transfer student wishes to pursue the change of major, they may view our change of major criteria.
• Transfer students must complete one full time quarter (not including summer) to be considered for change of major.
• We do not make exceptions to the unit caps listed on the Change of Major website.

• Due to the large number of admitted students, we cannot provide this service at this time.
• All admitted students must go to mandatory summer orientation. Your transcripts will be reviewed and evaluated for course credit at this time.
• Change of majors must go to the summer orientation of their school. We are unable to review your coursework and provide advising. Your academic counselors will review your transcript and provide an evaluation.

• If you took courses outside of UCI to satisfy major requirements, please fill out a DegreeWorks update form to get those requirements updated. It will not update automatically.
• If you took a course(s) outside of UCI and that is a prerequisite for a School of ICS course you want to enroll in, you must fill out a prerequiste clearing request for the course you want to enroll in. We recommend you fill it out at least a week before your enrollment window opens so that we have enough time to process your request.
• If you have any questions about advising, please reach out to us! Contact info can be found here. Students do not have assigned counselors and can speak with any advisor or PAA.