Dear New Anteater,
First, you have just been admitted to the University of California, Irvine as an Undergraduate/Undeclared, and you cannot even imagine how lucky you are. You might have already been discouraged by that fact, but I am not trying to tell you that it is not that bad, instead, I want you to understand that it is even better than being admitted directly to a specific school within the University with a specific major.
I want to address all the negative things you might have heard or read somewhere right away so we have it sorted out and don’t come back to it later. There certainly are some difficulties when signing up for classes required to declare your intended major because they are extremely popular and students who were admitted with a major can enroll right when their enrollment window is open without having to wait until the fee deadline and restrictions lift, but I do not know any undeclared student who wasn’t able to eventually get into the major they wanted to. They might have declared a major that is different from the one they wanted when applying, but this is because they changed their mind while trying other fields, and not because they were not able to take required courses.
The main reason why Undeclared is the best option for you is, obviously, because you are free to take any courses and to try anything you want. And this is so cool because you have another chance to decide what you want to be in the future. You can also try the major that you wanted when applying to college in real life and maybe change your mind about it. In this way, you are protected from the situation where you realize that you do not like your major at all when you’re in your junior or senior year and cannot really do anything about it. Undeclared is really a perfect opportunity to define your future by yourself being able to actually try things on your own instead of looking for someone’s opinion or advice.
Being an Undeclared student gives you access to your own helpful academic advisors, just as you might expect to have in other departments. These people are ready to help and advise you and work hard to meet your expectations and make sure that you are doing great! Also, if you worked hard enough to earn a 3.5 GPA in a quarter and made it to the Dean’s Honor List, you will be invited to a nice reception, where your hard work and accomplishments will be praised and appreciated.
I wish this has been enough to persuade you to think that Undeclared is a good thing. I will be really happy if you decide to join our warm and friendly Anteater family at the best campus in the world this upcoming fall. Looking forward to seeing you on the Ring Road!
Best wishes,
Nick