Introduction

The assignment of majors to students in the College of Science is a task that is coordinated by the office of the Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Studies (AD-US). Below we outline the procedure that is followed in the assignment of Majors.

At the start of each Fall semester, the College receives the new intake of students who are considered to be pre-major and are assigned an advisor from any of the six departments. Based on the size of that cohort received at the College, major quota numbers are suggested by the AD-US and are discussed by the Executive committee of the College and then approved at the College Board. Major Quota refers to the available seats in each major that students have to compete for. The office of the AD-US prepares two documents listing the "Major Quota" and "Major Vacancies" for the current and 5 previous years.
The students remain without a major for at least two semesters in which they try to satisfy the minimum College and Departmental requirements which are
- Minimum College Requirements: In order to ensure that student experiences some aspects of the science programs available, the College requires the students to get a passing grade in three first year introductory science courses among BIOL2101, CHEM2101, COMP2101, ERSC2101, MATH2107, PHYS2101, and STAT1001 before they are for a major. The student must also complete the English for Science course LANC2050.
- Departmental Minimum Requirements: Every department has set some requirements for each degree program they offer. These requirements are posted in the office of the AD-US.
The major assignment is carried out twice every year. The process starts when the office of the AD-US advertises to the students informing them to apply for a major if they have met the minimum requirements. This is carried out in November for major assignments in the Spring semester and in March or April for major assignments in the Fall semester. The students are given "Major Application" forms to fill (and return in a time frame of a 2-4 weeks) which gives them a chance to suggest 3 ordered choices for their intended major.
At the start of each semester, usually during or before the first week of classes, the Major Selection Committee (MSC) meets to discuss the applications received in the previous semester. The committee is chaired by the AD-US and has a representative for each degree program offered.
In the Fall semester (only) the intake of the previous year has had at most two semesters in the Credit system and thus, some of the students will have the minimum requirements for a major satisfied. However, some other students who needed intensive English prior to joining the credit system had only one semester (or less) in the credit system and may not be ready for a major. Therefore, to give these latter students a fair chance of applying for the major they desire, only a percentage of the available quota for that cohort (the previous year intake) are filled in the Fall. The percentage (usually 50-60%) depends on the number of applications received from that cohort. As to earlier cohorts or all the cohorts in the Spring semester assignments, attempt is made to fill all the vacancies if there are students who satisfy the requirements. Here we note that this "filling a percentage of quotas" does not apply to the specialized majors including MLS, Physics with minor in Medical Physics, and Health Statistics.
The MSC assigns the available vacancies in the priority: First student choice, Second student choice, third student choice, and finally change of major requests. That is, students who requested a particular major as a first choice and have satisfied the minimum requirements for that major will be given the first priority on the available seats. If some seats remain, then the committee considers the students who listed that major as a second choice, and so forth. If more students requested a particular major as a first choice than the seats available, the departments have the right to select the students will better grades or with higher cumulative GPA. The same applies to second choice, third choice, and change of major requests.
The results of the MSC meeting are announced soon following the meeting (usually within a week) and the office of the AD-US handles entering the student majors in the SIS system