Admissions and Change of Majors
We are excited that you have chosen to apply to our BS program in Public Health Sciences. There are three pathways to joining the B.S. in Public Health Sciences as your major. We welcome students who are incoming first-year, transfer students, and continuing students at UCI who would like to change their major to our B.S. program.
We encourage prospective students considering the public health degrees to connect with the Office of Undergraduate Admissions and Request Info about applying to UCI. Current students should review our Change of Major section below.
Prospective First Year Students
All students interested in applying to the UC Irvine Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health Public must meet the First Year Student admission requirements. There are no additional admission requirements for our undergraduate programs.
The UC application for admission to UCI opens August 1. The submission period is October 1 – November 30.
Prospective Transfer Students
Junior-level applicants with the highest grades overall and who satisfactorily complete lower-division will be given preference for admissions to the B.S. degree in Public Health Sciences.
All applicants to the B.S. degree must have a minimum overall GPA of 3.0 and a minimum GPA of 3.0 in required courses:
– 1 year of general chemistry with laboratory
– 1 year of courses equivalent to UCI’s Biological Sciences 93 and 94.
New transfer students who want to change into Public Health Sciences must meet the criteria above before Summer Orientation in late June. Summer Orientation is when students enroll in their courses for Fall quarter. If major change criteria is not met upon admission, students must attend orientation for their admitted major and follow criteria for continuing students.
Please note that courses in Biological Sciences (93-99), General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry are major restricted to the following majors: Biology, Chemistry, Engineering, Nursing Science, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Physical Science, Public Health Sciences, and Undecided/Undeclared.
*Public Health Policy (B.A.) majors do not receive priority access to these science courses.
The UC application for admission to UCI opens August 1. The submission period is October 1 – November 30.
Change of Major Applicants
Continuing Students wanting to declare a major, change a major, add additional majors, or drop a major must submit a change of major application online through Student Access > Applications > Change of Major. Students may submit a change of major application AFTER they have completed all pre-requisites. Grades must be posted for any prerequisite courses before a change of major application will be reviewed. If grades are not posted, the change of major application will be denied. The student may submit a new application once they have completed the pre-requisites.
Before submitting an application for a change of major, please review the Change of Major Criteria for the B.S. in Public Health Science.
Deadlines for Change of Major Applications
- Student Change of Major Applications Due: Friday of Week 5
- Student Notification of Application Decision: Friday of Week 7
Please Note: Completion of the change of major requirements does not guarantee acceptance into public health majors. Minimum Progress Criteria is taken into consideration. Courses that satisfy major change requirements must be completed at the time the application is submitted.
Students applying for a Double Major, must complete the Double Major Form, in addition to submitting the application on Student Access.
Student Applications submitted past the Week 5 deadline, are not likely to be reviewed before course enrollment.
