How to Declare the Major
Welcome to UC Berkeley! Social Welfare is considered one of the College’s impacted, or “high-demand” majors, meaning that there are restrictions on the number of students who can be declared each academic year (please see more information on the "high-demand" major status below). In order to best position yourself to declare Social Welfare as your major, it’s important that you complete the following steps as soon as possible:
- Have completed all prerequisite entry requirements with a letter grade of C or better.
- Have a minimum GPA of 2.0.
- Have accrued less than 80 cumulative units, including work in-progress. *Please note that we do not count transfer units in this total.
Once the above requirements have been met students are then eligible to apply for the program, in the following semester after completing the final prerequisite requirment.
Social Welfare will have two application cycles, for non-transfer students, one every Fall and Spring semester. The Social Welfare Major Application opens in September (Fall semesters) and in late-January (Spring semesters). Each application cycle will run for ~3 weeks, and decisions will be released after the application deadline (before Phase 1 Enrollment).
- Fall 2025 - Application cycle has completed
- Spring 2026 - Application opens on Wednesday January 28th at 10:00am, with a deadline of Wednesday February 18th at 4:00pm
Social Welfare Prerequisite Requirements
-
Fulfillment of the L&S Reading and Composition (R&C) Requirement:
The College of Letters & Science (L&S) requires two semesters of lower division work in composition, Reading and Composition (R&C), parts A and B, in sequential order. All undergraduates must complete the R&C requirement by the end of their fourth semester. -
Fulfillment of the L&S Quantitative Reasoning Requirement OR a Berkeley Data Science Course:
All L&S students must complete a minimum of three (3) units of approved Quantitative Reasoning coursework in math, statistics, or computer science. This requirement may be satisfied by exam or by taking an approved course. The prerequisite entry requirement for the Social Welfare major may also be satisfied by taking a Berkeley Data Science course. -
Introductory Psychology:
PSYCH 1 or PSYCH 2, or equivalent. -
Introductory Sociology:
SOCIOL 1 or SOCIOL 3AC, or equivalent.
Application Materials
For the Social Welfare Application, below are the required materials and documents that will need to be included:
- Institution, Semester Completed, and Grades for all prerequisite requirements (i.e. for R1A: UC Berkeley, Fall 2025, A-)
- An L&S Program Plan, no signature needed (completed program plans can be sent to swugadvisor@berkeley.edu for review before submitting)
- Unofficial Transcripts for any prerequisite courses taken outside of UC Berkeley
- A 300-word essay on "Why are you interested in the Social Welfare major?"
High Demand Major Status
The College of Letters and Sciences has implented a new policy, regarding High-Demand Majors, for non-transfer students who start in Fall 2023 and future semesters. Please refer to the new policy here.
Students who indicated Social Welfare on their UC Berkeley application:
If Social Welfare was selected as the primary major on your UC Berkeley application, the "Applied HD Social Welfare" sub-plan indication will be present in the major section on CalCentral. Applications with this indication will be approved if all admission requirements have been met.
Students who did not indicate Social Welfare on their UC Berkeley application:
Students who did not indicate Social Welfare as their major on their UC Berkeley application and are wanting to either declare as the primary major or looking to add Social Welfare as a second major, will go through the same admission process. Admissions decisions will be based on remaining seats in the program for that particular semester.