Students in the COMP BIO program begin in the pre-major and complete a number of lower-division courses before applying for entrance to the COMP BIO major and declaring their chosen track. Track declaration does not occur until a student completes all Pre-COMP BIO requirements. Official admission to the COMP BIO major is contingent on successful completion of all pre-major courses while meeting the following requirements:
- a minimum 2.7 GPA in all pre-major courses
- a minimum grade of C or better in all pre-major courses*^
- a minimum 2.0 cumulative GPA
*Students are allowed to repeat up to 2 pre-major courses in which they received a C- or below. Please see our Academic Eligibility page for more details.
Pre-Major/Major/Minor Declaration Request Review Windows
Effective Winter 2026 and forward, the C&S BIO Undergraduate Office will have two program declaration windows for students. Program requests will be collected and reviewed twice per quarter and once during Summer Session. Students will need to submit their request via MyUCLA Forms. A link to the form will be sent to all students via BruinLearn at the start of the program declaration window. Program declaration requests will be due on:
- Friday, Week 3 of Fall, Winter, and Spring quarters
- Friday, Week 8 of Fall, Winter, and Spring quarters
- Friday, Week 2 of Summer Session A
Please allow 7-10 business days after each deadline for review. Students who do not submit their request via the MyUCLA form by these deadlines will have to wait for the next review period. Students can begin submitting program declaration requests as early as 2 weeks before each deadline.
Reminders for submitting program declarations:
- Be mindful of enrollment passes and plan ahead.
- Be mindful of program declaration requirements. For example, students interested in declaring the COMP BIO major will need to have all pre-major courses passed by the time their program declaration request is reviewed.
Automatic Admission to the Pre-Major for Entering Students
Students who applied to UCLA under the pre-major and were admitted to the University are automatically declared for the COMP BIO pre-major.
Admission to the Pre-Major for Continuing Students
Current UCLA students who were admitted as freshmen* or transfers** can request to declare the pre-major once they have met the following requirements:
- Completed one quarter at UCLA
- Are in good academic standing
- Have a cumulative GPA of a 2.0 or better
- Have established a pre-major GPA of at least 2.7 by taking at least one pre-major course at UCLA for a letter grade
*Freshmen students may also have the opportunity to declare at New Student Orientation.
**Transfer students must have been admitted to UCLA under the Division of Life Sciences.
All requests to declare the pre-major must be sent to the C&S BIO Undergraduate Office via MyUCLA Forms.
NOTE: Please enroll in our BRUIN LEARN PAGE – this is our primary way of communicating announcements to students via email. The C&S BIO Undergraduate Office will send out the program declaration request via BruinLearn.
Please allow 10 – 15 business days for review (longer if College authorization is required). If a student does not meet the requirements to declare the pre-major, there will not be an option to petition.
Admission to the Major
Once students have completed all of the pre-major coursework, they must submit the application below to be declared for the major. Students declare their track at the same time that they declare the major. Students must submit the completed application to the C&S BIO Undergraduate Office via MyUCLA Forms. Please review the C&S BIO BruinLearn page for the current MyUCLA Form program declaration request link.
Please allow 10 – 15 business days for review (longer if College authorization is required). Students will be notified via email of the decision. This timeframe may increase during high-volume times of the quarter(ie when enrollment opens, start of the quarter).
Students will need to meet the following requirements to be admitted to the major:
- Completion of all pre-major courses (see note below)
- Minimum 2.7 GPA in all pre-major courses
- Minimum grade of C or better in all pre-major courses*^
- Minimum 2.0 cumulative GPA
*Students are allowed to repeat up to 2 pre-major courses in which they received a C- or below. Please see our Academic Eligibility page for more details.
If a student does not meet all of the requirements to officially be entered into the major, they will need to attach a minimum GPA or minimum grade petition with their application. These petitions can be found here.
Note: Certain concentrations or tracks require additional lower-division coursework beyond that included in the pre-major. The following courses do not need to be completed before applying for admission to the major:
- COM SCI 32 or COMPTNG 10B and 10C for the Bioinformatics concentration or track
- COM SCI 32 for the Biological Data Sciences concentration or track
- MATH 32A for the Bioinformatics, Biomedical Systems, and Systems Biology concentrations (Note: For students who take the LIFESCI 30 math series, C&S BIO M32 can fulfill the MATH 32A requirement)
Admission to CaSB Minors
To be declared for the Mathematical Biology or Systems Biology minors, students must:
- Be in good academic standing (2.0 grade-point average or better)
- Have completed Computer Science 31 or Program in Computing 10A with a grade of C or better
- Meet with the CaSB Academic Advisor to discuss/declare the minor
Requests to declare the minor must be sent to the C&S BIO Undergraduate Office via MyUCLA Forms.
NOTE: Please enroll in our BRUIN LEARN PAGE – this is our primary way of communicating announcements to students via email. The C&S BIO Undergraduate Office also sends out the MyUCLA Forms link via BruinLearn.
Please allow 10 – 15 business days for review (longer if College authorization is required). Students will be notified via email of the decision.
Other Important Information
Students are subject to any requirement changes in the pre-major and major until they are officially admitted to the major.
