Can you change major for your second bachelor degree?

I have a bachelor of environmental science degree. Could I change to Chemistry when I apply for the graduate school?

• Answer:

  When you change majors in graduate school, then you will usually have to take any undergraduate classes that you missed that would have been required for a bachelor's degree in the new major in addition to the major course. When I was in graduate school, there was a student that switched from astronomy to geology (she ultimately went on to specialize in planetary geology). She had to go back and take the various undergraduate geology courses that she had not already taken. The problem is that the graduate courses build on the foundation of the undergraduate degree. If you have not had the undergraduate courses, then you need to take those before you can start on the graduate courses. So, yes it is possible to change majors when you go into a graduate program, but you are going to have to make up the coursework that you missed. The greater the difference between the majors, the more work you are going to have to make up.