<p>Hi everyone,
I am currently a junior at a magnet high school and I am looking to apply to Harvard...and if I am fortunate enough-get accepted.:/.</p>
<p>A lot of my friends applied to Harvard and the people that were mostly rejected had applied for pre-med.</p>
<p>I aspire to become a neurosurgeon and I am not sure if I could withstand the competition that comes along with applying for pre-med to Harvard, so I am thinking about applying as a neurobiology and neurophysiology and I have a very strong background in neuroscience. Then, I am thinking I will switch to Pre-med. </p>
<p>So...here's my question(s): Does it make a difference with acceptance/rejection rates dependent upon what major you apply for?In other words: Is it easier to get into a school applying for one major vs. the other and by how much? And does anybody know what these acceptance rates are for individual majors that people apply for (preferrably Harvard/U of C-basically top schools)?</p>
<p>Your help is greatly appreciated...Watching all the seniors going through this process has me a "tad bit" freaked out to say the least.</p>
<p>No, it makes no difference. Colleges, including Harvard, know that the vast majority of college students change their majors at least once, if not twice, before they finish their undergraduate degree. Many students apply as "undecided" and have the same admissions results as those who specify a major.</p>
<p>And realize that "pre-med" is not a major at Harvard or at other top schools; pre-med is simply a series of about 6 courses need to be considered for medical school admissions. You can major in history, art, English or any other subject and be pre-med. </p>
<p>Harvard has a single digit admissions rate. You are facing the same type of competition for a spot at Harvard regardless of your major. There's no getting around it.</p>
<p>Your friends didn't apply to be pre-med at Harvard. Harvard has no pre-med major. </p>
<p>Aside from the prestigious name, what it it you actually know about Harvard and the experience of being a student there that makes it your top choice?</p>
<p>I dunno, I as a student never saw anything special about Harvard or Stanford or any of those top top names. I fell in love with the quirkier/more unique schools like Brown because of its New Curriculum.</p>
<p>I'm interested to see what attracts so many students to Harvard. I don't think it's that much of a step up in education from schools with admissions rates of ~13% (7-8% is rough as hell).</p>
<p>I think it does matter, Colleges do take into account the interests of the students while creating the class. The admission officers are required to generate a hetrogenous class of students with intentions of majoring in different subjects.
So definitely think about the major when applying.</p>
<p>^^^: Why Won't it matter? No college will fill up students where all of them wants to major in History or Biology or Chemistry or for that sake any one single department.</p>
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<p>I aspire to become a neurosurgeon and I am not sure if I could withstand the competition that comes along with applying for pre-med to Harvard>>></p>
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<p>If you aspire to become a neurosurgeon you should not have any doubt about being able to "withstand the competition" anywhere. Just go ahead and confidently declare your intentions. That is what the (stereotypical) neurosurgeon would do.</p>
<p>ParentOfIvyHope, it doesn't matter because kids change their minds. While it becomes apparent from the applications whether a kid is a "science kid" or a "history kid", it is of very little consequence whether a kid says Chemistry or Biology or Neurobiology. The vast majority of kids have no clue what any of these majors entail, nor do they know even half of what is available. What do high schoolers know of archaeology, anthropology, zoology, linguistics, even philosophy? Not much. And schools such as Harvard know that. Even some kids who "know" they want to be engineers (or doctors) change their minds once they see what those disciplines really entail.</p>
<p>If it really mattered to them, they'd have you declare your major and make it unchangeable, like they do in some European countries.</p>
<p>The most popular major for college applicants is "Undecided" or "Undeclared."</p>
<p>At Ivies or top liberal arts colleges, unless you're applying to a specific school, like engineering, you really do not have to know what you want to major in on your application. Just be honest! That might mean saying you don't know or -if the question is open ended, several things you might like to major in. Don't overanalyze how the admissions committee will view your pick of major. And don't say you want to major in something the school doesn't offer (unless you can make up your own major).</p>
<p>^^^: I never said it matter to the lowest level. But it does matter whether you will major with Biological Science, Physical Science, Social Sciences, Languages, Engineering (Where applicable).</p>
<p>The reasoning behind this is as follows:</p>
<ol>
<li>There are a set of core curriculumn that must be full filled irrespective of what major you take both in the college of arts and science and college of engineering.
This take care of lower level classes in all departments.</li>
<li>For Higher level classes the college need to at least add a critical mass to support the departments, so the admission officers are really forced to balanced students among the top majors.</li>
</ol>
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2. For Higher level classes the college need to at least add a critical mass to support the departments, so the admission officers are really forced to balanced students among the top majors.
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<p>They really aren't forced to do that, as many have said themselves in other forums.</p>
<p>I don't know about most schools, but at my school many people take upper-level classes to fulfill requirements. The lower-levels are for prereqs generally. I'm in a junior/senior level English course right now, and there is a range of majors.</p>
<p>But that ignores the fact that by the time they get to be upper level students, the majority have already changed their majors. It doesn't vary like that from year to year; it would take several years to affect upper level classes and to make a major disappear.</p>
<p>I'm sorry I did not mean apply for Pre-med I meant that it was the direction they were headed in...mainly biology/health sciences. Also, thank you for your comments thus far. For those of you questioning my knowledge about harvard, I can assure you that it is not simply the name I am attracted to, it is the sheer fact that people there are extremely passionate about what they do and the people that I know that have received their acceptance there are amazing, outstanding individuals that I think are going to make a positive change in the world.(not saying that people from other schools aren't so don't go getting offended and leaving 5 pages of criticism-please.)</p>
<p>"And does anybody know what these acceptance rates are for individual majors that people apply for (preferrably Harvard/U of C-basically top schools)?"
They aren't disclosed by colleges, unless they are specific programs, like Wharton at Penn, for business , or the highly competative combined BS/ MD programs like those at Brown and Rice.</p>
<p>Would it be the deal breaker though? If a college wants a student, they'll make room.
Colleges don't typically attract a disproportionate number of applicants to a single program. 99% of the colleges out there are attractive because they're well-rounded and offer a variety of strong majors. Much of the remaining 1% were designed to fill a niche and they foster that perception. In every applicant pool, there's thousands of applicants with many interests. Colleges don't really have to set a cap.
The one exception are public universities that must balance issues of access with issues of academic prestige. They've been known to set up admissions standards for popular majors like education, engineering and business.</p>