<p>I am wondering in which top colleges acceptance does not mean that the student will be allowed to take up his/her desired major of study because of class size limits. Can this happen if a particular major happens to be popular and there are too many students interested in it? Will the universities use some yardstick based on GPA to keep some students off? If such is the case, it may be pointless to rush to these top colleges because the major is more important than the college brand name for any student.
On the other hand, in HYPSM schools are their certain hard-to-fill majors which, if chosen in the application form, will increase the chances for admission?</p>
<p>im curious too bump please</p>
<p>some universities have a particular school within them that concentrates on a certain major. alot of universities have a general college of arts and sciences and then will have a film school, education school, business school, nursing school, etc... but it depends on the university. if you're looking at a desired major then chances are you aren't going to a liberal arts college and thus can narrow down to a few top schools that specialize in what you want to do. if you get into that particular school, you shouldn't have a problem enrolling in classes. however, sometimes if you register late for classes, then you may have a problem.</p>
<p>as for your other question, sometimes applying to an "undesired" major has its benefits. for example, if you're a girl and you're looking into the engineering sector, you'll have a much higher chance of getting in simply because they need more girls. it really depends though.</p>
<p>What I've heard on CC about more esoteric majors is that it may help IF there is demonstrated interest in a student's application beyond simply writing down the name of the major. This subject comes up repeatedly, so I'm sure that colleges are aware of people who might try to game the system by putting down something they have no interest in.</p>
<p>Students do change majors frequently, so a school couldn't put too much emphasis on this. (Obviously, for some places, you are admitted to a particular college at the university. It might not be possible to switch to a different college later depending on the latter's popularity and also one's record at the existing college. Thus, someone can't get into the humanities college and think that transferring into the more competitive engineering or business programs is a slam dunk. I've also heard of kids who get into engineering, don't do well, and want to transfer but can't because their GPAs are too low.)</p>
<p>I think my daughter's choice of Egyptology helped her get in at Brown. But she had the general credentials to get in, plus had several correspondence courses in the subject, a recommendation from an Egyptologist, and even submitted some evaluated work samples (a research paper and a hieroglyphic translation). </p>
<p>About limits on desired majors -- you need to check out the particular colleges and majors involved by investigating on the web site, asking the school by email or at an informational meeting, etc. I've ran across this twice just in college searches for my two kids. U Cal Berkeley said at its informational meeting that students needed to put down their prospective major and that those who don't put down a hot major might not be allowed to transfer into it later. The example given was electrical engineering. U Wisconsin La Crosse has a nice archaeology program but it has strict limits on the number in it -- someone has to either leave or graduate for a space to be available, and then there is competition to get those slots. All this is spelled out on the department's web site.</p>
<p>this is an intriguing subject and applying this year will see if the designated major plays a role--child #2 has close to an 800 in his classical language in SAT II and a 5 on the AP. his gpa at a really tough school is ok overall but he isn't a studyholic and loves sports. he is only one of 3 in the top track who plays sports and has all ap classes.
he plans to major in classical languages. his standardized tests (ACT and SAT 1) were bombed. he just crashed and will retake but who knows what will happen. his other sat subject tests were over 700 also. go figure.
he has a goal in mind with what he wants to do with his classical language but whether it can compensate for the poor standardized test we'll just have to wait and see.</p>
<p>Aren't students usually told up front if a major has limited enrollment? </p>
<p>I'm thinking here of Johns Hopkins' Biomedical Engineering major. Students who want that major have to apply for it when they apply for admission, and some are admitted to the university but not the major. </p>
<p>At other schools, there are multiple limited enrollment programs. For example, UMCP has nine of them, including Business, Journalism, and Psychology.</p>
<p>But if a major isn't openly stated to be a limited enrollment program, I thought that the criteria for admission were fixed (for example, you must complete a certain number of prerequisites and earn a B in each of them), and that the college simply coped if a larger-than-usual number of people enrolled in a particular major.</p>
<p>[DianeR]:...U Cal Berkeley said at its informational meeting that students needed to put down their prospective major and that those who don't put down a hot major might not be allowed to transfer into it later. The example given was electrical engineering...</p>
<p>That is interesting info. I am interested in UCB and MIT (among others) electrical engineering. If I take up engineering it will have to EE, not interested in others. Now MIT admits students regardless of their intended major. Since EE is the most popular, I am guessing there will be heavy competition among sophomores when it comes to choose the major for a seat in EE. So applying to MIT or UCB may be risky. Is my reasoning correct?</p>
<p>the "major" you write down is more of a survey question. Most colleges, even big universities don't accept you as a XXXX major, but as a student at the school as a whole. If you go to a really big university, you then are accepted as a student at the Arts and Sciences College, or Engineering College. You should be able to get into almost any major you want regardless, except maybe business, which you apply to in your sophomore year usually.</p>
<p>Just put undecided, the easiest way to avoid any "discrimination" against your application.</p>
<p>For several of the UCs (UCSD, UCLA, UCB), if you want engineering, you generally have to declare the major up front and then be admitted to the college of engineering. Once you're admitted, you're in and don't need to worry about it any further. Note that the 'cut' is generally higher for the engineering colleges so it's somewhat more difficult to get into than the 'Letters and Sciences' of general college. It can be difficult to transfer into the engineering college from the general college at these schools.</p>
<p>The way it was explained to us at the Berkeley meeting -- if a student wants electrical engineering, he needs to put that down on the application to be assured that he can get it. One can be admitted to the engineering college but NOT the EE major if it is not put down on the application and the demand is too great.</p>
<p>Now this was said four years ago. Definitely check with what the school is saying now.</p>
<p>As for MIT, I don't know if they have anything similar. It is easy enough to ask them.</p>
<p>My son goes to WUStL and they have no limits on the number of folks who are allowed into EE. Among the schools he looked at (which didn't include MIT), a limit was only mentioned at Berkeley. Berkeley is also the place where I've heard on CC about people wanting to transfer out of the engineering college but not having the GPA to do so and being stuck.</p>
<p>Typically, the problem of impacted majors such as the situation at Berkeley only occurs at public schools. Private universities usually have less of the impacted majors problem.</p>
<p>WindCloudUltra : Typically, the problem of impacted majors such as the situation at Berkeley only occurs at public schools. Private universities usually have less of the impacted majors problem.</p>
<p>Do the private colleges admit based on declared major (even if it is not binding)? If not, how is it possible that they will not have certain popular majors over-subscribed?</p>
<p>I'm sure they might take it into consideration but I'd venture that what you write down as your intended major has VERY little impact on whether you are accepted or not.</p>
<p>^i'd agree this is true at most places, unless you're trying to get into a special program</p>
<p>Yeah...those special programs usually require separate applications (or application supplements), different essays, and/or portfolio/audition requirements etc. </p>
<p>These are usually very obvious. Most engineering programs are not like this. The school that you apply to is separate from the College of Arts and Science, but usually you can change from major to major within the engineering school.</p>
<p>So does specifying a major at a private University (like Stanford) help? (provided the resume supports the major i'm intending to apply)</p>