<p>some people have told me that its better not* to apply for premed major as they are scrutinized much more and your chances of getting in are lower, but rather apply in another field and switch once you get to college. is this true or even possible?</p>
<p>I had a friend who worked in the Admissions Office at the University of Florida. He said they separated all the applicants into what they called "pots," according to their major, and would choose applicants out of each one.</p>
<p>The goal is to make sure they have people for all the programs offered at the university. So, it might be to your advantage to apply to an "odd" or "unusual" major. But, this might not be true at all schools.</p>
<p>but if you apply with an ecology major for example, you wouldnt have any trouble switching into a pre-med program right? regardless of the university prominence</p>
<p>i think it's true. I applied as a bio major to my safety school and my admis counselor called when I was accepted, saying I should tell them if i'm going ASAP b/c bio is one of their most popular majors with a big waitlist</p>
<p>There is no "pre-med major". Pre-med is simply a list of 6 or 7 courses that you need to take to get into medical school. You can major in anything, including humanities, fine arts, etc., and make it into medical school.</p>
<p>Do they do this at the Ivies, too? It seems like Stanford, for example, probably has a lot of science and engineering majors applying. I'm curious as to whether putting a humanities-related major would help someone gain admission.</p>
<p>It may affect your application in other ways, but just putting it on the major preference form will have minimal impact on how your application is viewed. You would have to convey significant interest for that subject throughout your application.</p>
<p>What is one qualified to do with a bachelors in premed?</p>
<p>As people have previously said Pre-Med is not a Major. Pre-Med can be anything, but Med students usually prefer something along the lines of Biology.</p>
<p>Premed is a major at some universities.</p>
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<p>I agree with tokyorevelation9; you can't just put any major down without showing an interest in it -- it looks obvious that you're just trying to make it easier to get in. If you choose an uncommon major but show no interest in it (ECs, essays, etc.), then that'll probably hurt your chances.</p>
<p>On that note, how do you all view the linguistics major? Common? Not so common? Unheard of by most?</p>
<p>I don't think your ECs need to correlate with your intended major. I think this is a myth -- there are lots of people who are interested in art and eventually major in Lit. And most people change majors anyway, so they really can't rely that just because your ECs corroborate with your major that you will necessarily continue in that path of study.</p>
<p>I have a very strong math/science background, but I'm fully intending on going into law eventually, with political science as a major in undergrad. Applying as a Government major at Georgetown didn't seem like the best idea, so I applied as a mathematics major (or maybe it was Political Economy.. can't exactly remember) and got in. Then again, at Georgetown, everyone and their neighbor wants to go into political science, so this seemed logical--at my other schools, I was very honest about which major I was interested in.</p>
<p>murkywater: they don't have to be on the dot, but it'd be better if they're related in some way (i.e. you do Habitat for Humanity projects and you want to be an architect). I would say art and lit are related -- they both deal with creative things.</p>
<p>But think about it: if you plan to major in, say, art, and your ECs have absolutely no art-related things in them, it's going to look questionable.</p>
<p>And in fact, they don't have to be related at all -- but it'll help your chances if you they are.</p>
<p>
[quote]
It seems like Stanford, for example, probably has a lot of science and engineering majors applying.
[/quote]
They also have a lot of humanities applicants. More rejected science majors doesn't mean more accepted humanities majors.</p>
<p>I was rejected at Yale as an Egyptology and EEB major, with great ecs and essays to back it up. DianeR's D was, as I recall, rejected at Penn and Yale as an Egyptology major. Choice of major matters very little in admissions, although the waitlist is arguably an exception.</p>
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<p>I think the major might be the sort of thing to tip the scales, if you and John Smith were virtually the same applicant but there were only one spot left.</p>
<p>so lets say i applied with a nutrition major at a top school, as opposed to a biology/chemistry/biochemistry major which are my ideal majors. given the fact that most kids applying to the best schools with better stats, wouldnt it increase my chances by doing an obscure major, as they need to fill up their course spots and the competition might not be as intense for a less-favored major?</p>
<p>To repeat the major point of my previous statement, no, even if you apply as a nutrition major, there is still not enough certainty in that parameter for an admissions committee to make any serious adjustment to your value as an applicant. I'm sorry but no. I understand you think this because it seems logical to you, but what is logical and rational is not always true, and sometimes their reasoning for not making it an important selling point is more logical than your reason.</p>
<p>Sorry to disappoint, but really people, the choice of major you put down on your application is really more for record keeping purposes, and has little to no bearing on your application. </p>
<p>Now, some schools have different colleges or degrees to which you have to apply to one or the other. For example, at Princeton you apply either as a Bachelor's of Arts student (A.B.)or a Bachelor's of Science and Engineering (B.S.E). Applying to one or the other of these might affect your chances slightly, but you would have to be consistent in your application as well to have any real effect.</p>
<p>i don't think it will make much of a difference, like tokyorevelation9 mentioned, but schools do have to fill certain departments, so choosing an obscure major does help at times. i heard it also has to do with race sometimes. for example, if you are asian, if not many asians apply as a humanities major, and you do, then that might be a bonus. just make sure you have ecs to back it up or write a convincing essay, because otherwise it seems all too obvious what you're trying to pull.</p>
<p>Think of it like this: applying to Berkeley as an EECS major is going to make it harder on you -- there are simply some majors that are harder to get into. Architecture at Cal Poly SLO is cutthroat. Thus, if these majors make it more difficult to gain admission, then the other majors are easier -- and thus admissions are easier on them, or harder on EECS, etc. (depending on how you look at it).</p>
<p>There are people who are great applicants but not as great as the average accepted person and who get in probably because they show a passion for a department that seems weak at the university -- the person could prove to be a good asset. It happens sometimes.</p>