<p>Hello, I am an Asian American student interested in being a pre-med candidate in college, but I want to major in political science and minor in philosophy. I plan to declare myself as a political science major on my applications, but will it look (and I don't really have a much better word than this) inconsistent and/or I purposely veered away from declaring a science major because I am Asian?</p>
<p>A couple of my more important ECs (biomedical research internship both at Penn and Stanford, research volunteer position at Children's Hospital) indicates that I'm heavily interested in science, so it would seem (maybe? maybe not?) that I would want to be a science or engineering major, but I'm actually interested in public policy and bioethics. Do you think this is something I should explain somewhere in my application? </p>
<p>If you pick a major like political science but put all your ECs in the science fields, they will think you are trying to game the system. Your goals [public policy + bioethics] is pretty different for somebody with a research background and I think writing an essay or some more info in the additional information section would be a wonderful supplement.</p>
<p>For the colleges that do offer me the option of listing more than one potential major, I will probably put down biology and political science. </p>
<p>I don’t have many ECs that are political science related. My school is fairly new (5-6 years) so we haven’t established MUN, etc. I plan on adding in my ECs section that I’m currently serving on the city’s youth commission and was class president for two years. Do you think that will translate my interest in political science, or not really? Sorry for bombarding you with so many questions! I realize you answered my other thread as well and I appreciate the time you’ve taken to answer this one as well.</p>
<p>First, what you mark on a college application is your ‘intended’ major, you are not declaring a major, you do that at the end of soph year. Second, most students change their major at least once, adcoms know this. Third, premeds can major in anything, and they do. </p>
<p>IMO you’re totally over thinking this, just be honest and put down what you’re really interested in doing at this point in time.</p>
<p>entomom, you make a good point. I’m going to put some more thought into this, probably talk to my college counselor a little bit beforehand. Thank you for your input. Also, thanks for clarifying the difference between marking and declaring a major.</p>
<p>If you declare something outside of the science realm, you’ll need an essay to explain yourself fully. Otherwise, biology (rather than pre-med) is the more obvious choice.</p>
<p>I don’t think you need an essay. Probably the most you would need to do is just say you want to major in PoliSci but are planning on being pre-med, and I would totally understand where you’re coming from in your application and I would hope admissions officers would too.</p>
<p>If you’re looking for political type EC though, you could try volunteering for campaigns for November; that could be fun.</p>
<p>entomom made a good point that I forgot to write earlier: a lot of top schools don’t consider what major you’re applying for. Nonetheless, I believe picking a major that has nothing to do with your activities is kind of strange and probably worth elaborating on.</p>
<p>Your involvement in youth commission/sga will definitely translate and I think that makes your major choice quite clear. Still, I think it would be great for you to still write more info on it because you don’t really see many pre-med’s majoring in political science, which is traditionally a major for lawyers and such. A supplement/essay on that would be unique and help your chances IMO.</p>
<p>If you are heavily interested in public policy and its relation to bioethics and actively pursue it (reading articles on it, and other things which don’t really fit into the EC section) you could use the essay (or a supplement or the shorter essay) to write about your love of the field, making you a really unique applicant. If you don’t discuss it at all somewhere, I would say not major in political science, though. Of course, talk to your counselor about it.</p>