<p>Does Brown consider prospective concentrations in the admissions process? I know that they do for pre-med, as the program is somewhat separate and highly desired. However, how does this work for other concentrations/majors?</p>
<p>My understanding is that if they consider it at all, they do so very little, since many people will just change their mind while at Brown.</p>
<p>I don’t think they even consider it for pre-med. They know that a big group of people will quit premed after taking the classes.</p>
<p>From what I gathered from the response I got from admissions, they don’t consider which major you choose, but they DO consider whether you have a passion for it. Like, if they see that I love working with things, manipulating objects and doing calculations, then they know that I’ll likely fill one of those roles: either in engineering, physics, computer science, etc. When, for specific majors, they ask you why you’re choosing this major, they want to get a feel for what kind of person you are with regards to academics: what draws you, what pushes you to greater things. In the application, it seems to come down to whether you can get the admissions officer to understand who you are, and why you’ll make a good fit.</p>
<p>And on a similar note, while indicating an obscure major (Egyptology, for example) on your application won’t help on its own, it will look good if you can back it up with physical evidence of your interest. If you’ve read a lot about Egyptology and done some research or projects (something you can talk about in your essays or interview), then you might flag the adcom’s interest. Moreover, your case will be especially compelling if you can tell them why you want to study obscure subject X with Brown’s department.</p>
<p>But all in all, don’t tell them you want to do Egyptology if you actually want to do bio just because you think the more esoteric field will look boost your application. Write down whatever you want to study, and make a case for your interests however you can.</p>
<p>Right, like say you have won a lot of math competitions and placed in the AMC-12, AIME and USAMO many times and you put down math as your prospective major. It would help you a lot more than you putting down English.</p>
<p>@cdz: potentially. If you really want to major in English, and you can make an adcom understand WHY, math-competitions will still look goof to Brown, especially as we have no core, so there’s plenty of room to be interested in both science/math AND English/humanities.</p>
<p>Basically, put down the major you are interested in the most (or, if you REALLY have no clue what major, put unsure), because that will show who you are better than a major that you think will help you get in.</p>