Hi guys,
I love Business but I am not sure what concentration I want to pursue. I love Finance but I would like to take a few Marketing and International Business courses before I decide on a concentration. Most of the universities I am applying to provide me with the option of applying as a “Business - Undecided” major. This means that I am applying to the Business School but not directly into Finance (since I am not 100% sure). What do you think? Will this hurt my chances of getting in? Or do colleges like the fact that I want to explore my options during my freshmen year?
In general, for many colleges, applying undecided doesn’t disadvantage you. But there are situations where it does.
The main situations where applying “undecided” doesn’t work is when the university has multiple colleges and the application processes is college specific. Examples include the University of Pennsylvania where “Finance” is primarily a Wharton major and “economics” is a College of Arts and Sciences major. In this example you typically need to pick the “college” although it’s okay to apply undecided to the college. Other examples are universities with “impacted” (to mean very popular) majors. Examples include University of California Berkeley where “Computer Science” as taught in the Engineering College is very popular. If that’s what you want to do then best is to apply to the College of Engineering. In practice, for some universities with multiple colleges, you can transfer from one college to another once you decide on the major. For other universities such transfers can be difficult.
It is perfectly fine to do so. Just be sure to apply to the business school when a college has that option available. It is a good idea to take some introductory business courses and see where your interests and aptitudes lie before choosing a major. And even if people apply and get into a business school they are free to change it – a formal major is rarely declared before the second semester of soph. year.