<p>"Nearly a quarter (24.9 percent) of the admitted students intend to concentrate in the social sciences. The biological sciences attracted 23.3 percent. Students expressing an interest in the humanities constitute 19 percent. Students planning an engineering concentration represent 12.6 percent, the physical sciences 9.5 percent, mathematics 7.7 percent, computer science 1.9 percent, and 1.2 percent undecided."</p>
<p>Only 1.2 percent undecided?! Can anyone explain that? Is that just the nature of the applicant pool or does Harvard select against the undecided?</p>
<p>Interesting thought… although I seem to remember that the application allowed you to put down an area and then put “Very likely to change” or “unsure” or something, so maybe that keeps people away from undecided…</p>
<p>“Undecided” in this context means “I have no idea whatsoever,” not “I’m not absolutely certain.” My guess about the causation here would be that the sorts of applicants who get into Harvard are also the sorts of students who tend to at least guess a concentration, not that the admissions office’s decisions are influenced by whether or not we list an intended concentration.</p>
<p>^^^ I’d guess that that’s correct. And I’d guess that at least half of those majors indicated by accepted applicants get changed after they get to campus.</p>
<p>My only presumption as to why the “undecided” percentage is so low is that it is hard to write concretely on your passion with such vagueness. Most people tend to be interested in a field (at least for the moment) until exploring more at college. This is only a complete guess that could be totally wrong :P</p>
<p>I agree with jsungoh. Though its ironic, but my supplementary essay (I declared myself “undecided”) was about having many passions, but not one in particular.</p>