<p>Does applying for an uncommon major such as religious studies or environmental studies (assuming, that is, that these majors are uncommon) help in admissions chances?</p>
<p>I have heard that a school will sometimes have a quota for majors. Therefore, it is an advantage to apply as a less-popular major.</p>
<p>It depends on the school. Clemson did tell me that the major you choose is part of the admissions decision. However, UW-Madison lumps everyone into the schools…Letters & Science, Engineering, etc.</p>
<p>I can’t say “never,” in case there’s some oddball college where such a scheme would actually work, but I can say with confidence, almost never.</p>
<p>And those tiny departments that have almost no students? They also have almost no faculty and almost no administrative staff, so they don’t cost very much to operate. In fact, it can create serious problems when a small department unexpectedly doubles the number if students majoring in it. I was part of just such an unexpected glut in college.</p>
<p>Sent from my DROIDX using CC App</p>
<p>There’s some truth to this. The Brown admissions rep told us at a visit that biology was the most common listed major of all their applicants, so I’d say that it would be more difficult to be admitted if planning on majoring in biology. And then there’s also some truth to Cornell U.'s Hotel/Hospitality Major as being one of the easiest ways to get into an ivy. My brother-in-law actually graduated in that program and I have to agree that it must not be too difficult ;).</p>
<p>I’d say the choice of major makes only a small difference, if any. And if the college is highly selective, your choice of an unusual major should be backed up by coursework and extracurriculars that show some commitment/passion, or at the least some logical connection, to the choice of major.</p>
<p>Certainly there are universities with limited-enrollment programs (e.g., engineering at Maryland). These programs may be more difficult to get into, but as far as I know, it’s common to offer applicants who don’t quite make the cut admission to the university, just not to the program.</p>
<p>But I would be astonished if Brown had any established practice of holding prospective bio majors to a higher standard than prospective French majors. I think Brown believes most of its undergraduates will change their minds at least once between matriculating and graduating.</p>
<p>And I would be equally surprised to hear of a college so hungry for students to major in Slavic languages or Biblical archeology that they’d give a boost to a student who feigned interest in one of those fields.</p>
<p>Sent from my DROIDX using CC App</p>
<p>Yea probably</p>
<p>Oh…and to address specifically the question posed in the title of this thread, certainly not any kind of boost so potent as to be considered a hook.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Actually, CSUs which are impacted have different levels of freshman admissions selectivity by major, based on capacity of the major and the number of students applying. CSUs are not exactly “oddball” colleges. Presumably, they are trying to enroll each major very close to capacity due to budget pressure, as they cannot afford to maintain a lot of unused capacity in majors in demand just in case someone wants to change major.</p>
<p>Here is an example from San Jose State University (eligibility index is just a formula of CSU admissions GPA and SAT CR+M or ACT score):</p>
<p>[SJSU</a> Admission](<a href=“http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/narr/admission/rec-1212.html]SJSU”>http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/narr/admission/rec-1212.html)</p>
<p>For example, for fall 2011, some students who would not have been admitted to chemistry at SJSU would have been admitted to chemical engineering.</p>
<p>However, the method of choosing a less popular major to get admitted and then changing majors later is not likely to work. At schools where selectivity varies by major, changing major to a popular major tends to require current students to apply to the major and show a high GPA in order to be allowed to change to that major. So make sure that the major you indicate on the application is something that you are likely to be interested in studying.</p>
<p>It is probably the very well endowed universities that can afford to maintain unused capacity in every major to accommodate major changers and undecided freshmen declaring any major they want. But those universities, although talked about a lot on these forums, are the outliers compared to the universities most students actually attend.</p>
<p>I stand corrected. Thank you.</p>
<p>The UCs are the only school I know of that tracks apps for majors like that.</p>
<p>One issue to be considered before Indicating a major that you think may give you an edge is this: how truthful or convincing will you seem (leaving aside, temporarily, the issue of how dishonest one might be willing to be). You really can’t expect schools to believe that you want to be a Biology major if you opted not to take AP Bio, for example. An International Affairs major who didn’t join Model UN or a classics major who never took Greek or Latin isn’t too convincing, either. This question of “back door majors” as a supposed edge is one that adcoms are well aware of.</p>
<p>Environmental studies is a hot major these days - not an unusal one - by the way.</p>