Not sure where to even ask this one, but S20 just decided that he wants to pursue what he listed as his second-choice major (Math). His original first choice was Music, and he’s auditioned at several schools. IMHO, he has much more of a comparative advantage in math and applied math (e.g., Physics) than he does for music. For example, he has 800 on SAT Math and on Math 2 Subject Test, and he’s in AP Calculus and AP Physics and rocking both. He took AP Stats, last year. He already contacted our large state university, to which he was initially admitted for Exploratory (and Honors), but hadn’t yet heard audition results. Will probably be awhile before he gets a response from them. He will contact the schools to which he applied RD, which are highly selective and both reach schools. The other schools, he applied to only b/c of their reputation for music.
Any words of wisdom? Anything we should be doing? Anywhere that’s great for math to which he could still apply? FYI, my B.S. is in Math.
I’d suggest contacting all of the schools as soon as possible to let the, know of the change. It’s pretty late in the process, but it would likely be preferable to be accepted into Math than into Music and trying to transfer later.
Would it make any difference for OP’s son at colleges where they are flexible about major changes? I’m guessing it can be difficult other way around as music departments require a separate admission process, while math departments have no such requirement and OP’s son is exceptionally good at maths.
“800 on SAT Math and on Math 2 Subject Test” suggests that he does indeed have a very solid background and that he can do it.
I would as others have suggested contact universities and ask about changing majors. The worse that seems likely is that he might need to take a gap year and reapply next year. Hopefully this can be avoided.
Both of my daughters changed majors after applying to universities. This is possible. I sort of suspected that in some cases someone might have looked at their application and verified that they would have been accepted to the other major also. Given your son’s strength in math it seems likely that it could work out in his case also.