<p>Does choosing your major have an effect on admissions? I mean do they take into account how much space they have in several departments and craft their freshmen class accordingly?</p>
<p>Do they try to diversify the departments? So if you are a URM going into a major where there are very little URMs usually, and is not very popular in general, then you have a greater advantage?</p>
<p>I am referring to ivy league schools particularly Yale and Harvard.</p>
<p>It depends on the school. Some schools admit you into specific major from the start, and in those the major you choose to apply for can make a big difference.</p>
<p>I don't think that's the case at Yale or Harvard.</p>
<p>Well Yale specifically asks on their supplement which major you will chose. </p>
<p>I am thinking that for example, people intending to major in Philosophy, or an obscure foreign language, would get an edge compared to someone intending to major in a more popular and demanded major.</p>
<p>Celita, I have heard the same thing and my S's best friend actually used that strategy! He researched the college and applied under the school's least popular major. He then completed the core freshman program in the first year, taking only one class in the obscure major. Beginning of Soph year, he changed to PoliSci. I thought it was a fairly cheesy way to go about it, but he was on the cusp grade & score-wise. I could understand the strategy (even though I might not approve of it).</p>
<p>It depends on the school and the individual. Major alone probably has no real consequence, but if an applicant wants to major in something unusual and has demonstrated interest/"passion" in the subject then it's probably a leg up. I doubt it would help for a student to simply name an unusual major if there's nothing else on the app that backs up the interest.</p>
<p>Logically it makes sense that admissions has to consider majors at least a bit. It would not do to admit 1000 English majors and 2 Math majors. I sense that females pursuing math or engineering have a edge -- but an applicant who only had Algebra I on her transcript (and AP English and AP History) would certainly raise an eyebrow if she tried to game being a Math major.</p>
<p>Aha, that makes sense. Well question to fencersmother: did the friend actually have things in his application that supported his supposed interest in that obscure major?</p>
<p>I wonder how that will work for zoosersister. She's planning to study classics and her GC has mentioned that at some schools it's not a sought after major. I believe her record will support her interest. On another note, it's a good thing that ZG indicated her major of choice because the major and minor that she picked require careful scheduling. Nothing serious, just good to plan ahead.</p>
<p>If you have an unusual major in mind, something you are truly interested in, by all means mention it in your apps. But don't try to game the system by trying to package yourself as something you aren't. It will most probably backfire, especially at top schools.</p>
<p>I am convinced my son was accepted at WUSTL and Penn because he applied to the College of Engineering in Computer Science - he had great numbers (tests, grades, etc.) so I think they wanted to strengthen their profile in that department. I'm not sure he would have gotten in other colleges at those schools. In the end he did not pick either of those schools because they weren't real strong in his major but it was a tough decision.</p>
<p>I agree that interest in an unusual, or less popular major, backed up by evidence of strong interest in that major, can be a factor. S was accepted at 13 colleges, including 2 Ivy's [ we had no idea this would happen!] in 2006. He applied as a Geology Major, and had a strong letter of recommendation from a senior Geophysics scientist who he had done 2 Summers worth of research with. He also had the stats to be considered a strong candidate, but he received letters from many Geology dept deans urging him to consider their school, so that was a pretty good indication that they wanted him pretty badly.</p>
<p>I'm convinced that my D having taken many years of Latin and a few of Ancient Greek and being an intended Classics major was part of the reason she was accepted EA to Yale last year. It wasn't a hook, but I do think it was a tip. (As my H said, those professors have to have someone to teach!) She wasn't gaming the system, BTW: she just started her sophomore year and is 95% sure she's going to major in Classics (the other 5% is Philosophy....)</p>
<p>I am sure that my daughter got an admission boost because of her stated interest in studying Russian -- but the student needs the background and history to support that. In my daughter's case, she had 4 years of high school language study plus two trips to Russia, spending 5 months living & studying in Russia - so she looked like a serious Russian-studier. She really does not want to major in Russian, but she is continuing with the language study in college and will likely pick up a Russian minor. </p>
<p>You can't fake it. So there is value in doing an inventory of a student's genuine interests and playing up the ones that mesh with the college's needs. It's fairly easy with a little digging to pull up numbers about course enrollment as related to number of faculty in a given area -- and then play up those interests on an application. My daughter listed linguistics, international relations, poli sci, and psychology among other strong interests when she asked me to help research colleges with good departments -- but she wouldn't have gotten any mileage telling colleges that she was a prospective psych major -- every college she was looking at has more of them than they can handle.</p>
<p>Celita: yes, he had some history of sword-making, was a re-enactor for the Renaissance Fair, and was able to complete a lot of "old world" type crafty stuff because his parents were REALLY into it. So, he had some demonstrated interest, but nothing too spectacular.</p>
<p>My S won a fair amount of Latin awards and violin performance awards (nothing desperately impressive.) The Classics interest was helpful (at an Ivy) and the music interest was helpful at Williams. (They listed 6 as their average for both classics and music majors and expresxsed interest in attracting musicians on website.) As a NMS he was recruited by Oberlin. He stated music and/or classics as his intended major, and he is taking both Classics and music in his first semester. He is pretty much decided on majoring in music. He could not have faked this level of involvement, particularly in light of submitted audition tapes. Williams fields a semi-professional college/community orchestra that needs to be filled. It was great luck that it was his first choice school.</p>
<p>A few of my daughter's dancing friends auditioned into a much desired school as dance majors, figuring they would change later. (For them it was the key to getting in, as their grades weren't a sure thing, but their dancing certainly was.) It turns out though they thought they were burnt out on dance, dancing at the school reignited their dance love, and they decided to pursue that major, some with a second interest as a double major. </p>
<p>My daughter considered doing that, but thought she wanted to major in engineering, so decided to rely on her grades. She did get in, but now is stymied, as she can't take the good dance classes without being a dance major.</p>
<p>Hmm, interesting stories. It defintely seems that Classics are one of the more obscure majors. How can we find out any others in a specific college? I'm assuming Humanities or History (lol, especially Political Science or International Politics) at Yale isn't that unpopular then, so there wouldn't be much "advantage" in putting that.</p>
<p>No, but having a specific area of IP might, such as Mideast and Arabic.</p>
<p>Sometimes, the admissions officers will tell you which majors they need more of. This happened to me at one school. I was telling the ad officer that my son was interested in both computer science and economics and she said that he would have a better shot at getting in if he chose computer science. Apparently, economics has become a hot major and computer science is not right now.</p>
<p>Please, this is urban legend stuff.</p>
<p>There is absolutely NO evidence that choice of major makes one iota of difference, except when the department makes a push for a kid. </p>
<p>Keep in mind that the adcoms are well aware of views like this, as well as aware of any other strategy that someone might use to gain an edge.</p>
<p>Keep in mind too that most kids change majors anyway, often several times. Admissions officers know this, too.</p>