<p>Sorry if this is a stupid question, but one of my friends told me that her older brother (who slacked off his senior year of IB) only got into a good college because he choose an English major. Does choosing a less popular major significantly improve chances of getting into a school, if at all? In addition, I've heard people use this method to get into a school and then switch to the major they really wanted to study? </p>
<p>In my case, my 2200 SAT and 4.1 W GPA really aren't good enough for my prospective colleges of interest: UCSD, UCLA, UCB, DUKE. But let's say I majored in English (which actually is my favorite subject, as opposed to Business which my D wants me to major in) and wrote a really good essay explain my passion for writing, English, etc.... boost my chances at all? Would I be able to switch to Business if I wanted to? </p>
<p>Anyone with info of this subject, please share =]</p>
<p>switching majors may or may not be difficult. I know Berkeley has a separate school for business, so switching schools will definitely be difficult.</p>
<p>Yes, applying for an easy major at these schools probably would increase your chances slightly. But only slightly. May also want to do some research, for example, L&S at Berkeley doesn’t even care about major, you apply undeclared. </p>
<p>I would just apply for whichever major you want to do. It’s easier to be genuine, and your resume is probably more suitable for it anyhow.</p>
<p>It can be hard to change majors at UC’s if the major you want to change to is impacted. Each UC has a list of impacted majors on their web site. Duke doesn’t have an undergrad business major but it’s easy to change majors there and at most private colleges in general, but harder if they have seperate business schools.</p>
<p>It depends on the college and the major. Some colleges have a surplus of kids applying to department while not getting that kind of traffic for other majors. In that case, you can get a boost. But changing from pretty equally subscribed majors is usually not going to help much. If you did some terrific thing that the English department might look at as a hook while the it would be a yawn for business and vice versa, it might make the difference, but in most cases it is not.</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon is a university that has distinct and different accept rates for their various schools.</p>
<p>I agree with above posts that it really depends on the college. I mean Cornell started to catch on after a surplus of kids accepted into hotel administration decided that engineering was their new passion, but in some schools it’s relatively easy to transfer. so look into it?</p>