<p>I was visiting with an old friend from Iowa and was explaining the application process in Texas, and why our children apply so early to the state universities and how they need to put down a major. She never heard of this and we are both curious now if just Texas, or bigger places like TX and CA and such do this, or if states like Iowa and MN do this? Or other states even?</p>
<p>All applications that I know of ask for a major. they also offer “undecided”. Some majors require entry at time of Freshmen year. More popular majors (ie- nursing, business) have just so many seats available and can be more competitive to gain that acceptance, rather than and English, Art History major as examples…</p>
<p>In my experience, most do not.</p>
<p>Some universities will require you to apply to an appropriate division of the university, such as the School of Engineering, the School of Nursing or the School of Education. Many universities do this; many others don’t.</p>
<p>Some universities will require you to specify a program if you’re interested in a major that’s “impacted” or a limited-enrollment program. But, again, there are also many universities that don’t do this.</p>
<p>And while virtually all college or university applications do ask applicants what field of study they may be interested in, I am quite sure that a whole lot of the institutions that ask don’t really give a hang what an applicant’s answer is.</p>
<p>No, most universities do not admit by major, but most large universities have several undergraduate schools or colleges and it’s quite common to need to apply to a particular college. So, for example, at Michigan, if you want to study engineering you apply to the College of Engineering; if you want to study sciences, social sciences, or humanities, you apply to the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA); if you want to study nursing, you apply to the School of Nursing, and so on. But within LSA or Engineering, admission isn’t to a particular major, it’s to the school or college. They’ll ask what your intended major is because they want to enroll a reasonably well-balanced class, but it’s not as rigid as applying to a particular major. And once you’re there, you can apply to change colleges/schools, but that requires an internal transfer application; it’s not a sure thing that your transfer application will be accepted, and it’s not as easy as changing majors within LSA, for example, which can be accomplished just by submitting a form–or not even that much if you haven’t yet officially declared a major, which you don’t need to do until the end of your sophomore year.</p>
<p>Most do not, though many require you to choose between engineering and the arts and sciences. Professional studies like architecture, nursing are different. My older son went to Carnegie Mellon, which as far as I know is the only place the computer science broke away from the school it was originally part of (in their case engineering). While many colleges ask about intended majors, I don’t think it affects admissions decisions very often. Personally I was very leery of places that had impacted majors where you couldn’t count on majoring in the field you wanted to.</p>
<p>Most do not.</p>
<p>however, some schools have impacted majors and require applying to that major.</p>
<p>U of Wisconsin- Madison admits all freshmen to the university as a whole. Applicants are asked to put down a school/college/major to help in assigning summer advising. Being undecided just puts the student in the default advising for Letters and Science, where most students will have courses their first year and most get degrees from. Several schools require an application after being at UW more than a semester engineering, teaching, nursing and business for example. Most students will change their major (and can do so until graduation at UW- of course changes late in the game could require more semesters).</p>
<p>Graduate schools, on the other hand, admit directly to a specific major.</p>
<p>Georgetown and Cornell Universities require you apply to the school within the university.</p>
<p>Most schools do not require you to apply to a specific major, but they would like to have some idea of your interests. If you don’t know, just put undecided. If you are considering Engineering, you should start out in E. It is easy to move out of Engineering, but very tough to move in.</p>
<p>You need to check each school individually as to whether frosh applicants need to specify a major or division at the school when applying. In cases where selectivity may vary by major or division, changing later after enrollment may require another competitive admissions process.</p>
<p>Do not assume – check each school individually.</p>
<p>When I was at the info session at Clemson with my son, the admissions counselor said at Clemson, you apply with a specific major and your application is read for admission to that specific department.</p>
<p>^^^That is exactly how it works at S1’s school, NC State University. </p>
<p>It is far easier to get into NC State if you’re applying as a Forestry or Agriculture major rather than an engineering, architecture or design major.</p>