<p>Hey guys,
I was wondering if my intended major will affect my chances of getting into certain colleges. I plan on majoring in Classics which I know isn't really a popular major. I've taken Latin for 4 years at my school. Will applying as a classics major affect my chances of getting into the colleges I want in any way (I'm applying EA to Gtown, Uchicago, Unc, Uva.</p>
<p>Kinda, I mean your intended major and your interests are part of who you are and I think colleges want to get to know you as much they can.</p>
<p>Depends on the school; some colleges don’t factor in your intended major b/c they know teens are very fickly and likely to switch majors like a million times. Other schools do consider.</p>
<p>But if their ECs and essays display that they are truly interested in their intended major and are not likely to switch, then doesn’t that say something?</p>
<p>Maybe, but I was DEAD set on going to medical school when I started college, then I took some of the general curriculum and decided psychology was the field I wanted to be in, not physical medicine.</p>
<p>what do you mean by “DEAD set”? Did you do anything or had any experiences that told you that med school and being a doctor was right for you?</p>
<p>Don’t you have to apply to certain schools within certain colleges in order to pursue your intended major?</p>
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<p>It depends on the institution and the major. For example if you want to get into Film and TV at USC, or some engineering, architecture programs etc., the number of slots is limited. So the may not be able to admit to that program but could admit to other programs. This is called impacted.</p>
<p>In other colleges like Duke and Penn, you get admitted to a college and that could make a difference. In Duke you have to apply to either Pratt Engineering or Trinity College of Arts and Sciences. A student may not have been admitted to Pratt but the same student might have been admitted to Trinity if they had applied. Similar getting admission to Wharton may be more difficult than U Penn in general (getting into U Penn itself is very difficult).</p>
<p>I do not know about the schools you have mentioned with regard to this, but I am going to assume Classics are not a popular major and hence there will no impact, possibly there may a little added weight to your application, as most colleges want a diverse student body, not everyone wanting the popular majors.</p>
<p>Yes and no. It depends on the popularity of your major. My major was very popular. One school accepted me but not into that program. If you really want to go to a school where you are scared of your chances, you can maybe apply undecided, just to get in and then get in the program. But if it is something like engineering or nursing it might be more difficult.</p>
<p>I think you may be assuming that because a major is unpopular that may raise your chances of admission because few apply for it. At colleges that require you to apply for a major and take that into consideration what you are most likely going to face is something like the following. Let’s assume you have a very popular major that has proven to be so over the years, like psychology. Because it is a very popular major, the college has a lot of resources devoted to it – a large number of classrooms, large number of teachers. Thus, the college will slot that major for a lot of applicants because they can handle a lot of new freshman. For example they might designate 200 as the target enrollment for the major with the plan to accept 400 to get 200 to actually enroll with that major and then get 800 applicants for the major and thus accept half. So you have a 50% chance of acceptance </p>
<p>For the unpopular major like classics, they know over years of experience they are not going to get many applicants. Thus, they devote little resouces to, bvery few classrooms and teachers. For that kind of major the target enrollment might actually be as low as 8, and they will accept 16 to get that many to enroll and get 32 applications. Chances of acceptance are still 50% despite that it is an unpopular major. Generally, you won’t find large differences in the LAS college of a university among its acceptance rates per major. Unpopular simply means fewer will be accepted not that you will have a significant increase in the chance of being accepted. There may be some variations among majors but don’t count on your chances being significantly better just because the major is unpopular.</p>
<p>Yes and no. Colleges want a diverse class, so if your interests genuinely reflect an interest in a less common major, you won’t be competing with quite the slew of applicants that pre-med or econ students will.</p>
<p>Hey, classics person here. I think that what classics has going for you is that you’re competing against a smaller pool of people. Let’s say there are 40 applicants who are members of LHS and have medals on the NLE applying to Georgetown. Of course, Georgetown doesn’t have a quota of “8 classics majors per class.” But they do want some, and if you stand out compared to the other 39 applicants, you’re more likely in than if you were more generic. This is more comforting than thinking that you have to stand out from 39 vs. standing out from the 300 other chemistry students. It might be just a comforting mental trick, if they take the same proportion of classic-y applicants as of chemistry applicants, but I think the rate is likely to be slightly higher.</p>
<p>(Do UNC and UVA /have/ EA? I thought UVA at least was one of the ones that eliminated its early programs at the same time as Princeton and maybe Harvard…?)</p>
<p>If you are truly passionate about Classics and have shown substantial initiative on your own part, outside the classroom, it may help considerably depending upon the institution. For example, if you scored high on the Latin Subject Test, won several Latin competitions, translated several books into Latin or Greek, and received some sort of state-wide or national recognition for your talents in the subject, I do believe it will give you a boost. By no means, though, will it ensure admission. Your stats will still have to be up to par and you’ll still have to be at the level of most other acceptees. Something of this sort is not significant enough to be considered a ‘hook.’ However, I feel comfortable saying that, if you can convince adcoms that you’re both good at it and passionate about it, it will give you a moderate boost in the process.</p>