Does putting "Undecided" as you prospective major give you any advantage/disadvantage

Applying to College
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<p>Esp for Liberal Arts Colleges.</p>

<p>I know most schools say that they don't. But I wonder if someone puts an uncommon major, or an interdisciplinary program unique to that college, will he not be at an advantage?</p>

<p>Or will someone who puts undecided, yet makes several references to economic terms, very casually (nothing technical, more in a fun sort of way), be at a disadvantage, because he clearly has an great interest in economics yet he put undecided?</p>

<p>What happens if most of the top applicants from a particular country put something like physics as their prospective major? Will the college choose a smaller percentage of applicants from this subgroup of applicants and choose a larger percentage of applicants who put in something uncommon such as French?</p>

<p>Then again, most of the students change their majors sometime after enrolling. Colleges should know that. So, there is no reason why they should give preference to students who wrote down a particular subject as prospective major. BUT a college would also like to have similar number of students for each of the most common majors, right? It cannot just take the best candidates from a certain region, whether a country or a state in the US, if a large chunk of them want to take economics, for example. LACs would not like 500 prospective economists in a class of 800 students. That would be absurd.</p>

<p>I'm confused about what this means.</p>

<p>PS This question has almost nothing to do with me, since I'm decided on my major(s). I'm just asking because I want to understand this, and understand if some of the people I know have/have not gamed the college admission process. (Okay harsh words, but you know what I mean...)</p>

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<p>You’ll have to ask each school whether it admits by major or division (arts and science, engineering, etc.).</p>

<p>Yes, colleges do not want to overload some departments while others are underused. In the case of public schools which enroll to full capacity, at least in popular majors, they may either admit freshmen by major, or require enrolled students to apply to declare a popular major. Private schools with large endowments may be able to maintain excess capacity in each department to accommodate variations in the popularity of different majors.</p>

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<p>I agree with UCB that for some schools majors matter (different colleges, impacted majors). LACs generally don’t care. They know some students try to play the game by putting a less common major but they don’t play.</p>

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<p>But I’d bet an unusual major can help a student in admissions in the same way an unusual EC can make a student stand out from the crowd. In addition, an under-subscribed dept. should indeed be on the look-out for potential candidates. Obviously, a candidate who suddenly, out of nowhere expresses a lifelong passion for Classics, just because he or she studied Latin, isn’t highly credible. But one who speaks Japanese, has studied abroad in Japan and raises bonsai as a hobby - sounds intriguing and credible as a potential Japanese studies major.</p>

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<p>There might be some specific areas where this would actually be a “hook” though I am loath to use the term. One example is male ballet dancers.</p>