Does selection of major matter a lot?

Applying to College
1

<p>I'm wondering if the selection of your preferred major matter a lot during the admission process?</p>

<p>I'm still in high school and I don't know how US university school systems work but isn't it something like: you take the courses required for a preferred major and if your grades are sufficient enough in those courses, you will be allowed to take and study in your preferred major?</p>

<p>Is this right?</p>

<p>Or do colleges allocate a certain number of students allowed into a major? So when your preferred major on your application becomes full, you will not get accepted into that university?</p>

<p>Can someone please clarify? Thanks.</p>

2

<p>Normally, universities have different schools with them such as liberal arts and sciences, business, engineering, and nursing. Those are the usual ones. When you apply to a university you normally have to choose which one of these schools you're going to apply to and that school will have a certain number of open spots. Then if you get in that school will have a curriculum for you to follow and at the end of your sophomore year (usually) you choose a major. Sorry if I made that confusing. I hope I helped a little bit : )</p>

3

<p>In some universities, you do have to select the "school" to apply to, like, as villanovagirl said, Engineering, Nursing, Education, Arts & Sciences. Once you know the school, your major really doesn't matter for application purposes. You can change majors pretty easily. And at some schools you can change schools easily if you want. (It is easier to switch out of Engineering than it is to switch in.)</p>

<p>Of course, this is true only of universities. Liberal Arts Colleges have only one school, and your major is not terribly important.</p>

<p>Most colleges students change their majors at least once during their college career. You're not locked into the major you applied with.</p>

4

<p>So if a "school" is full (no open spots), then chances are I won't be able to go to that college/university?</p>

5

<p>Yes, that's correct. There are limited seats within a school within an university. You don't have to worry about majors until 2nd year usually (and at any rate, they rarely affect admissions.)</p>

6

<p>What do you mean by "a school is full"? </p>

<p>If you're applying as a freshman, you don't have to worry about that. There are a certain number of seats the school wants for its freshman class. The school accepts a certain percentage of applicants higher than the number it wants in its class, since it knows that not all accepted students will attend. Your application is read with the entire group of freshmen applications; at that point, the school is not "full". If you are qualified for that school (test scores, grades, etc.), your application is considered. It is only when they get down to the actual admissions, waitlist, rejections decisions that the class gets "full". But you don't know that beforehand.</p>

<p>Let's say, just to make the numbers easy, that a school wants a class of 1000 freshmen. They get 5000 applications. At this point, the freshman class is still "empty". They review the applications, and decide to offer admission to 1500 applicants. During the admissions process, you may or may not be one of those admittees. You don't know that in advance when you've applied. </p>

<p>Now let's say that of those 1500 applicants, 1100 accept their place in the class. Does that mean that the school goes back to 100 students and says, "OOPS, sorry, we got too many kids; you really can't come"? No, the schools figure out how to deal with this (extra classes, forced triples in dorms, etc.) That's what it means for the school to be "over enrolled".</p>

<p>Now, if you're applying as a transfer student, there may or may not be sufficient room in the class for any transfers. In that case, the school may be "full" and refuse to accept transfer students.</p>

<p>Does this make sense?</p>

7

<p>Well, I think major does matter in the college admission process. If you're very well-suited for a major when you apply for one that you are terrible at, you might be rejected. But I've been told that if your interests correspond to a lack of students in a certain major/department, it might really help you get in. But if you're a good applicant, you can get in anyways. At one top college, they told us that their number one major was "Undeclared."</p>

<p>Not the main question--but, I think this was part of it.</p>

8

<p>If you don't want the major to affect the admissions process, just apply as an undeclared major. Unlike schools outside the US, you don't have to have very much focus when you first enter college. Many students spend their first two years "wandering" around their college and then select a major at the end of their second year. The US college system allows for much more freedom at selecting majors and schools within universities than schools outside the US.</p>

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<p>If you know the major you want is more competitive to get into, would there be an advantage to putting undecided on your app?</p>

10

<p>
[quote]
Once you know the school, your major really doesn't matter for application purposes. You can change majors pretty easily

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</p>

<p>
[quote]
Most colleges students change their majors at least once during their college career. You're not locked into the major you applied with

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</p>

<p>
[quote]

Unlike schools outside the US, you don't have to have very much focus when you first enter college. Many students spend their first two years "wandering" around their college and then select a major at the end of their second year. The US college system allows for much more freedom at selecting majors and schools within universities than schools outside the US.

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<p>Well, I really wish this was true of all US universities, but unfortunately, it is not so. There are indeed some US universities in which certain majors are 'impacted', meaning that you have to apply to that specific major. Not just to the specific school within that university, but also to the *specific major *within the school, with only limited opportunities to switch into that major later. In other words, even if you were admitted into that particular school within a particular university, you still may not be able to get into the particular major that you really want if you didn't apply and were accepted into that specific major in the first place. </p>

<p>What's worse is that some universities also make it difficult to get out of certain majors also. If you enter a particular major and don't do well, you may find that the other majors in that university don't want to take you because of your poor grades, and hence you're forced to stay in a major that you not only don't like but in which you are also doing poorly. That's a sad life.</p>

<p>The upshot is that, sadly, some US universities do indeed force high school seniors to already know which specific major that want by the time they apply, with only limited opportunities to change later, and inevitably some students find that they can't get into the major that they really want and are hence forced to major in something that they don't want. Sad but true. </p>

<p>
[quote]
If you don't want the major to affect the admissions process, just apply as an undeclared major.

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</p>

<p>I wish it were that easy, but like I said, some US universities only offer you limited opportunities to switch majors later on. At those US universities, the 'undeclared' option is therefore the MOST difficult way to get in: you run the greatest risk of not even being admitted to the university at all. Of course if you do get in, then you may opportunities to switch majors. Hence, it's a high risk, high reward strategy. </p>

<p>But the point is this. Every US university is different. You have to check the rules at each one to which you are thinking of applying. Some allow you to freely explore and switch majors whenever you want. Others do not.</p>

11

<p>You're right about a few schools and a few specific majors, sakky. If the OP is really interested in a specific major, he should check out whether it's "impacted." Generally, however, using the so-called 80-20 rule (it works 80% of the time), major doesn't matter.</p>

12

<p>"If you know the major you want is more competitive to get into, would there be an advantage to putting undecided on your app?"</p>

<p>this was what I was wondering about... but I guess it is a bit too late anyways.</p>

13

<p>not really</p>