Does your choice of major affect your admission chance?

Applying to College
1

<p>I understand the fact that what major you choose in your admission process isnt going to stick with you forever.</p>

<p>however, despite of (i know you dont just ignore them..) your SAT scores GPA and those stats, is picking a relatively rare/uncommon major and making a good point of pursuing so in the personal statement going to increase the chance of getting into the schools? </p>

<p>the things is that, my SAT is score is 1970 with a mediocre GPA and I'm applying to schools like NYU, BU, Brandeis, nearly all UCs and University of Washington. My selected major is Japanese. I scored a 5 on AP Japanese and a 750 on the subject test. I have extracurricular that involved translating work as well.
Will the fact that it is a pretty uncommon major somewhat affect my admission chance? I wanna hear some opinions out there!</p>

<p>thanks in advance.</p>

2

<p>Oft-asked question. Common trick used by HS applicants to supposedly gain an edge. Colleges are fully aware. Given this, what do you think?</p>

<p>Just list what you want. Nothing to be gamed here.</p>

3

<p>No, I am really interested in the subject. I mean, by asking the question, it sure does seem like I’m just trying to use it for admission and change my major later on. But my interest really is Japanese and I would want to double major in another humanities subject later on which I have no idea what it will be yet.
It’s just out of curiosity and a general question please don’t judge, im not trying to get an edge here or something like you said.</p>

4

<p>Sorry if I sounded like that. Really. List what you want to study. That’s the most important thing.</p>

5

<p>Whether major choice matters in freshman admissions depends on the school.</p>

<p>However, it is the case that one can game the admissions at some schools. For example, at San Jose State University (where all freshman are admitted by major) for fall 2011, the computer science major was one of the more selective majors, but the very similar software engineering major was one of the least selective majors there. Chemistry was the most impacted major there for fall 2011, but chemical engineering was one of the least selective majors there.</p>

<p>[SJSU</a> Admission](<a href=“http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/narr/admission/rec-1212.html]SJSU”>http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/narr/admission/rec-1212.html)</p>

<p>Note that at SJSU, students there must apply to declare or change their majors, so gaming the admissions by selecting a major that is not a major of interest is not a good idea. It only works if the less selective major is of interest or is very similar to the one of interest (i.e. one is willing to actually major in it).</p>