<p>It's the summer after junior year, and things are coming at me from all directions. I ran into a couple of questions and would highly appreciate any input. Thanks guys!</p>
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<li><p>For admission, will you be competing with only applicants who select the same major as you or will you also be competing with the entire applicant pool disregarding major?</p></li>
<li><p>I haven't taken a Biology class since Bio H in 9th grade; however, I have taken Chemistry H and AP Chemistry. I might want to become a Biology Major, but I chose to take AP Literature over AP Biology for my senior year. Will this selection of classes hurt my chances of being admitted as a Biology major in college?</p></li>
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<p>It depends on the school. Some schools consider all freshmen applicants in a single pool, and may admit them as undeclared in any case (students declare majors usually in sophomore year – although some majors at some schools may require applying to declare based on things like GPA).</p>
<p>Others admit freshmen to specific majors, and freshmen enter declared. Changing major may require apply to change major, especially if the new major is more popular than the old major.</p>
<p>Some schools do it both ways. For example, the school may be divided into an Arts and Sciences college and an Engineering college, where the Arts and Science college admits freshmen in a single pool to enter undeclared, while the Engineering college admits freshmen by major. In this case, the admissions standards for Arts and Science and each of the Engineering majors may differ.</p>
<p>So you have to check each school to see what it does.</p>
<p>Note that biology majors do not have good job and career prospects at the bachelor’s level – biology is a hugely popular major the produces huge numbers of bachelor’s degree graduates relatively to the available jobs in the field.</p>
<p>For most top schools, you will be competing with all prospective students in the most general sense. Still, to a lesser extent you are competing with individuals who are likely to add similar traits to the community, including prospective major.</p>
<p>If all you add to the community is academics, then, yes, you will be certainly competing with individuals who hope to study the same subject as you and, in order to be accepted at top schools, you will need to effectively be one of the very best in the subject (one who will certainly make great contributions to his respective field). On the other hand, most applicants to top schools are chosen due to their visible prospects to make a difference outside of their academic major. These individuals are far less likely to be evaluated against individual majors and more generally against all applicants in order to paint the mosaic that is a freshman class.</p>
<p>The only time that your major means anything to admissions in my experience is if the school that you are going to has added a new college that it is trying to fill with warm bodies. I saw an example of this at a school in Texas where they added a Mass Com department where they severely lowered entrance requirements for declared Mass Com majors. This is such a rare occurrence however that I guess it fits more under trivia than real guidance.</p>