<p>hi, im im planning to minor at cs, double major in cs, and something lik nanotech (prob. goes under materials engineering)- cuz i find it extremelyyy interesting. i was going through my high-school activities/accomplishments (haha, not too many), and i realized thats most of them are geared towards cs, and u could say my 'hook' and passion is cs (haha, a small hook). i realize that applying as a cs major to stanford, mit, berkeley, other top schools, makes it only harder on me (for example, EECS for berkeley is prob. the hardest major to get into there). could i state that i am applying for materials engineering (however, i have no reserach/activities in that field)? should i declare a double major? additionally, how much exactly does a major affect top universities' decisions (i.e.- HYPSM, etc.)? feel free to comment...thx!!!</p>
<p>I don't know about anywhere else, but MIT doesn't take the major you write on your application into account when deciding whether or not to admit you... the adcom's rationale is that lots of people change their majors, plus they would have to decide if people were lying just to get in and whatnot.</p>
<p>MIT and Stanford both have u apply OUTSIDE a major (so, as an undeclared), then you declare your major after your second year. not sure how this works out for hyp, however...:)</p>
<p>the sush!!!! hihihihi</p>
<p>oo, i see...thx molliebat, and karthikkito (no thanks to masamume...haha, jk). well, the reason i was concerned, was because i wanted to show focus towards a declared major...or rather show my passion, towards a subject, that i hope to pursue in college. again, thx!!!</p>
<p>Still... don't underestimate the importance of showing diverse interests. A highly-focused CS candidate who, say, also hang-glides on weekends will be more memorable to an admissions officer than a highly-focused CS candidate who, say... programs on weekends.</p>
<p>point well taken...i do have other interests, just CS is a major one. i dont hope to become one of those ppl who is huddled over a computer every waking moment of his/her time...no offense to such ppl, of course.</p>
<p>no problem! also,wanted to mention something else...</p>
<p>carnegie mellon and ucsd (from personal experience) has you apply into a major. if you applied into ee and got in, you can switch to any other eng major. however, if you applied to something else, it's much more difficult to change into ee. </p>
<p>at cmu [according to the tour guide], you would take intro courses to two seperate engineering disciplines and declare a major based on your experience.</p>
<p>for these schools, it may be in your interest to apply into eecs and place matE as a second choice major. that way, if you don't like ee, you can switch. i know that for berkeley, however, there is no choice for a 2nd choice, however... :(</p>
<p>Berkeley makes you apply by major if you are applying to engineering.</p>
<p>HYPSMC don't care, it's one consolidated application pool. Cornell, Columbia, and Penn do separate engineers into a different application pool from liberal arts majors (however, I don't know if they also separate by engineering major).</p>
<p>You apply to Columbia's Fu Foundation, but not to a major.
University of Michigan also makes you apply to their engineering department, but not to a major.
HYPS do not have a seperate admission process for engineering students, but for my experience, YP are very interested in improving their engineering dep, and it can help if you write an engineering major.</p>
<p>The only ones I know that make you apply to an specific major is Cooper Union, and it is very hard to change majors because the head of the specific department chooses the students during de admission process.</p>
<p>Gotcha....thx</p>