<p>What does putting a major on my application do? Let's say I wanted to change my major after I had already sent in my app. Does it matter if I tell them? Or will I go in college like everyone else and will get a chance as an upperclassman to make a definitive major choice (and so I don't need to call my college up now and change my intended major on my app).</p>
<p>You can change your major later but it may depend on whether it is in the same college within a university.</p>
<p>Just to expand on Erin’s Dad’s point, at some universities you have to apply not just to the university, but to a college or program within the university (like the school of engineering or business). You can be accepted to the university but not that program/college, or not accepted at all. Other schools (LACs and universities that don’t have these divisions), are interested in your potential major only as a way of learning more about you, and you are not committed to anything. You will choose your major usually at the end of your sophomore year like everyone else.</p>
<p>So the only reason to notify a prospective school that you are changing your major is if it would impact the program to which you are applying within the school.</p>
<p>Of course, there are always those who are trying to game the system by claiming that they plan to major is some area that is undersubscribed (classics or certain european languages, for example or a field in which their gender is under-represented) - but unless you can make a compelling case in your application that you really do have a long-term interest in this area, it isn’t likely to make a difference.</p>
<p>I’m not doing any program like that. I put IR on my app and I want to switch to Anthropology. Should I go to the trouble of telling them?</p>
<p>How do majors work? When I get into college, are they like “ok you chose this major on your app. Start taking these classes”?</p>
<p>Don’t bother telling them. This isn’t material.</p>
<p>The only way your choice of major might impact you as a freshman is that you may be assigned a freshman academic advisor in the dept in which you expressed interest-just so you get course selection advice from someone who knows the dept and possibly to facilitate a connection. But that depends on the school: At many, there is no connection between your expressed interest in a major and your advisor for the first two years. They know that many students change their minds, sometimes several times. Once you do settle on a major, you are generally asked to pick a faculty member as your advisor - which you’ll want to do only after having taken some classes in the department. Your choice of major generally has no impact on what classes you can enroll in, although it might impact your ability to get into an over-subscribed class: Some schools will give preference to students in that major. Most schools won’t ask you to choose a major until the end of your sophomore year.</p>