<p>Through personal experiences, I have concluded that one's predicted major has a definite influence on admission. For example, I hear majoring in Biology will probably lower one's chances because the level of competition applying for that major is pretty insane.</p>
<p>So my question:</p>
<p>How much exactly will the major you choose influence decision? Is it indeed not that important? (I am not planning to lie about my predicted major just for admission purposes, I am just curious)</p>
<p>From what I’ve heard and seen, not that much. Colleges know that you can and will change your major preference as your college career goes on.</p>
<p>at most schools, not much. The UC schools, for example, specifically say they don’t care about intended major within the College of Letters & Science. However they do care in Engineering, Theatre Arts, etc. Many top colleges such as Stanford say they don’t care about your major, period. Look at the admissions website of places you are considering; they will tell you if they take your major into account.</p>
<p>Depends on the school.</p>
<p>However, if the passion you talk about in your essays don’t match up with the major you noted down…</p>
<p>thanks for the responses! i am most specifically referring to Columbia University if someone can help me out =]</p>
<p>Depends. If you have a 600 on the SAT math section, you will NOT get to do engineering at Stanford. Similarly, if you have a 500 on the CR section, you will NOT get to major in English. On another note, choosing low-demand majors such as asian studies, will give you a slight edge over everyone else, given, of course, you have competent stats.</p>
<p>Oh, Columbia. hmmm… Engineering and journalism related majors are tough. Other majors like Economics and English should be comparatively easy but still… its Columbia, man.</p>
<p>Would choosing Biology as a major put me at a big disadvantage versus if I put English, etc.? (for columbia college)</p>
<p>At most schools it doesn’t matter at all. They only ask for statistical reasons, knowing that most people change their major.</p>
<p>At others, it does. I think a lot of engineering schools are like this; for example, Georgia Tech does care about your major. The engineering schools is harder to get into than their school of liberal arts, and it’s very hard to change your major once you’re there from what I’ve heard. That’s because they have a sequence of classes you have to take pretty much from Day 1 that don’t allow for a lot of exploring around.</p>
<p>At Columbia, your major absolutely does not matter when applying for Columbia College. You can put whatever you want.</p>
<p>
Gee, here’s what Stanford engineering has to say
</p>
<p>In my experience with Ivy admissions, they are looking for hungry learners – not settled job-seekers looking for a bachelors. Since they know they have enormous liberal arts offerings, they expect their admittees to sample a breadth of disciplines. Like someone else said, they know you can and probably will change majors. For the admissions office, the are admitting undergrads – it’s up to the individual departments to anticipate the number of students studying their disciplines.</p>