Impact of Intended Major in Admissions for Princeton

Applying to College
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Hi, I am applying to Princeton RD and was wondering if anyone knew what the impact of your intended major on your admissions is. I am interested in Economics but I am worried that because it is such a common major at Princeton, this will hurt my admissions chances Thanks!

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Impact likely non existent. They assume people change their majors anyway a few times.

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Impact is zero. Princeton does not admit by major.

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None of us are admissions officers at Princeton, so we don’t know the answer. Publicly they state no impact of admissions decision based on choice of concentration.

But look at it from the admissions perspective. They have a total of 37 concentrations between the BS and BA programs. Some of the concentrations have very few students each year (foreign languages). If they came across a student with demonstrated interest and involvement in that foreign language, and also met the academic criteria, they will probably get a closer look. Princeton wants to admit a variety of different students who will end up in different paths. They don’t want to admit all econ majors.

So while they publicly state they don’t admit by major, I think they do take a careful look at “fit” and try to balance. They realize that students change their minds and may switch to another concentration.

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Also, an applicant for an unusual major with plenty of stuff to prove that the unusual major is a genuine interest may be more interesting and memorable to admission readers than the 10,000th economics major applicant aiming for a Wall Street job.

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Completely agree with above ^^^^.

Note that simply switching your intended concentration to something like Slavic Languages, Literature and Linguistics won’t fly. They can sniff out disingenuous applicants like this very easily.

You’ll need some extended ECs, essays and other factors that can point to your interest in that obscure major/concentration to be believable. Its probably too late to do that now.

So unless you have a genuine interest in something else, it might make more sense to apply as you intended.