<p>Does the major you choose on the application affect their decision process a lot?</p>
<p>Bump</p>
<p>No.</p>
<p>Do the majors applicants choose in their applications affect the decision process? Maybe, who knows?
Do the majors applicants choose in their applications affect the decision process A LOT? No. Definitely no.</p>
<p>The reason for this is that Stanford admits at the University level. This means that whether you apply for Computer Science or History, if you are admitted, you are admitted to Stanford University - not JUST the School of Engineering or JUST the School of Humanities and Sciences. </p>
<p>At public schools that receive a large number of applications, there exist a couple of ‘Impacted Majors’. These majors are basically the super-competitive majors (for e.g, Computer Science at a UC) and you have to be admitted to these majors, not just to the university. Luckily, this is not the case at most schools (Stanford included).</p>
<p>As for Stanford, I’ve seen some really “oh he’s definitely going to get in” students specify ‘non-competitive’ majors in their applications (Film and Media Studies, Philosophy) and get rejected, and conversely, seen some really “that guy doesn’t stand a chance!” students specify relatively ‘competitive’ majors (Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Economics) and get accepted. </p>
<p>Be smart about it. The people in the Admissions Committee were not born yesterday. If you are interested in say, Computer Science, and have a bunch of CS work experience, STEM awards, programming projects, etc, but say you want to major in History, despite having shown almost ZERO interest in the subject during high school, the Admissions Committee will instantly recognize what angle you’re coming from. They see tons of these students every year.</p>
<p>Long story short, just put down whatever it is you genuinely want to major in. Whatever your admission decision turns out to be - accepted or rejected, know with a great degree of confidence that your choice of major had very, very little to do with the decision.</p>
<p>[Note, if you specify an Engineering major, try not to seem like a robot.]</p>
<p>Thank you for the response.</p>
<p>And also, what does it mean to not seem like a robot when applying for EE?</p>
<p>Great scores, grades, research, etc. but no personality, social aptitude and potential to bring anything to the campus apart from academics. After a point, it’s not about grades and scores, but rather about who you are as a person, and what you will add to Stanford IN ADDITION to your other talents (academics/extras).</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, my admissions officer told me after I got in that the office does not consider intended major at all. She seemed to really mean it: intended major has no impact because most people will change their mind repeatedly.</p>