<p>My D is applying to colleges this fall. She is interested in getting a broad liberal arts education but</p>
<p>Are you leaving us in suspense… or are you telling use she is undecided??? (or are you undecided 
)</p>
<p>Oops! I hit the “post” button prematurely! Anyway, here’s a more complete post:</p>
<p>My D is applying to colleges this fall. She is interested in getting a broad liberal arts education with a focus in the humanities and social sciences. She is highly unlikely to major in something like math, science, engineering- or culinary sciences, though you never know. </p>
<p>The thing is, she doesn’t know what her major would be. The honest answer to the question “what is your intended major?” is: “Undecided”. But my concern is that checking undecided might give the impression that she hasn’t really given much thought to her major- while the opposite is true. She has given a LOT of thought to the possible majors and she could discuss the pros and cons of several humanities majors at length. She has just decided that she needs to wait until after she has spent a year or so in college before making up her mind. </p>
<p>So the question is- for strategic purposes would it look better for her to choose one of the specific majors as her “intended major” when applying? She could probably make a strong case for applying as a creative writing or english major, a philosophy major or a polisci major. Her background and accomplishments would certainly support such a choice. But these are pretty common majors, and I’m not sure it would do much good to specify them.</p>
<p>Any suggestions or comments?</p>
<p>I read a quote somewhere (maybe not here?) from an LAC’s admissions officer - the general topic was boys having a bit of an edge applying to many LACs because more girls apply and the schools are trying to keep close to a male/female ratio - and the quote said something about it being a disadvantage to being a girl with an intended English major because there are so many of them. So - unless a you have some neat or unusual English major hook - I would say that saying you are undecided is not worse than saying you are an English major.</p>
<p>In some circumstances, it can be a disadvantage. It would be a disadvantage as compared to certain other majors. As MidwestMom states, there are many majors that have the same disadvantage.</p>
<p>Well, then, for that matter, is it an advantage to expressing an interesting an interest in, say, physics when applying to an LAC? I do not ask this rhetorically; this could be my son in a month or two.</p>
<p>It is not a disadvantage to be undecided.</p>
<p>My son applied to colleges as a decidedly undecided candidate – a veritable academic slut, with interests all over the place. He had excellent admissions results, including acceptances to HYP. He did do a good job of using his essays to create a snapshot of several of his core qualities and interests, both academic and extracurricular. I don’t think an applicant’s lack of certainty about a major or career goal is a minus so long as his/her application and essays give admissions officers an idea of who s/he is and how s/he became that person.</p>
<p>mantori.suzuki: If your son is applying to LACs that are looking to strengthen their physics departments (may be the case at some LACs) and he can back up his expressed interest in physics with tangible achievements, then yes, expressed interest can be an advantage.</p>
<p>OK, so English is not going to be better than undecided. What about philosophy? She has a very strong interest in philosophy.</p>
<p>vp: Honestly, I don’t think it’s going to matter, and I wouldn’t overthink it. If she’s undecided, it’s fine for her to say so. If she genuinely thinks she wants to major in philosophy, she ought to say that. But colleges know that most students change their minds about their majors, often several times. So an applicant’s projected major is not generally all that significant from an admissions perspective. Yes, there are some exceptions. Colleges looking to shore up weak academic areas is one example. Engineering for females is another. But again, unless the professed interest is backed up with tangible achievements in relevant academic areas, there’s no benefit.</p>
<p>if she is undecided she should say undecided, rather than play some strategic game, it will not be held against her. being honest and open about her interests is great, and there are many ways she can express these interests on her application and in her interviews, but to feel pressured to pick an intended major when her ideal is to explore for a year or so could cause unneeded angst.</p>
<p>My son recently graduated from a state uni. There were pages of philosophy, psychology, political science majors listed in the program. I doubt if anyone would be at disadvantage in applying as an undecided over any of those majors. On the other hand, there may well be departments at that college, or other colleges that are looking for more students. A classics major or German major might be highly desired at some schools over another “p” major or English major that they have so many.</p>
<p>Thanks guys, I agree. I was just trying to see if there were any contrary opinions here. She has pretty much decided to be undecided, although it is possible she may actually decide in the next couple of months.</p>
<p>My D applied as a transfer listing “sociology” as her major but really didn’t have hear heart in it so had to go to the U & switch at her earliest convenience. Of course, she switched to “undecided” and is now applying to multimedia arts in the school of cinema. Who knew? I don’t think it would have mattered at all whether she had applied as undecided rather than sociology (she had only taken one course) and actually it would have been less paperwork and stress than having to switch as soon as she decided she wasn’t really all that keen on sociology after all. :0</p>
<p>One of my daughters likes History but is interested in accounting after having a cousin go into it…she wonders if that would be better to put down (if they have that major of course) but would pick undecided before History…she thinks that is too common.
I don’t think it matters very much.</p>
<p>If your daughter’s interests include a subject that few people major in, such as philosophy, she might want to indicate that this is her likely major when she applies to college. The reason: entering students with unusual majors usually get faculty advisors in their major department right away.</p>
<p>On the other hand, entering majors in popular subjects, such as economics or psychology, usually get assigned to advisors in other fields because there aren’t enough economics or psychology professors to go around. And entering students who don’t declare a major could end up with anyone.</p>
<p>An admission officer at Dartmouth said in an info session that she had a special fondness for kids who put “undecided”. If you’re applying to a liberal arts school with broad distributive requirements, it is nice to indicate that you have a broad array of interests and will happily explore many areas. Of course if you’re applying to a large university which expects you to declare a major early and get to work on that major’s requirements, you better be able to tell that admissions office that you know what you want to do. Different types of schools have different expectations!</p>
<p>For broad interests, could “liberal arts and science” be her/his intended major? When my S indicated “undecided” when he took PSAT last year, I suggested him to take LAS major into account. He checked Math and Economics for his college guidance sheet at HS in this May. It’s good that he thought about his future seriously but I still think he may want to consider to take LAS major.</p>
<p>There is a class thing going on here. The Common App asks for a probable major, but back in the day before the common app I don’t think many (any?) of the prestigious, selective colleges asked that question (although places like Cornell, Penn, Northwestern always forced you to apply to a particular school). Honestly, I don’t think they care much at all, although it can be some advantage for a girl to have a strong math/science background (as shown by her transcript, activities, and essays, not her probable major, although stating a probably humanities major might dilute the advantage), and perhaps a very slight advantage for a boy to have an obvious interest in areas that tend to be heavily female.</p>
<p>I think schools strive to have about 1/3 humanities, 1/3 social sciences, 1/3 hard sciences. Beyond that, they don’t seem to care a whole lot unless a student shows interest in a very small program (and more than a passing interest).</p>