My daughter is not really decided on a major (wants to go to law school down the road). I’m wondering if putting “undecided/exploring” in major is a disadvantage?
She’s mildly interested in business but I’ve heard listing that could put you at a higher level of competition. The schools she is applying to are not super competitive (a number of state schools and smaller, mid-tier liberal arts). Thanks for any thoughts!
Since you mentioned business, my biggest concern would be schools that have direct entry. Although they normally have methods to transfer, it can be very difficult at some schools.
Imo, it makes it harder for adcoms to understand where you’re headed and how you prepped for that.
But plenty of colleges don’t care.
Thank you for those thoughts! Interesting point that if she is interested in business (maybe some combo of biz law, IT law, who knows) then it might be harder to transfer into that major at some schools (or, it seems like you are saying you have to apply to the business school directly?).
For some subjects and at some schools you do apply directly to a major: almost always for architecture, engineering, for example. Business at LACs is rarely a direct admit; it varies at state schools, so have your daughter check the specific schools she is applying to.
fwiw, some schools have special advisors for ‘undecided’ students, to help them navigate investigating possible majors while meeting GenEd requirements.
The main reason for putting a possible major is that it is used in assigning the first advisor.
Generally, no, I wouldn’t consider it a disadvantage, at least not in most colleges.
However, being disadvantaged from an admissions standpoint is different from being disadvantaged in terms of having to attend college an extra semester or two because you didn’t start out taking the right course requirements for what became your ultimate major.
There are universities where you have to pick a particular college to apply to. Usually such universities DO have a pathway for “undeclared”, but it may be harder to get into certain colleges later (e.g. engineering or computer science).
Thank you both for those thoughts! My daughter is not interested (at this point) in engineering or nursing (which I know most schools require incoming kids to apply to directly) or the hard sciences (where she could get behind based on incorrect course selection freshman year, it seems). More likely it seems to be business of some sort so will check out the requirements for that. Thanks again!
At some colleges, business is an overly popular major relative to department capacity, so it may be necessary to apply for direct admission to the major. In some cases, direct admission may not be offered, or many students are admitted to the school but not the major, in which case students face a competitive secondary admission process to get into the major after completing some prerequisite courses in college.
Thank you!! Bottom line - she’s insisted on putting undeclared on all her apps so far (except for AZ State where she put ‘biz with a law concentration’ and just got in (w/some $!).
She may apply for a few more so will look carefully before putting biz in as a major choice - I can see it depends on the school. Thanks again.