Does,anyone know if you apply to a competitive college (Ivy league to very selective) and chose to major in one of their least popular majors would it be easier to get accepted?
At some schools it would be easier to get accepted but then it would be almost impossible to do an internal transfer to the competitive major. Colleges that admit by major are aware of this trick. So you should be prepared to get your degree in the less competitive major.
The Ivies generally do not admit by major.
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There is no trick you can think of that admissions officers haven’t seen hundreds of times over.
If you apply to a school that accepts by major then the chance of making an internal transfer into the major you do want is slim.
If the college does not accept by major then admissions officers are well aware that you can switch majors once you get to college.
The only time applying with an unusual major could be helpful if is you have a long term history of having a strong demonstrated interest in that subject (ex. coursework, activities, research etc.).
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There are two answers here:
Some schools ask for your major and hold you to it. If you try to change majors it’s either impossible or very competitive. At these schools, yes, choosing a major in medieval German culture would help you get in to the college. But then you have to study medieval culture for four years. It’s not a back door way to get into computer science.
Some schools ask for your major and don’t hold you to it. They just want a general idea of your interests and how deeply you’ve thought about your education or career goals. However, if you profess a love of medieval Europe as your educational goal but have four years of robotics as your primary extracurricular, they’re not really going to be fooled.
Every year someone comes up with lying about your major as a clever way to increase your chances. It’s not. Colleges are well aware of this “trick” and will not be impressed. They either discount majors so it doesn’t affect results, or they hold you to your word to discourage this tactic.
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If intended major makes a difference in admission selectivity, it can be difficult to change into a more competitive admission major after enrolling. The reason is that the majors which have more competitive admission are that way because they are enrolled to full capacity, so that there is little or no space for students who want to change into them.
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Why is getting into a selective college more important than majoring in something that interests you for career preparation?
Because if you want to do a pre-med track it really doesn’t matter what you major in as long as you get the pre-requisites for med school in, so history to philosophy to physics its all good! Also, many of those selective colleges take from within their own school first and then look elsewhere so it pays to get in as an undergrad, that’s why. (Dartmouth for Dartmouth med school for example)
Med schools do not give a rip about where you study. They care about your GPA, your MCAT score, your letters of recommendation, and that you have met their medical job-shadow/volunteer requirementa.
Likewise, it doesn’t matter much at all where you go to med school. What matters can be where you do your residency.
^ Beat me to it. If you want med school, you do not need a “most” or “highly” competitive college. You need a cooperative learning environment (as opposed to competitive or a school that brutally weeds kids out of pre-med ideas.)
One issue with pretending to want the least popular major is that, lol, they actually hold the least seats for that.
Other than that, @AroundHere said it well. Holistic means they look for evidence of interest, the classes and activities, in and out of hs. You show it or not. And if you don’t, they can question your thinking.
Actually, according to the admissions rep at Dartmouth when we toured there last June they said they gave preference to Dartmouth undergrads for Dartmouth med (all things being equal regarding MCAT GPA and all that obvious stuff for med school admission that most know of). As do other schools for their med schools, like UNE for their DO school. Some do not for PA schools, like Sacred Heart University since they are looking to grow their program and don’t give that preference then (per another admissions rep at yet another tour we were at, we have done some homework on this subject) I am well aware of what you stated above regarding GPA, MCAT…
Also well aware that if you don’t have the extras in HS such as volunteering in at hospitals and great recommendations you are not getting in to a good solid undergrad. My query was simply what I asked about, ie. is getting in easier with a less popular major, which “@lookingforward” kind of answered (less popular = less seats) couched in talk of things I already knew and was not asking - Happy Holidays!
A pre-med student should major in something that s/he likes and is good at, because it will be easier to maintain a medical-school-worthy GPA in a major that one likes and is good at. Major selection also matters for the majority of pre-meds who get shut out when applying to medical schools, or do not apply due to GPA and MCAT being too low, and need to make alternative career plans.
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If you are truly interested in a less competitive major and have the academic background and ECs to back it up, yes it helps.
But you can’t just declare a live some a subject with no concrete basis for it.
For instance, if you’re very interested in Philosophy, at that level of selectivity, you will have taken all English and History classes available to you, have an excellent level in foreign languages (perhaps dabbled in French, German, and Latin through CC or summer classes), you’ll have founded a philosophy club at your high school, probably joined MUN or Debate, and in all likelihood if there’s a nearby community college taken at least one class in philosophy there.
If your background is CS and robotics, it won’t work, college admissions can see through it.
In short, if it’s a genuine interest or possibility, it will show through everything you did.
In addition, what matters most for a premed (as mentioned above) is a collaborative environment and absence of deliberately weedout classes.
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With some colleges, selecting an uppopular major may help somewhat but you also have a risk it could lower chances of admission. The issue is this: popular majors get a lot of applicants but the college has it set up, with classrooms used, nimber of professors, degree of services, so that the popular major has a large number of seats available, and thus the college can accept a large number of applicants to the major. It spends a lot less money on unpopular majors because the number of applicants and those accepted is a lot lower. Thus, for example, the college may have 150 seats avaialble for a popular major but only 15 for an unpopular major. The result is that any small growth in the number of applicants for the unpopular major can have a significant impact on the percent of applicants accepted for that major, and if a lot decide to apply for the unpopular major on the assumption that gives them a better chance of admission, the result can possibly be that they actually have a lower chance of admisison than that which exists for popular majors. In other words, you should choose the major you actually want and don’t try to game the system.
Perhaps the intended meaning of “popular” and “unpopular” majors would be in relation to the majors’ capacities at the college.
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.considering differences in PS, ECs, LoRs, MCAT (total/subscores), GPAs, interviews, are things ever equal between applicants?
In the olden days, college majors changed frequently. Now, I see from CC there is a push to declaring majors at admissions, so wonder how many studnts change majors now.
As pointed out in an earlier test post, there are resources attached to majors, especially if basic degrees requirements are housed there. Resources also flow in the opposite direction such as as a small, well regarded major with superb faculty. This crown is certainly
worth paying for.
For quite a long time, business has been a preferred major with a mind numbing curriculum in my opinion. Now CS is very popular now. The strategy of admission to a competitive school by declaring interest in a less popular major with the goal of changing to a popular major strikes me as a poor plan. The popular program has probably accounted for attrition to teach remaining students had basic classes in the major probably have few seats to offer to students outside the major. That makes timely completion of requirements challenging, and there may be few slots for students changing from less interesting majors.
Choose a good school that will admit you to your desired major and get on with your life and career plans.
Bad idea. if you choose your intended major just because it is the least popular one but you do not have the background to support your choice then you will get rejected. Top colleges are not short for students for any major.