For seniors doing college applications … does proposed major have a factor at all in the evaluation/admission process? Have heard some say its not a factor and that the college picks the students based only on gpa, scores, etc… but others have said that it does come into play when selecting students. Any thoughts or opinions? Was specifically wondering for colleges such as University of Georgia, Florida State and University of Florida…
For frosh admission, it depends on the college.
Unfortunately, many colleges’ web sites are not very clear about whether you are applying specifically for a major, or a division (e.g. arts and sciences, engineering, business), or the school overall.
However, if a particular major or division is more selective due to it being full (the usual reason for a major or division to be more selective), that means that enrolling in a different major or division and trying to change into the more selective one involves going through another admission process based on college GPA and possibly other criteria.
UF does NOT consider major for freshman admissions.
I believe that’s the same case at FSU (with the possible exception of these limited access majors that require acceptance prior to the freshman year: Dance, Film (Animation and Production), Music, and Theatre).
Both UF and FSU have other limited access programs.
For example, lets look at two limited access majors at UF, mechanical engineering major and accounting:
Mechanical Engineering
Complete the critical tracking courses in your first 5 semesters ( CHM 2045 or CHM 2095, MAC 2311, MAC 2312, MAC 2313, MAP 2302, PHY 2048, PHY 2049, approved science elective)
2.5 GPA required for all critical-tracking courses
2.0 UF GPA required
Accounting
Complete 8 critical-tracking courses: ACG 2021, ACG 2071, CGS 2531 (or ISM 3013), ECO 2013, ECO 2023, MAC 2233, MAC 2234, STA 2023
3.0 GPA required on all attempts of preprofessional courses
3.0 UF GPA required
You may want to research possible majors at both schools. However, in the above examples, your original choice of mechanical engineering or accounting would have had no impact on your freshman admission chances.
Depends on the school. It’s definitely true for direct admit programs. And there are certain majors at certain schools that are easier to get into than others. The danger of applying to one of the “easier” majors is possibly getting stuck in a major that you really don’t want thinking you can switch into something else (which may or may not be possible).
I don’t know specifically for the 3 schools you cited, but I know it to be true for VT and Penn State.
It depends on the college and it depends on the major.
Agree with @thumper1 At TCNJ, a well regarded state college, there are many pre-med students that want go to a good value school and major in Biology. But we can’t have half of the class majoring in Biology. So they have to admit by major.
At CWRU, they have a single door admissions policy…you are admitted and can freely change from what you stated your major to be to anythign if you want.
Sometimes, it’s not “admitting by major,” but a serious consideration of how prepared you are for that study you indicated in the Common App. Can’t say Latin, if no experience, and expect them to go gaga. Can’t necessarily get into stem, without the right past courses, grades, and ECs.
At Carnegie Mellon if you are accepted into humanities or business you cannot call them and ask that it be switched to computer science. You would have to apply as an internal transfer at the end of the freshman year and transfer is extremely competitive.
It is my belief (cannot prove it) that even top colleges which says it does not ask you to write down a major, an area of interest IS a factor in reviewing the application with an eye toward that area of interest. I believe there was no way my kid would have gotten into Stanford had he written down “Mathematics” as the area of his interest.
I have nothing but anecdotes…but if you want to ACTUALLY major in a lesser coveted major at a university–put it down. Some programs are still hungry for applicants even at popular universities.
Your indicated major (and your background substantiating your interest) matters a great deal even for colleges that supposedly do not care and place no major restriction. If Stanford, for example, were to accept a large percentage of applicants with strong STEM background, Stanford wouldn’t be able to weed out some of these students if too many of them declare themselves to be CS majors (the most popular major), since the weed-out courses wouldn’t be barriers to these students. Stanford, obviously, doesn’t tell you that (even if you ask).
The Common App asks your proposed areas of study. Even you put ‘unknown,’ I agree with 1NJParent that they will look at your academic and EC strengths. Nor can you put down, say, English and present as all STEM. It won’t make sense, unles you have the goods. Similarly, you can’t say STEM when you’re missing rigorous math/sci and related ECs. Not for top colleges.
If you do want a less coveted major, they check courses and activities. There are kids who, say, go to a STEM hs and want a different major. But the succesful ones can back up that interest. It has to make sense.
Just writing down a less competitive major will not be enough to get you in though. Your son’s ECs and recommendations must have lined up with the area of interest that he declared. If his EC’s had been all STEM based but he declared his area of interest as “12th century Flemish poetry”, his application would have received nothing more than an eye-roll and a one way trip to the reject bin.
Replies #6, #11, and #12 suggest that the student needs to have selected a college major or set of related college majors of interest early in high school and then optimize his/her selection of high school courses and ECs to focus on that major and set of majors in order to have any chance of admission to a highly selective college.
Of course that means that students who change their minds in late 11th or early 12th grade, after previous course selection and EC participation have been “baked in”, will not be considered credible, since their course selections and ECs will not match.
It also means that students who are undecided may choose courses and ECs that are not focused on one particular area, and hence may not be considered that credible regardless of what intended major they indicate.
No wonder some students and parents are so stressed at trying to meet seemingly impossible standards.
Check to see what the transfer realities are for direct admit schools. Some make it quite difficult to transfer from one major to another internally. I know BC pretty much tells you up front that it’s virtually impossible to transfer in to the CSOM (business school) but not difficult to transfer out. Apparently admission in to CSOM is harder than other departments and they don’t want kids gaming the system (I also imagine there is no room as finance and accounting are quite popular at BC).
It’s very college specific.
In a general sort of way, most of the older LACs and Ivy League and their ilk don’t accept by major. As I recall they do ask if you are thinking about a particular major, and it may be a plus if you pick something that is undersubscribed. (Such as Blossom’s example of Latin.) A few years back Harvard became concerned that they were getting to many students clustered in the same majors - mostly at lead to consulting, banking and medical school. They put out that they are also interested in humanities and creative arts. It’s still on the admissions website: https://college.harvard.edu/admissions/apply/what-we-look/valuing-creative-reflective
Carnegie Mellon does admissions by college - if you want to major in CS you need to apply to the School of Computer Science, Engineering requires applying to the School of Engineering (which has various submajors.) Some of the schools have a bigger variety of major, but basically if you are completely undecided CMU is probably not the best place for you.
My younger son applied undecided everywhere except Georgetown where he applied to the School of Foreign Service. His reasoning was that although he was interested in IR he hadn’t done anything in high school that pointed in that direction. His ECs were Science Olympiad, the literary magazine and orchestra. He did not like the kids doing Model UN, so he didn’t do it. His language was Latin. He did better than we expected in admissions, though not surprisingly he didn’t get into Georgetown. (It was a superreach in addition to the issue of no relevant ECs.)
Although note that 3 of the 8 Ivy League schools formally admit by division, where division is determined by your intended major. For example, intended engineering majors would apply specifically to the engineering division at those schools.
Yes, typically engineering is a separate school. Which three Ivy League schools? Penn has Wharton. Cornell has a weird structure. Those are the only two I know of.
Columbia, Cornell and Penn have separate engineering/applied science schools (and other schools/colleges) that applicants have to apply specifically to.
@Otterma Agreed. That’s what I thought I implied. My kid’s ECs, the way he expressed himself in his essays and his life experiences all lined up well with his interest area. He did not have to say he was passionate about anything because everything in his application proved he pursued one area with relatively deep commitment.