Does your admissions at a college partly depend on what major you apply for? For example, at Purdue university an applicant who has a 3.8 and 29 act score can get denied if their applying for engineering, but an applicant with a 3.4 majoring in political science, education, or business might get in.
Many universities have separate admissions pools for different schools (e.g., college of engineering, colleges of arts & sciences, etc), but not so much for a specific major.
FYI, a 3.8GPA and 29ACT will likely be accepted into Purdue’s COE – the avg ACT of its matriculating freshman is 28 Composite.
Many schools, like what PrimeMeridian said, do not admit into separate schools.
The exception are programs such as Purdue COE. Similar ones would be nursing schools, UMich’s undergrad Ross Business program, IU’s Kelley Business undergrad, UMich CoE, etc.
It mostly only matters if you are applying to a school that requires you to apply into a major or a specific school (business, engineering, etc.)
However, my friend who graduated high school class of 16 thinks that putting engineering on all his apps really hurt him, bc his physics grades were not the best. At his top choice school he put down his intended major as engineering, and was rejected. Same with all the schools he put engineering down. At schools he said he was undecided or mathematics he was accepted. Could just be a coincidence though.
Of course, if a college is more selective for some majors, it can be difficult to change into those majors after enrolling.