<p>I'm a senior hoping to go to an Ivy League or equivalent university. I have some distinctions in creative writing, a particular foreign language, and history. I originally listed these three subjects (English, the foreign language, and history/politics/government/etc.) as my intended majors on the Common Application, but I just found out that Philosophy includes the philosophy of language, similar to linguistics, as well as the philosophy of logic, religion, and other things that highly interest me. I also have a mostly unexplored fascination with the classics. Because of my deep desire to study all these topics and my own habit of speculating on unanswerable questions, I think that Philosophy would be perfect for me. However, I don't know how if colleges will understand my reason for putting Philosophy as my intended major. I don't want them to think I'm just picking some obscure thing, but I don't have any philosophical awards or anything (for that matter, I don't think any high school students do).</p>
<p>Any advice?</p>
<p>They won’t look down upon you for putting philosophy. If anything, they may think highly of it since not many people go to college wanting to study philosophy from the beginning. Many of the top colleges have essay sections where they ask why you want to study a particular field, so you can answer more in depth on those apps.</p>
<p>To get a true answer, you would need to look into the soul of the person reviewing your application … Oh, no, That is Metaphysics. … How do you feel about putting Philosophy down… Oh, no. That is is Psychology. … It is what it is - Zen and the art of applying to colleges.</p>
<p>When you list your intended major, they do not ask for justification. If you put “engineer”, would you feel a need to explain yourself? The school just wants a “context” for reviewing your application. If you wanted to be an Engineer, they would expect to see more math and science classes. As an English Major, they would expect to see more literary type endeavors. Most HS students don’t really know what they want, and if they did, most end up changing their majors anyway.</p>