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<p>While this is true, they do consider your prospective major and whether accepting you would be advantageous for the department. </p>
<p>If you’re a gold medalist from the Int’l Math Olympiad, your chances would be higher if you say you’re going to be a math major than if you say you want to major in psychology.</p>
<p>Yea I agree with randombetch</p>
<p>Everything is asked for a reason. If your prospective major REALLY didn’t matter, they wouldn’t care to ask at all in the first place. You can’t say it has no hold on your chances</p>
<p>princeton isn’t the kind of school who only wants students who are good at one thing. the int’l math olympiad is a bad example because if you’re in the math olympiad, you’re probably good at other things too. if they really took prospective major into account THAT much, then prospective majors would be more binding (they’re the opposite of binding as it is). what you want to major in and how much you’ve thought about it/tailored your activities, coursework in HS, etc. to it says more about an applicant and their focus and determination than just saying “oh, i think i might want to major in art history,” so that’s why they ask. probably 90% of students here aren’t majoring in what they thought they would major in when they got here. also, i don’t know anyone who couldn’t major in anything they wanted and still do well/be really happy (i.e. physics majors who have better grades in comparative literature classes than comparative literature majors, etc.)</p>