My son is planning to apply RD to Dietrich. He’s mulling over a few majors so I was wondering how the acceptance would work. Is he accepted to a specific major or is he accepted to the College (and can choose a major later on)? Are double majors realistic there? He’s thinking history, poly sci. and possibly economics.
Would appreciate any information anyone can provide on this - thank you in advance!
ED requires identifying a major such as econ or psych. RD doesn’t. However, if your son is interested in certain majors, he should list them. Admission in RD is usually by college and majors can be declared at a later time. In fact, if I am not mistaken, he could also list upto three areas of interest
Double majors are realistic and quite common but as you would expect require good planning. But definitely doable
My son is a sophomore in Dietrich. He was allowed to declare towards the end of Spring semester, Freshman year (not before). One can declare as late as the end of Sophomore year, and it is relatively easy to switch majors within the college. As already mentioned, it is easy to double major (or, rather, take what they call an ‘additional major’) with careful planning. However, that doesn’t leave much room for additional courses beyond distribution requirements – especially if one also desires a semester abroad.
Thanks for the responses. It sounds like he would have some flexibility to solidify plans between March of this upcoming year and sophomore year. Guessing something like Econ. will require him to take a course or two during freshman year just given the sequential nature of the courses, but that’s no different from economics majors at other schools.
Also wondering about his SAT Math score. 740 so on the low end of the middle-range; is that range pushed up due to the nearly 2/3 of DC doing DS/IS/Stats? His M2 subject test is also a 740. His EBRW and a USH subject test both 790 so problems there. Just a tad worried about Math. Thoughts?
My DS says Dietrich has become quite competitive for admission. He is super impressed with the intelligence and focus of the new freshmen. Last year it had a 14% admit rate. This year – who knows? CMU has changed many aspects of their admission procedures in the last two years. I doubt that any past statistics or trends are predictive for next year’s class.
If your son is interested in the school, it is certainly worth the effort to apply. He should also have lots of other options. We found admissions outcomes were rather inscrutable – we have no idea why some schools offered my son merit, and other schools that were supposedly less competitive rejected him.
Also – I do understand there is going to be a new major at CMU that combines politics and economics. So this is something to keep in mind.
@psycholing he might enjoy combining political science and economics. He’s definitely someone who would double-major or take advantage of an interdisciplinary program.
His goal would be ED2 at UChicago and then RD at a bunch of places. Has included CMU given the level of rigor. Thought the admit rates on the admissions website reflected applications as opposed to applicants (one applicant can apply to more than one college of entry). How that would impact DC - no clue. It’s no surprise that it’s becoming harder to get into and that they’ve had to cut out stuff like supplements or demonstrated interest. My son will be visiting but in late January, after his application is submitted. I think he will really enjoy his visit.
D was admitted ED into DC this year. 800 in both the SAT math section (1530 overall) and SAT M2. GPA of 4.53. Yet, we had low hopes given the competition these days. As mentioned above, best approach would be to spread your bets. Many of my D’s peers at her HS are applying there RD after being deferred/rejected at ivies and they have solid stats.
That said, your son’s stats are certainly in the range and it will come down to the other parts of his application.
@NumbersG - congrats to your daughter! S19 is just like your D’s friends - deferred at an Ivy LOL. Agree with you on the whole application - he’s a great kid but he’s up against some incredible achievers. Your D’s section score fits the more typical profile of being higher on math than the verbal. He’d be a counter-example. I noticed that his 740 Math concords to a 33 on the ACT which happens to be some stated average for DC. Whether that’s a mean or median isn’t clear. Depending on how the math distribution is skewed, one’s probably going to be higher than the other :-B
Fortunately, the only one hyper-focusing on this is me - he thinks his scores are fine and it’s really about the other parts of the application at this point. Can’t argue with that perspective!
Thanks and all the best to your son as well. I think his verbal score will certainly be viewed favorably by DC. Also, he’s obviously a quality applicant if still in the mix at an ivy. So, decent odds, I ‘d say and certainly worth pursuing