Does Penn have any quotas for the amount of students they admit for a particular major? For instance, is it easier to get into math major then economics major because less people apply?
I was told by someone at Penn that it’s not easier or harder to get into most any major; rather, it’s about the best fit major for you.
So, for example, my son opted to apply to Fine Arts rather than DMD (Digital Media Design)-he’s interested in game design or animation or something creative like that-because he’s rather weak in math and I’m sure he would not have been admitted if he’d applied as a DMD major, but he had enough to bring to a Fine Arts major that he was admitted.
Does that make sense?
Thing is, he can switch to DMD if he decides, so it wasn’t a big deal.
Once you are in one of the four undergraduate schools, you can choose almost any major in that school. That means that if you are in CAS, you can choose to be a Math major or an Economics major. It is up to you.
The only two majors I am aware of that are within a school and you have to apply and be accepted separately are Networked and Social Systems Engineering (NETS) and DMD (Digital Media Design). Both are in SEAS.
The NETS program is a very demanding curriculum and there are a very limited number of places available, so admission is competitive. DMD I believe requires a portfolio submission. Except for those two, students can major in whatever they wish.
@Much2learn @sbjdorlo Thanks a lot! 
In general, most colleges don’t admit students based on a specified “major” (unless directly stated otherwise). It’s not unheard of for students majoring in something like a STEM field to switch into something completely unrelated (e.g. English) by the time they actually graduate with a degree, and most students will change majors.
However, as @sbjdorlo stated, it’s best to present yourself as a well-synthesized applicant. Since you aren’t locked into any specific major as you apply, it’s best to merely predict a tentative course of study that suits your interests and that you can easily write about for a prompt like the “Why Penn?” essay that was required of this year’s applicants.
I just want to adjust a little bit what Tiberium said:
Outside the U.S., the overwhelming majority of universities require that entering students apply to a specific major. If they are accepted for a specific major, and they want to change, they have to reapply and start over again.
In the U.S., that particular system is almost nonexistent. (I don’t know of anyplace where it’s in effect, but I don’t know everything – I just act like I do sometimes.) The most common system in the U.S. is that students are admitted to a specific university – sometimes to a specific school or college within that university – and they do not have to pick a specific major until later, usually by the end of their second year, sometimes the end of the first year. Many colleges will not permit a student to declare an official major until the end of the first year.
However, it is often the case, even at universities that mostly follow the rule above, that there are some majors or groups of majors you have to apply to in advance. Engineering is one of the most common of these, since ABET accreditation basically requires four years of engineering courses, so students have to start on their first day. At almost every college that has an accredited engineering program, you have to apply to that program when you apply to the college (although you don’t usually have to choose between civil engineering and electrical engineering, say, until much later). Nursing and Business are similar.
Many universities – and Penn is among them – divide their undergraduate programs into various schools, and you do have to apply in advance to a specific school, although not necessarily to a specific major within that school. So, at Penn, if you want to study engineering or architecture, you have to apply to the School of Engineering and Applies Sciences (SEAS); if you want to study nursing, you have to apply to the School of Nursing; if you want to study business, finance, accounting, you have to apply to the Wharton School. It is relatively easy at Penn to transfer from one school to another (except that only a few students are permitted to transfer into the Wharton School); at other universities, that can be harder to do. At Penn, the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) is by far the largest school, and encompasses majors from folklore and French literature, to economics, to physics and neurobiology.
At some universities, particular schools within the university may require you to apply to a particular major. For example, if you go to the USC School of Cinematic Arts, you have to apply to a particular program within the school (directing, producing, cinematography, screenwriting). That’s not exactly the case at any of Penn’s schools, but there is a handful of interdisciplinary programs or majors that do require an advance application, including the Huntsman program in international business, the Jerome Fisher program in management and technology, the Vagelos program in bioscience and management, and NETS and DMD (along with a few other interdisciplinary programs).
Another common pattern, but not at Penn, is for a university to limit admissions to particularly popular majors by requiring students to apply to those majors competitively after they have been at the university for a year or two. That’s sometimes the case with universities’ business program or their filmmaking programs. And, to make things a little more confusing, sometimes a university will permit (not require) high school applicants to apply for guaranteed admission into one of those programs later when they are applying to the university for freshman admission.
So with American universities, you have to read their admissions websites carefully to understand when you must apply to a particular program or school in advance, when you have an option to apply in advance, and when you don’t have to.
If the question is “does Penn consider your major when you apply?”, everything I know about Penn indicates “yes”.
The school is more important in some cases; Wharton is always harder to get into.
But the major does matter - my spouse’s major had hundreds of kids graduating, mine had like 20. Likely a lot easier for me to get in than for him. Some colleges tell students how many of a particular major they will take each year.
The school/program is the only thing that they will pay attention to. Colleges (not just Penn) are wise to the fact that once you are enroll you can change majors (and approximately 50% of students coming in with a major ultimately do change) within the school so they don’t put weight on intended majors.
Amy Calhoun, head of the DMD department, was wonderful in answering a myriad of questions both our son and we had about moving from Fine Arts to DMD, as well as other options such as adding the CS major in the College or even CS or DMD minor while staying in the College.
So, at least our experience, before our son has even hit the campus (which won’t be until Aug. 2016), is that at least some of the advisors really want to help students 1) find what they love, and ) graduate in four years.
It matters. In March in Admissions Forum here there was a thread about likely letters and that certain majors at Penn such as Chemistry are likely to get them. I have no idea if it was true but that was the speculation. As JHS was saying, one school that requires you to apply for a major is Cornell CALS. Definitely some are harder to get into like Dyson (Cornell Business) which was almost impossible this year.
Yes schools know that you can switch but for some reason, if you pick an unpopular major they do give it some thought.
From the specifics of the question and the example (chemistry or math) you’re asking about the College of Arts and Sciences.
This is what Penn has to say about the importance identifying a major when applying to the College of Arts and Sciences:
See:
https://www.college.upenn.edu/prospective/frequently-asked-questions-2
in my experience there is no reason to second guess Penn. The college to which you apply at Penn makes a difference, and in practice transfers between colleges (e.g. between Arts and Sciences to Wharton) are difficult.