<p>Should you declare majors?</p>
<p>Would declaring majors decrease your chance of admission in the top selective colleges like the Ivies? Thanks.</p>
<p>As a recruiter for an Ivy, I don't think so. This caveat however: if your stated major is Physics and your transcript and standardized scores don't reflect sciences as your particular strength -- your judgment might be questioned.</p>
<p>The Ivies and LACs are liberal arts schools that understand that many of their students will go and explore various fields before settling on one (or two). The fact that you state Chem Engineering but yet graduate with Economics isn't that unusual.</p>
<p>However, I wouldn't be surprised if some other schools do take this into account. I can only speak about Ivies and LACs</p>
<p>I don't think it will give you an "edge", but it might make you seem more focussed (if your intended major coincides with your ECs, etc.). </p>
<p>It's not an actual declaration of your major anyway, it's just an intended major, which might be beneficial to you in other ways. I host prospective students, for example, and the admissions offices places students with hosts and sets up classes for them to sit in on based upon their intended majors from their applications. I think this is also how first year students are placed with advisors, and it's nice to be with an advisor and faculty member from the begining in your area of interest. But many students enter school undeclared or change their major, or change their advisor, so I wouldn't feel any pressure to write something down if you don't know.</p>
<p>I think the only way it would give you an edge is if you were applying as a major in a department that the school wants to expand. Other than that, probably not.</p>
<p>I asked the HS counselor on this and she said if you really not sure what you want to major in then don't put a major that is considered competitive, like EECS at UCB for example, it's best to put undeclared.</p>