<p>Logically, wouldn't the matter you choose matter? Colleges have to fill up all of their schools and courses otherwise they are wasting resources. Thus, isn't it highly likely that the intended major you select on the application matters for logistic reasons?</p>
<p>If this is the case, doesn't this mean that certain schools and courses are more competitive than others?</p>
<p>I bring this up because it seems as though it's something few college applicants on CC think about and I have seen many people in threads assert that choice of major does not matter.</p>
<p>The specific major generally doesn't, because many, many students change their mind once they're in college.</p>
<p>Now, if we're talking about different schools within a university, then yes, it does matter. A university's liberal arts college, business school, engineering school, art school, etc., will all have different admissions standards. But within those colleges, the major you pick will be irrelevant to your admission.</p>
<p>There is one exception, though- the UC system (and possibly other schools, though none that I've heard of) has some "impacted majors." They're extremely popular within those schools, and the admissions department can't possibly take all the qualified applicants who want to study it. From what I can see, though, they typically don't reject the qualified kids who want to study, say, bioengineering at UCSD, they just assign them their second-choice major.</p>
<p>In terms of majors though, if you select Biology as your intended major won't you be primarily be competing against kids who selected the same intended major.</p>
<p>My thinking is that kids who select math and science related majors are more likely than kids who select majors like english and history to have higher test scores and grades. (Is there a way to prove or disprove this?) Thus, if colleges did not consider majors wouldn't the admitted classes be more heavily slanted towrds math and science fields?</p>
<p>I think the best way to see how much your chosen major will affect your decision is to go on their website and see how hard it would be to switch majors once you're accepted.</p>
<p>"My thinking is that kids who select math and science related majors are more likely than kids who select majors like english and history to have higher test scores and grades. (Is there a way to prove or disprove this?)"</p>
<p>You have no proof of that, so why are you assuming that it would affect college admissions when it might not even be true?</p>
<p>
[quote]
You have no proof of that, so why are you assuming that it would affect college admissions when it might not even be true?
[/quote]
I know but it seems completely plausible. (I am basing this off of average test scores with schools that primarily have math and science majors versus schools that with primarily english and history majors.) Anyways, for the sake of the discussion assume it's true.</p>
<p>EDIT:
Actually it does not hold up. It held up for about 13 schools but once you get more and more selective it's impossible to make that assertion.</p>