Undergraduate major matter or not?

<p>Whenever colleges are reviewing freshman applications, do they care what their major is? I have heard that it doesn't matter as a freshman because they have to get a lot of classes out of the way that don't even have to do with their major but I have also heard that colleges only want to accept a certain amount of people who major in psychology, a certain amount who major in engineering, a certain amount who major in journalism, etc..?</p>

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[Part</a> 1: Biographical Information | MIT Admissions](<a href=“http://mitadmissions.org/apply/freshman/part1]Part”>Getting started | MIT Admissions)</p>

<p>Colleges are well aware that most students change their minds about their majors. Unless admission to a major is selective (e.g. BME at Hopkins), your selection of major is highly unlikely to matter in admissions.</p>

<p>It depends on the college.</p>

<p>Colleges which are enrolled to capacity in some or many majors may admit by major; they may require students trying to declare or change into a nearly full major to apply to change major. This is more common with budget constrained public schools than the wealthiest of the private schools.</p>

<p>At some colleges, it does; at others, it doesn’t. Most colleges don’t care; it’s usually the colleges who have different schools for majors that care. I know at Georgia Tech (at least when I applied, but that was nearly 10 years ago) you had to specify a major and that DID impact whether or not you were admitted. You weren’t allowed to apply undecided.</p>

<p>Yep, that’s pretty much the answer: sometimes it matters, but often it doesn’t. I would add only that it should usually be clear from a college or university’s web site when it does matter. (Well, it should be clear always, but I’m allowing for the possibility that somewhere it might not be.) They will call those programs “impacted” or “limited enrollment” or some such thing.</p>