<p>My father and I are at a disagreement (yet again!).</p>
<p>I'm applying for merit scholarships at this top 20 school. Obviously, there aren't a lot of spots available for me to take.</p>
<p>My question is: does the fact that my essay shows I'm a little undecided on my major hurt me when I'm compared to applicants with similar statistics? Applicants who sound very sure of which direction they're going to head for?</p>
<p>MY idea is: people change majors average of 4 or 5 times before declaring one. Colleges know that students are never sure of what they want to do. So, undecision shouldn't be the determining factor in scholarships.</p>
<p>Any comments/2 cents? Thanks!</p>
<p>Depends on the institution UC Berkely accept students into Engineering solely based on the declared major and you are not eligible to change once you are admitted. So you need to get more information about the school before applying.</p>
<p>Also even when the school says it doesn't based their admissions on the declared majors they still take into account your passion thru your course of study. Stanford knows most of their students graduate with biology but they still look for music, humanities major.</p>
<p>This is Vanderbilt and their scholarship FAQ says that no scholarships are awarded for specific majors. But the one I'm applying for is the general scholarship (it's not even leadership/community service based)</p>
<p>Thanks for the response, IvyHope!</p>
<p>The guidence counselors at our school recommended that kids choose a major if they are applying somewhere very competitive, like Vanderbilt. It especially helps if your major is one of the less common ones.</p>
<p>So I guess the short answer is that your dad is probably right unless you are picking a major that is so popular that it doesn't differntiate you in any case (ie, bio, econ, english). But if you can sincerely say that you have a passion for Latin, you would be doing yourself a favor to mention that you might consider majoring in that area.</p>
<p>I can't speak to scholarships, but I know in terms of general admissions "they" (in general, couldn't talk about Vand specifically) always say that there is no penalty for applying undeclared. As long as the essay itself doesn't seem unfocused or something like that, I wouldn't see it as a disadvantage</p>