I feel like engineering is one of the easiest because ivys are weaker than engineering schools but lots of people still apply ee or computer science.
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Anyone looking for the easiest majors to be accepted to have little or no chance of being accepted to any major.
Most Ivyâs do not admit to a specific major. You better be excellent all around no matter what major you may want.
Whatever major correlates with your extracurriculars and academic strengths. Most colleges want to admit you if they think you will be successful in the path you have chosen. So if anything, make sure you cater to your strengths.
Ivies donât admit by major though so no major is easier to get into. And due to the amount of people applying, I am sure they have no trouble filling up programs. That being said engineering is definitely not easy in any school (Ivy or otherwise) due to it being a popular field.
They may not admit by major (as in, to a specific school of engineering,) but they can review you per the major(s) you state. Then they look for your reasoning and prep, which are also indicators of your thinking level. And, as LM notes, how you stretched with related ECs. If you donât have a reasonable background for the major you state, or the thinking skills, you wonât get far by just checking a major you think offers a tip.
Why would you want to go to an Ivy if you want âeasyâ ? Save your money and go to a directional or a community college.
You were also way off about the engineering part, just look at Cornell.
Ivies do not admit by major.
Also, what can make it seem âeasierâ to get into a major is if you have ECs and hobbies and good grades in classes related to that major. That can demonstrate to the admissions committee that you will succeed in that major. Just checking off a major you think is easier to get into wonât help you.
At three of them (Columbia, Cornell, Penn), admissions is done by division, where the divisions are defined by the majors offered in them.
In general, regardless of school, if a specific major or division is more difficult to get admitted to as a frosh applicant, it will also be difficult to get into after enrolling in another major or division. I.e. it will have a GPA requirement higher than needed to stay in good academic standing, and/or have a competitive admission process to get into the major.
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Cornell University consists of a number of separate colleges that each have separate admissions.
IIRC, the College of Agriculture, and I believe the College of Human Ecology as well, do admit by major.
The various majors in the Ag school definitely do vary in admissions selectivity. The Dyson program, which is located there, is reputedly the most selective admit in the whole university. These days. Majors like Agronomy or Animal science might be easier to get admitted to. Though this is just my speculation, the data is not published.
Besides the two colleges named above, the other college that is a member of the so-called âStatutory Divisionâ there, the College of Industrial & Labor Relations, only has one major. The âdivisionâ label there, which is not that commonly used actually, just denotes which colleges get partial state funding.
The College of Arts & Sciences (âCASâ), and the College of Engineering (âCOEâ), do not admit by major.
I donât know what the deal is with the College of Hotel Administration. These three colleges constitute the so-called âEndowed Divisionâ, which is just an organizational designation for the colleges that do not get state funding.
At all universities, even where admission is not formally done by major, it is not necessarily the case that the admissions department is completely blind to applicant educational plans vs. the universityâs staffing resources. If a college admitted 100% pre-med applicants, what would it do with all its Philosophy professors? It may be true, overall, that someone targeting a relatively less demanded major may have some modest numerical advantage. Itâs just speculation though, for people outside the admissions process. And thereâs no data.
You could look at Common Data Sets and see what majors have the fewest graduates. This wonât be a guarantee because one doesnât know how many applicants were admitted with an interest in those majors. Plus it could be that admission awareness is working the other way: there are few resources for such majors, so applicants expressing interest in those might be disproportionally rejected. For all we know.
@FiddleSticks First off most ivies donât accept by major and do not favor applicants that have disclosed they intend to pursue a certain major. Even for those who accept engineering separately, i.e. Penn, Columbia, Cornell you still need to be extremely competitive just as the other successful ivy league applicants to get in. Keep in mind that for undergrad the quality of the specific department matters in conjunction with the quality and name of the overall school so you do have many applicants that choose an ivy over a school with a bit better specific department but overall lesser quality, perception etc.
I donât have any current data, but back in the day, at least, the statistically easiest programs to get into were:
-The School of General Studies at Columbia (but you canât apply directly from high school)
-University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing
-Cornell University School of Hotel Administration
- Cornell University College of Human Ecology (but probably not equally for all majors there)
-Cornell University College of Agriculture (but definitely not for all majors there; certainly not for Dyson/AEM or Biology)
But getting into these schools/majors likely depends in part on specific qualification for them, and fit. Which probably involves obvious demonstrated interest. And , youâd best want those programs because, as someone mentioned previously, getting out is not absolutely assured. At Cornell, if youâve been doing decently, switching was quite feasible when I attended. IIRC they even had a program dedicated to inter-college transfers. But it is probably not equally easy for all colleges/majors. (Though COE to CAS was a well-worn path). And there is no guarantee that you will actually do decently. Iâve read elsewhere on CC that it is very difficult to switch colleges at Columbia. And Iâve read that it is hard to switch into Wharton at Penn. Nevertheless I know a few people who did it. They were in Arts & Sciences there.
âIf a college admitted 100% pre-med applicants, what would it do with all its Philosophy professorsâ
Theyâd teach all the âpre-medsâ who switched majors. Not that pre-med is a major, but you know what I mean.