<p>I'm considering applying to Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, maybe Claremont Colleges, etc. and declaring psychology as the major. I scored 720 on Biology E, 700 on U.S. History, and 660 on Literature in June. I didn't study, so I'm planning to retake. Is there a combination of tests which would reflect my interest in psychology while also leaving me open for potential biology or humanities?</p>
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<p>AP Psychology…?</p>
<p>I agree with absent. Take AP Psychology, there is probably no better indicator of your interest in a subject than to have taken the most advanced course offered. (hopefully your school offers an AP course in Psych)</p>
<p>It doesn’t. I might not even be able to get into the regular psychology half-term course…have to take law or something instead. Hopefully I can note somewhere on applications that I wasn’t able to get the class. </p>
<p>It seems like a mix of science and humanities in both classes and tests would be a good way to show interest. I’ve taken AP Chem, AP Bio, World Religions, AP English this coming year, done reading about the mind…any other suggestions?</p>
<p>I know one Admissions Counselor commented to us that they like to see Philosophy on a prospective students transcript if the school offers it, in the absence of AP Psych. However, courses in AP Biology and Chemistry shows you have a great foundation. Should I assume by your name that you have taking Philosophy?</p>
<p>Your current combination of subject tests adequately reflects your interests in the potential majors you mentioned (with biology being very appropriate for psychology since so much of current psychology focuses on neuroscience). It’s a good mix of subject tests with one each in a natural science, a humanities field, and a social science. In any case, I very much doubt that it will make any difference whatsoever in your admission whether or not you take a subject test in psychology. (It might if you indicated an interest in French, for example, and you did very well on the French test or if you didn’t take the French test.) You won’t formally declare a major until later, and students often change their majors. You are NOT applying to a particular department. You are applying to a particular university or to a particular college or school within a university. So, in other words, it won’t give you an edge for admission whether or not you take a psychology subject test.</p>
<p>Ha nope, unfortunately my school is just a little above average for a public and does not offer such elitist courses. I’ve read a lot of Buddhism/various religious stuff, working on Atlas Shrugged (kind of the opposite philosophy), and I often read about politics and other cultural matters for “fun”. So I’m into pondering many different perspectives and philosophies…hence the name.</p>
<p>But no, the only similar class I’ve taken is World Religions. I was VP and now President of the community service club, as well as Co-EIC of the yearbook this year, so I’m hoping that reflects some interest in the humanities. World Religions club too.</p>
<p>Maybe I should consider journalism. Or apply undeclared? I’ve read that undeclared can be dangerous as well, however.</p>
<p>zapfino: Thanks for that reminder…I’m ignorant about the different colleges. So it seems biology and psychology are both in L&S. I would just be applying to that college rather than to either major?</p>
<p>Edit: Or would I apply to a particular department? People talk about applying to Berkeley EECS, which is a department of the college of engineering.</p>
<p>What high school offers philosophy? I think it’s strange that an admissions counselor said that because very few high schools offer philosophy as a class, especially if said school is already lacking psychology. A school is much more likely to have psychology than philosophy.</p>
<p>Generally speaking, though, I don’t think your combination of subject tests has to reflect interest in a particular major. Most schools are open-major for applicants, meaning that a prospective political science major generally has just as much chance of getting admitted as a prospective biology major. It doesn’t matter whether you choose journalism or whether you go in undeclared - there’s nothing “dangerous” about undeclared. Most college students might as well put undeclared on their application anyway, since the chances of changing the major are so very high. Few people are capable of deciding what they want to study for the next four years at 18, especially when they’ve had absolutely no experience in the field thus far.</p>
<p>Also, psychology is not in the humanities. Sometimes it is considered a social science and sometimes it is considered a natural science, but it is not considered one of the humanities.</p>
<p>juillet, our D’s high school offers Philosophy as an elective in the senior year. The Admissions Counselor from the LAC that mentioned this to us recruits a lot of students from our High school and is very familiar with the courses offered. She mentioned it as an option if D was unable to get into AP Psych but fortunately she got in.</p>
<p>RandomPhilosophy, that’s correct—you’re applying either to the college/university as a whole or to a particular college/school within a university, not to a particular department. So, in your case, you’d be applying to L&S for UCB or UCLA, Humanities & Sciences for Stanford, and at Claremont, you’re just applying to the college as a whole.</p>
<p>In the other example you gave, someone interested in Engineering would be applying to the College of Engineering. At a large school like UCB or UCLA, I’m not sure if that applicant would need to specify a particular engineering department, or whether when people you hear talking about applying to EECS they’re just commenting that that’s the field of engineering which interests them.</p>
<p>BobbyCT: Are you from the East? I’m in an average Northern California suburb, and academics at my school don’t seem to be the main focus. We barely have four AP classes this year.</p>
<p>juillet: I’d probably go undeclared if I knew I had the same chances of admission. Why, though, do people claim that it’s harder to get into Berkeley (for example) when applying to EECS? Would they have been admitted if applying to a less intense department?</p>
<p>Edit: Just saw your post, Zapfino. I guess that’s an answer to my question. Thanks. Any other thoughts would be welcome.</p>