What's it mean to "apply to a major and get accepted into it as a freshman"?

Applying to College
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<p>What's it mean when people say they're like for example applying to the biomedical major or journalism major at a certain school and does this affect your chances of admission?</p>

<p>How do you get accepted to these majors? In a separate letter after your acceptance letter or with your acceptance letter? If the college doesn't want you in a certain major, can they just accept you and not give you your major or will the fact that they won't give you the major mean they won't accept you altogether?</p>

<p>I ask because a couple of admissions reps have been saying how great it is for freshman to get into their major right away b/c it's a lot more competitive to get specific majors junior year. So how does this system work anyway? Is there a separate application process for majors or is it just what you put down on the college app?</p>

<p>I was under the impression that the majority of high schoolers go in as undecided and that major choice doesn't affect admissions, but let's be serious: let's you have a 4.0 and 2200+ sat's-->so if you were applying to be like a classics or astrophysics major (or some other rare major) at yale, wouldn't that significantly boost your chances of getting accepted to that major (and consequently, yale) than say applying as a pre-law or economics major (which would probably cause you to be rejected unless you were super outstanding b/c its such a popular and un-diverse major)?</p>

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<p>Wouldnt they look at your choice of classes and EC in high school to see if you're bluffing just to game the system?</p>

3

<p>^@ polihist, well that's kind of my point, I wouldn't necessarily be bluffing. For example, I'm a girl so I'm guessing telling harvard I want to major in aeronautical/aerospace engineering (they probably don't even offer it, but just go along with it) would significantly boost my chances.</p>

<p>Plus I have the grades, test scores, and EC's to back this. I do Mathletes, I've taken a bunch of AP science classes and science subject SATs, oh and AP Calc BC too, and I did online classes on aerospace studies during my junior year. </p>

<p>But honestly, through doing all this, I've only realized how much I DON'T want to go into any kind of engineering, especially the kinds that rely heavily on physics (pretty much every kind of engineering except maybe biomedical or environmental), because i absolutely hate the subject. And aerospace engineering wasn't really my thing either. I'm really more interested in premed or creative writing.</p>

<p>However, as you can see, I obviously have the "proof", if you will, to convince any college that I truly do want to be a women engineer in my future. If I don't tell them I hate it, all evidence points towards the fact that I really do love it and truly am passionate about a future in engineering. I could easily convince Harvard (or any competitive school) that I want to major in aerospace engineering (isn't this a pretty rare major, especially for girls) so wouldn't this boost my chances?</p>

<p>And as for my own happiness and sanity: I figure I CAN still fulfill premed requirements with an engineering major (though I'd much prefer to be an English major) and honestly, I'd much rather be at Harvard even if I was majoring in janitorial services than at my state U with the major of my dreams. (sounds arrogant I know, but honestly it's more for personal reasons than prestige-->i want to get as far away as possible from home b/c of certain stuff i'd rather not mention and the only way my parents will pay for me to go to an out of state school is if its hyp/ivy level, they won't let me apply to any out-of-state public schools as a safety, gah it's frustrating b/c i honestly don't care where i end up going to college as long as its AWAY)</p>

<p>oh yeah and could someone please answer my other questions too about the whole application process for majors?? thanks=)</p>

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<p>well though im a senior as well the best answer I can give(generic CC answer) is to explain everything you just told me about doing engineering programs and realizing you dont like it in your essay.</p>

<p>Or you could apply to a engineering and switch into english since I imagine that would be a lot easier than vice-versa :p</p>

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<p>^but if i was trying to increase my chances of acceptance, the point is I won't say that I don't like engineering. I'll continue pretending like I'm in love with it and truly serious about it so that I do get accepted. </p>

<p>And then I suppose it would be easier to switch in to English, like you said, than trying to get accepted as an English major in the first place.</p>

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<p>Yeah I would go with that. I'm going to be doing the same with one of the EC im not in love with but have been doing it for like years since i've poured 1000s of hours into i - so your not alone in this :)</p>

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<p>bumping this, looking for answers to my other questions as well=)</p>

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<p>booooo!!!!!!!</p>

<p>BUMP</p>