Am I competing with everyone applying to that college, or just the people applying into the same major as me? So lets say I apply to Harvard, do I compete with everyone in the country applying to Harvard even though everyone has different majors or do I only worry about people applying in the same major as me?
I would like to know too, seeing how some people say how “x is a competitve major” and how they wish they would have had an easier major to get into, and then changed it when accpetted, I think you’re competiting with those of your major.
Harvard does not admit by major, so in this example, you would all be competing for a spot in Harvard College Class of 2020. Some public universities, e.g. UTexas, do admit by major.
At some universities you apply to a particular school e.g. Penn Wharton, CMU CS I believe and you are competing against other applicants to that school. But at most schools you are competing in a single applicant pool.
Some would say that you’re competing against people in your state, country(intl), or region. Schools like H want students from all over. They don’t want to seat a class that is only from the NE, or only has int’ls from China and India.
The answer for Harvard would be different than for a large state flagship where you apply to the school of engineering or the business school. For Harvard you first make the academic rough cut, then it depends on whether you are a legacy, URM, athlete, or development (rich). If you are none of the above than you are competing with the general applicant pool with sex and geography as other considerations. There are a number of good books and articles on how Ivy League schools build a class