<p>Everyone says to leave the "intended major" as undecided so that schools cannot evaluate you based on what you are going to major in. I decided to put that my intended major is Aeronautical Engineering and I am going to answer most of the questions in the application in a way that will show the school that I am really passionate about airplanes. Do you think this will help me gain admissions? or should I just leave my "intended major" as undecided?</p>
<p>do a lot of people major in aeronautical engineering? thanks for the help</p>
<p>This is all 100% based on what school you're thinking of (while I really don't know anything about aero. eng...).</p>
<p>The school ranked #1 in it may be harder to get in if you declare that, but a school not even ranked may have no effect whatsoever. Note again, I know nothing about aero. eng.</p>
<p>Stanford doesn't have an undergraduate major in aeronautical engineering. Two minutes on their website revealed this:
[quote]
**Undergraduates enter Stanford with their majors undeclared. **Although Aero/Astro is primarily a graduate department, Stanford undergraduates may declare an Interdisciplinary Major in Aeronautics and Astronautics leading to the Bachelor of Science degree in General Engineering. <a href="emphasis%20added.">/quote</a></p>
<p>Applying to a school with a "declared major" that they don't have will simply illustrate to them that you are not paying attention.</p>
<p>Don't forget, some schools care about your intended major, some admit independently of intended major. Some do a mix, caring about certain majors but not others (e.g. if I remember correctly from when I did my apps back in 2002, JHU has a separate admissions track for biomedical engineering majors).</p>
<p>" Applying to a school with a "declared major" that they don't have will simply illustrate to them that you are not paying attention."</p>
<p>It is not true. Even Stanford do consider your intentions to major otherwise it may end up with a class of all computer geeks or bio scientists.</p>
<p>So if your intended major is not in demand at Stanford then you will be benefited by conveying your intention.
You can check the outgoing UG class for the distribution of degree conferred to know the major not in demand.</p>
<p>ParentofIvyHope, there's a difference between declaring a major on the application, and declaring that you want to major in something the school doesn't offer! It's not that it's "not in demand" at Stanford, it's that it doesn't exist!</p>
<p>you all make good points. If I decalare my major as undecided, then mention somewhere in my essays that I want to get a graduate degree in aeronautical engineering, will that work?</p>
<p>Still true- if you don't indicate that you want to major in bme on your app, you have a .01% chance of actually being able to major in it once at jhu (very rarely do they let anyone transfer in).
As a general note to anyone, you can be rejected from the bme path and still accepted to jhu (and major in something like biology or chem. eng. if you decide to go there anyway).</p>