What I’ll cover in this blog:
-Should I select the same major at all colleges?
-How can I optimize the choice of major to increase my chances of admission?
-Points to consider when choosing the major
-Benefits of researching and optimizing major selection
-How Goal Admit can help
Should I select the same major at all colleges?
Why is choosing a major so important? If I’m interested in studying Computer Science I should apply to study Computer Science everywhere right? Wrong. If you’re planning to apply to an impacted and high-demand major like Computer Science, Data Science, or even Biology, it is arguably the most important decision you can make. Because the difficulty of getting admitted to a particular major varies a lot based on the college you are applying to, it’s best to tailor the major selection to the college. Another factor is the rigidity or flexibility of switching majors – this also varies based on the college and needs to factor into the major selection decision. So strategizing the choice of major for each college you are applying to could make the difference between acceptance or rejection.
How can I optimize the choice of major to increase my chances of admission?
If a college does not allow switching easily to high impact majors, and studying that high impact major is important for you, there is no strategy. You just apply to the major you want and hope for the best. Carnegie Mellon University is an example of a school that does not allow you to switch from say Math to Computer Science – they are offered in two different schools within the university and switching into the “School of Computer Science” or the “College of Engineering” from say the “Mellon College of Science”, is very difficult.
If there is some flexibility offered at a school, and if you yourself are okay with studying a “lower” major just in case you do not get in to your desired major, we can strategize. For example my younger son wanted to study Computer Science, but also liked Math and was perfectly okay with studying Math at a school if he was unable to switch to Computer Science. So now we had a basis for a strategy. I think we did a great job strategizing for him, and he got into many top schools primarily based on this major selection strategy – choose “lower” majors at more competitive schools. So he chose Math at the University of Michigan and USC. He chose to apply “Undeclared” within th eMath/Data-Science/CS department at the L&S school at UC Berkeley, since at that time all incoming L&S students needed to complete prerequisites and apply to the desired major after a year or two. So everyone was essentially “Undeclared” at the time of admission to the L&S school, and not specifying a particular major I believe helped him get admitted. He chose CS+Philosophy at UIUC because he was genuinely interested in Philosophy. He chose an obscure “Logic, Information and Computation Program” at UPenn. For colleges that he wasn’t particularly keen on that were far away, like Georgia Tech and UT-Austin, he stuck with CS.
With this strategy, he got into a lot of great schools like U-Mich, UIUC, USC, and UC-Berkeley. He did not get rejected from any UC – admitted to UC-Berkeley and the bottom 4 and waitlisted at UCLA, UCSD and UCD. He finally accepted UC-Berkeley and managed to get into Computer Science there. He is double majoring in Cognitive Science as well.
For my older son, he wanted to study Biology so we had less wiggle room in the choice of major. We did try to differentiate amongst the various choices within Biology, applying to “lower” majors like Marine Biology and Environmental Science at the more competitive schools. He got admitted to multiple good schools like UT-Austin, UIUC, and UW and eventually chose UW.
Points to consider when choosing a major
1. You should be willing to study the major that you apply for, in case you do not get the major you actually aspired to get into. Being flexible and accepting that you will get a degree in Data Science instead of Computer Science, will help you adjust to any feelings of disappointment.
2. Look up the career prospects of the major you are choosing. The goal of a college education is to set the foundation for a career and financial independence, so look up likely jobs and salary ranges for graduates of your major. Do those jobs align with what you want to do? Do those job descriptions excite you? You really do not want to get an English Literature degree if a writing, journalism, or teaching profession does not appeal to you. Or if you want to earn six figure starting salaries. Unless you have a long term plan of going to graduate school and becoming a lawyer, in which case the English Literature degree is a strategic stepping stone.
3. Don’t think of a particular major as a do or die choice. “If I don’t get into Computer Science my whole life is ruined”. There are many pathways to success and they’re not all linear. And your interests could change during college as well. The most important key to a successful career is to enjoy what you do. I know a friend’s son who started out taking engineering and computer science classes in college, decided he did not enjoy them, and switched to study filmmaking. Definitely better to find out at 18 or 20 that you are not interested in a field, before you invest years in a profession that you do not enjoy.
4. Don’t give in to peer pressure. You do not need to do pre-med or computer science in college just because all your high school friends want to become software engineers or doctors. It’s easy to figure out if you are passionate about it based on what you choose to do in your spare time. Do you learn coding languages on your own, participate in hackathons, or develop websites in your spare time? Do you volunteer at hospitals and enjoy your medical-related extracurriculars and clubs? If your extracurriculars and hobbies are not aligned with the major you are planning to study, please rethink whether your choice is your own or whether your parents or friends are influencing your choice.
5. Parental pressures are stereotypical in Asian communities – become an engineer or a doctor. If your heart’s not in it, have a talk with your parents. Explain to them that you will be unhappy and likely not successful if you do not enjoy your career path. Explain to them that in America it’s possible to make a decent living in any field. You and your parents need to give up the “what will people think” line of thought. People who really care about you will accept your choices. Everybody else’s opinion should not matter.
Benefits of researching and optimizing major selection
It’s a fact that most colleges get a disproportionate number of applications for the most popular majors. And despite increasing the budgets and faculty headcount for the most popular majors, there are only so many students a college can accept for a particular major.
Another aspect in admissions decisions is the diversity of the student body. No college wants all their students to be Computer Scientists or future Doctors. College communities thrive on interactions of students with diverse interests. Classrooms are more challenging and interesting to teach and attend if the students are not homogenous.
From the college point of view, restricting the number of students admitted to popular majors makes perfect sense. From a student perspective, you need to think of how to get past this bottleneck if you want to study an impacted major.
This is where research and strategy is very important. At the most basic level – apply to the “lowest” major that you can live it, that you can get away with, that you could potentially transfer out of, in order to maximize your admission chances. And weigh your options based on what is important to you – is a great college more important than the major you study there? Would you be happier studying Physics at Harvard than Computer Science at UT-Austin? Or are you completely inflexible on your choice of major regardless of where you end up having to study it?
One mistake the top 4.0 students make is in aiming for the most difficult major. I know numerous personal examples of complacency leading to rejections at top schools. Unfortunately a 4.0 GPA, 1550+ SAT score, research credentials, internships, and excellence in extracurriculars are no longer guarantees to admission at top colleges in their impacted majors. Because there are too many such candidates. Unless you have a compelling narrative that can differentiate you from the scores of other valedictorians, do not assume that your grades and test scores can get you into the major of your choice. Be selective in where you apply for the most impacted majors and mix it up. Maybe apply to Computer Science in a few of the top colleges, and Data Science and Math in others.
I do believe that major selection is one of the most important strategies in the college admissions process, making the difference between acceptance or rejection.
How Goal admit can help
Each student’s resume is unique. Goal Admit can help sift through your credentials and help you choose a major to apply for at each of the colleges you plan to apply for. We’ll provide the research and data to back up the choices. Because our goal is to get you admitted to the college of your choice.