Do you have more chances of getting into a college if you go as undecided major?Answered
I've noticed that in collegevine chancing simulator your admission chances increase or decrease depending on the major you pick, so keeping that in mind if I say that my major is undecided during college applications, does that increase my admission chances compared to when I mention my intended major.
Thanks in advance.
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3 answers
The rule of thumb is that if you are applying to a very popular and competitive major for a college such as applying for CS at Carnegie Mellon or Stanford, or Finance at Wharton or Stern, you are facing some stiff competition and the admit rate is much lower than applying as a humanities major. But I caution anyone from trying to deliberately game the system because college admissions officers are hawks for figuring out that you really don't want to study linguistics and want to transfer as a CS major after 1 semester. They do not like applicants who are blatantly trying to game the system. So if you are trying to do that you still have to ensure your application narrative supports that your ECs, internships, and research align with linguistics if you are applying as a linguistics major.
Some colleges want you to apply undecided because that is part of their culture. For instance, I don't think that it's a problem to apply undecided to MIT or Harvard, or Brown because they fully expect you to shop classes the first 2 semesters and experiment with learning. MIT is pass/fail 1st semester because they want you to do this. Also, Columbia is agnostic because they have a 32-credit core curriculum everyone has to take. So it's not uncommon at many top schools for students to change their major once, twice, or three times prior to graduating.
CollegeVine chancer doesn't mean anything definite and we have no idea how truly accurate it is. Going in undecided definitely doesn't improve your chances, it's a perfectly normal choice to make. However, it makes you look less tied together as a candidate, in my opinion.
If you're clearly passionate about something and it shows in your achievements/extracurriculars, at least put that down as your major, you can always change it, and it's easiest in the first year since you're completing your gen ed (classes everyone has to take unrelated to their major). Some colleges claim to not consider major at all, we don't know if they're telling the truth because many colleges also claim to not consider legacy and that's definitely not true.
For some colleges, certain schools or degree programs under them (Cornell engineering, UPenn Wharton) are higher in demand due to prestige and have significantly lower acceptance rates. That's not to say they dislike you for the major you apply as, you're just competing against more people for a certain spot. Instead of 5,000 art students or 3,000 undecided majors, you might be compared to 15,000 finance students.
Wouldn't recommend you use collegevine as the only thing to determine your chances. Many colleges allow you to send a application by stating general studies on your major. If you pick a generalized major (like let's say you want to maybe do something with marketing/money related pick business) or evaluate what major the majority of your preferred classes fall under that would be fine. You can always change your major by talking to your counselor/advisor in college. If you have no idea of even which COLLEGE to apply for, go for community colleges and see what you like and then transfer out when need be.
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