How does your major affect admissions?

How does your major affect admissions?

Every college in the US offers different majors and some are more popular than others. So if you are applying to UPenn for Business you will have a lot of competition. The same is true if you apply to UC Berkeley for EE or Stanford for CS. Therefore, you should research your colleges of choice and see if there are other majors that still work for you if the one you've picked is super hard to get into. Only do this if you are not a top contender for that major.

Are you more or less likely to get into a college depending on your passion?

Just because you are passionate about something doesn't mean you are any good at it nor can show evidence that you are a strong candidate for that major at that school. For example, you might think you are a great artist but your portfolio is not very strong. Or you might think you are passionate about medicine but you have Bs in AP Bio, AP Chem, and AP Stats. These are only some examples where you might be passionate about a major but other applicants have stronger transcripts, test scores, ECs, and intellectual curiosity that supports that they are a better fit for that major at that college.

On the other hand, if you are passionate about playing the HARP as an instrument and are really good at it and have won awards and honors and that college has an opening for a Harpist, then you are golden. Or let's say you are a great Water polo goalie and that college has only 1 goalie on the team that played is a senior, then you are golden as well. You can apply academics or other spikes as well and be in great shape if you can back it up with evidence of your unique talent and skills.

Hope that is helpful to you.