Certain colleges such as Stanford University say that they don’t pay much attention to majors; that accepting the best possible students in each freshman class leads to the university having students in all of the possible majors. For them, somehow it all works out.

Some admissions offices pay a lot of attention to what students identify as a major; especially since various majors are more popular than others. These days, a few of the most popular ones include computer science, engineering, pre-med (pre-vet, pre-dental), business, communications and film. More importantly, for admissions offices, the acceptance rate for students interested in popular majors might be 20-50% lower than for students identifying other less trendy ones. In other words, the more popular a major you choose, the harder it might be to get accepted at a school.

Likewise, the acceptance rate for less popular majors might be 50% higher than popular ones. Thus, the less popular a major you choose, the easier it might be to get accepted.

LITTLE KNOWN FACT! Some admissions offices pay attention to the gender of the applicants for certain majors. For example, they like to find women wanting to major in math, the hard sciences, or other more traditionally male fields. They also like to see men identifying majors in female associated fields such as education, child development, or nursing. Students indicating gender contrary majors might get a slight edge in admissions.

Of course, one should not identify a major in which you are not interested just for the sake of possibly increasing your admissions chances. It’s always a bad idea to misrepresent yourself.

Here then are some considerations for when you identify a major on an application:

• For each college you plan to apply to, try to find out how important major selection is. You can usually find out about more or less popular majors from the admissions office and/or academic departments.

• Information about majors has implications that go beyond admissions. Oversubscribed majors may have larger than usual class sizes, taught by TAs rather than professors, and difficult to get into. Because of the large class size, faculty may be less accessible.

• If you want to major in a popular field at a college, think carefully about the implications. You might first look for some closely akin major that is less popular.

• Listing Undecided on an application form is also a viable choice.

• To help colleges see you as a focused person, it is okay to designate a major even if you are not totally sure about it. For example, if your academic and extracurricular background in high school involved a lot of science, then choosing a science major will make sense. What colleges are looking for are students with real intellectual interests.

• If you have a number of possible majors in which you are interested, including some gender contrary ones, as a woman you may want to consider identifying a traditional male major; as a male you may want to identify a female major.

adMISSION POSSIBLE® TIP! Many college students end up changing majors at least once during their college career. A good number change their major two or more times.