Does Applying to a Different Major Help

Majors are not equal—or at least, their numbers aren’t. Most colleges see a greatly uneven size distribution between the numbers of students per major, and so these colleges are forced to reject more applicants who declare majors that are particularly competitive at their respective institutions, on account of limited major department resources and space. This trend has bred the common idea that students can more easily get into colleges if they declare less competitive majors, those with lower demand—but the truth is not quite that simple.

Yes, the numbers are real, and so is the struggle, so the motive behind declaring differently is understandable. No one can deny the disparity in major sizes at different schools, of course. For example, 19.6% of the University of Chicago’s undergraduates are Economics majors, a huge difference from the second and third-most populated majors in the school, with 5.7% majoring in Computer Science and 5.4% majoring in Biological Sciences. This disparity in major populations throughout many schools is further exacerbated by the reputation and prestige of these populated majors in specific colleges, which cause applicants to pursue the already bursting major in hopes of learning from “the best.” It affects already-enrolled students too; students at UC Berkeley panic when it comes to class enrollment time because there simply aren’t enough spots in major-required classes to go around, and the college even warns students of this, stating, “Please be aware of high-demand majors in the College of Letters & Science.”

(This isn’t the case for liberal arts colleges. If one of your preferred colleges is a liberal arts college, like Harvard College and Pomona College, then disregard this competitive-major issue altogether. Liberal arts colleges generally have a fairly even distribution of department resources and thus don’t have major-related disadvantages, so you can declare your desired major in your application without worrying about its impact on your chances.)

But even still, you should be careful before sticking a different major on your applications—it can backfire. A declared major isn’t just any label stuck on the application package. It’s supposed to put a name to the trend of interests in a student’s application. An aspiring marine biology major, for example, will likely list their job at the aquarium, their internship at an ocean-side laboratory, the ecology class they made sure to nab junior year. Someone who applies as a marine biology major for that low-competition advantage, but has extensive coding tutoring experience and an internship for a tech start-up on their application, is going to find their chances hurt even more than they would have been just honestly applying as a computer science major. 

Often colleges will even ask applicants to explain their passion for a major in a supplemental essay, which a student who’s just claiming the major for the advantage may be hard pressed to do convincingly. College admissions committees want to see that your declared major has substance and genuine interest behind it, and saying something in words but not showing it in your high school career will leave them unimpressed.

All in all, applying as a different major doesn’t boost your acceptance chances. If your qualifications and high school career don’t suit the college admissions team’s tastes, then applying under the label of a less competitive major won’t push you past your perceived unsuitability. Again, a declared major is supposed to put a name to the trends in a student’s application, so if you really want to elevate your application in the eyes of college admissions, focus on strengthening your qualifications, and your application will speak for itself.