Pros and Cons of Applying as an Undeclared Major
Elton Lin
Many students, even high school seniors preparing their college applications, don't quite know which major they want to pursue. Maybe there are too many majors that interest them, making it difficult to boil their choices down. Maybe your student wants to pick a major that sets them on a career path, but they haven't committed to their intended career yet!
There are many reasons any student may not know which college major to choose. It's no wonder why so many students apply to colleges as "undeclared" or "undecided" majors each year.
Should your student be one of them (in the case that the colleges your student is eyeing don't have applicant requirements for declaring a major)? Though each student's circumstances are different, here are some possible pros (and cons) to applying undeclared:
PROS
Without major-required courses, undeclared students have greater flexibility in choosing classes and exploring fields that interest them. They can take some more time in college testing the waters before committing to a certain major—especially at liberal arts colleges, which tend to be more flexible with major declaration and requirements, allowing students that bandwidth to explore.
Some schools, including Brown, SUNY, and the University of Washington, allow students to design their own individualized major. For students who have a very specific or niche interdisciplinary interest, not initially declaring a major can be the pathway towards building their own major or concentration.
CONS
Declaring a major as an incoming college freshman can help students get into some major-specific classes early on in their college career. Certain classes are often restricted to students who have declared the relevant major, so undeclared students may find themselves blocked from taking certain classes they want to take.
Some schools have specific departments that don't allow students to switch into their related majors, often more competitive ones (e.g. Computer Science, Biology, Engineering, Business).
There may be major- or department-specific scholarships and financial aid opportunities that an undeclared applicant would be unable to acquire, even if they were interested in declaring that particular major in the future.
Applying undeclared may make writing a "Why major?" application essay, or an essay asking applicants to explain their academic interests or choice of major, a trickier task.
However, note that these pros and cons largely do not impact the evaluation of your student's application. Many of these instead impact your student's college experience only after they matriculate. While applying undeclared is perfectly valid if your student truly does not know what they want to study, it is not an admissions strategy! Instead, students should treat applying undeclared as another factor to consider when planning their applications and college lists. (For example, an undeclared student interested in engineering probably should not be banking on a college list leaning heavily on UCs, where they will be competing with many declared engineering majors.)
It's understandable that your student might not have their career or academic plans figured out yet as a high school senior. No student should feel pressured to choose a major simply for the sake of choosing a major; they should choose a major when they feel ready to do so.
Also, a common myth about college majors is that students can't change them once they've chosen them. (Check out more myths about choosing college majors on our blog.) A report by the U.S. Department of Education indicates that 33% of undergraduates in four-year colleges trying to get a BA decide the major they’ve chosen isn’t for them and change it accordingly. This is within three years, meaning some of these students change their minds fairly late into their college careers!
Your student's college major is definitely not set in stone. Colleges have resources for students to help them figure out their academic and career paths. For example, college students can talk to their academic advisors or counselors about their interests and goals (or their indecisiveness regarding the two!), and their counselors should be able to help them navigate major requirements, credits, major declaration deadlines, and more.
Like these academic advisors that help college students, we at ILUMIN know full well that each individual student is at a different stage of figuring out their academic interests and paths. If you want to learn more about how we at ILUMIN can tailor a specific plan and college list for your student, feel free to set up a free consultation with us!