On an application, should a prospective student declare a major/career even if...

[Laura K (NC)]

nt

[Brenda in MA]

Laura,

I would think that the answer to your question would depend on the particular school. Some schools we looked at required students interested in a particular major (engineering) to apply to the school of engineering during the application process. Applications were reviewed for that major and students were admitted to that major (or not). For instance, at our state U, my son applied to engineering and was admitted. One of his friends applied to engineering and was only admitted to "general studies". The friend was told that he could take the Intro Engineering courses his freshman year and if he did well, he could petition for entry into the engineering major he wanted -- but, if that major was full, he would be out of luck.

Other schools we looked at during the process said that once you were admitted to that school, you were free to choose any major they offered. So it's probably worth your time to investigate the specific situations/policies at the schools of interest.

HTH,
Brenda

[Gwen in VA]

One of the schools dd1 applied to gave out statistics on what percentage of the freshman class declared which major and then what percentage later switched. Nearly 50% of the freshman had applied listing "undecided" as their major!

Like Brenda said, the more specialized schools do require special interests, but if your child is applying to a liberal arts college or to the liberal arts school within a university, I don't think there would be a problem with your child saying "I don't know!"

[CynthiaOK]

For my son it was necessary to declare a major because there were scholarships available for him *if* he declared. I was worried that he might change majors, but so far he's committed (freshman year almost done).