One of the most common questions a college counselor gets is whether a student should apply undeclared undecided if they don’t know what major they want.
Let’s look at the various reasons why one might apply undeclared and see what the best option for your application might be.
When you SHOULD declare a major of choice…
Let’s talk about something we like to help craft here at Great Expectations: your narrative. Your narrative refers to the bird’s eye view of your high school career, and what sort of through line ties everything together. Your narrative or high school arc should reflect who you are, where you’ve succeeded, and how that fits with your college and major of choice.
Let’s look at a hypothetical:
Student A is an incredible math student. She has taken both AP Calculus AB, BC, and AP Stats and scored a 5 on all the AP tests. She got a perfect score on her Math SAT section and is the president of Mathletes. It’s her dream to go to Purdue as a Math major. She has visited and spent a summer there. She has wonderful rec letters from her Math professors and even a loose email communication with a Purdue Math professor whose office hours she visited last summer. She is applying as a Math major.
In short, her narrative aligns with perfectly with her major of choice, so she should absolutely declare it.
In summary, you SHOULD declare a major of choice if
- Your narrative aligns with your interest and proficiency in that major
- You have significantly researched it and understand the structure of the major, all the classes involved, and the possible prospects tied to it
When you SHOULD NOT declare a major of choice…
- You actually don’t know what you want to study in college. If you are truly undecided, that is okay! The key is to not choose a major for the sake of your application.
Another little hypothetical: Say you applied to UC Berkeley with a major in Conservation Law (a popular pre-law major). This program is in the Rausser School of Conservation and Resources. Every single major in this program has a STEM-angled conservation background and a wealth of prerequisites. Then, halfway through your freshman year, you realize that Science isn’t for you and you want to major in English. English is in the College of Letters and Sciences, so not only do you need to switch majors, you need to apply to switch colleges within the University. It also happens to be extremely hard to transfer out of Rausser due to its competitive nature, so if you were accepted, there is little flexibility down the line.
Don’t pigeonhole yourself into a major you know nothing about just because you think it might be a ‘back door’ into the school. It might be a back door into a room you have no interest in entering.
- You have an idea of what you want to major in, but your high school courses and GPA in that area do not reflect that interest. This also applies if you haven’t had the chance to take these classes yet. Let’s look at another hypothetical example…
Let’s say you have a solid 3.9 unweight GPA, an ACT score of 31 and lots of great extracurriculars with leadership. A bird’s eye view of your application shows someone in love with liberal arts – with A’s across the board in English, History, and Book Club (which you’re also the president of). But, you took AP Chemistry your junior year, fell in love with it and now want to apply as a Chemical Engineer. Should you put that as your major on your application?
This is a little more difficult. Of course you should apply where your passions are, but rather than putting that as your major of choice, perhaps an essay or two that reflect it. Why?
In a competitive major like Chemical Engineering, many students will have applications that perfectly reflect their interests. Not that you aren’t competitive, but your straight A’s in History and English aren’t proving to the admissions committee that you’ll be an incredible Engineering candidate. This is when you should go undeclared, write about your interest in it, then take all the STEM pre-recs your freshman year in hopes of applying to switch to the School of Engineering.
In summary, you SHOULD NOT declare a major of choice if
- You aren’t sure what you want to study
- You have a major that interests you, but your narrative doesn’t reflect your interest
- You haven’t done the proper research into the major or college
Overall
Of course, these are all hypotheticals and in reality, your application probably sits more on the borderline. Maybe you’ve taken a wide range of courses and succeeded in all of them, then what? Maybe you can’t see the throughline in your application.
If this sounds like you, it might be time to reach out to a GE counselor to get a second pair of eyes on your application. Our counselors specialize in helping your application represent you in the perfect light and find the programs that are the perfect fit.
Happy application season!
References
U.S. News & World Report (Holmes, Duda, 2020)
UC Berkeley, Rausser College of Natural Resources (Smithe, 2022)
