How much impact does intended major have?

[Anonymous]

My son is wrestling with what to include as his intended major. We have heard biology is a dime a dozen but his true intended major is biology (marine biology specifically). He has extracurriculars and his essay backs this up. His desire is to major in marine biology bc it’s a true interest and see if it’s a viable career path (we know nothing about what one actually does as a marine biologist) but also to take required premed classes to maybe go into a health field of marine biology as a career doesn’t seem appealing.

To me this is a healthy approach (I mean what 17 kid truly knows what they want to do with their lives??) but if he states marine biology is that putting him at a disadvantage versus maybe history or classics which are less popular??

[Anonymous]

Take this with a grain of salt b/c we aren't through with applications, but I've heard major has an impact more with engineering (lots of apps, all high stats) or with nursing. I don't see bio vs. marine bio making a difference.

Here's infor for UVA (as an example):
FIRST-YEAR ENROLLMENT TARGETS BY UVA SCHOOL FOR 2024:
College of Arts and Sciences 3,015

School of Architecture 95

School of Education (Kinesiology) 60

School of Engineering 725

School of Nursing 75

Anecdotally, I've heard engineering is harder than A&S. Also, the dean said that you are only really declaring a major for nursing or kinesiology. I'm assuming that can also increase competition.

[Anonymous]

Does your kid have a lot of demonstrated focus for major? Clubs/ECs/summer programs? Has kid done island school?

How selective are the colleges? Cornell has a marine biology program but requires extensive evidence for major.

[Anonymous]

His counselor may have some advice. My Pre med DD was told to apply to human development at Va Tech rather than any other typical pre med. she didn’t apply but I through it was interesting. She said she’d been told this by Tech.

[Anonymous]

Marine biology is a distinct major which is not offered at all schools-certainly not as common as is biology. I would specify "marine biology" without any concern of being lumped in with "biology" majors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Marine biology is a distinct major which is not offered at all schools-certainly not as common as is biology. I would specify "marine biology" without any concern of being lumped in with "biology" majors.

Incredibly hard to find a job. And should be at Scripps or a school near the ocean.

Marine biology at your typical land locked state school - no way

[Anonymous]

In California for state schools, it’s huge. There is a significant difference in average GPA admits depending on intended major. Engineering i mechanical is the hardest followed by CS. Neuroscience, environmental engineering, chemical engineering, civil engineering, are all often over 4.0 even at less well known Cal state schools.

[Anonymous]

We were also told by the director of recruitment at one of the universities we visited, to apply to a smaller subset of biology bc everyone applies to biology and it ends up being more competitive. Biochemistry, genetics, microbiology, etc tend to have less applicants, and even if there are less slots, they tend to be easier to get into.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son is wrestling with what to include as his intended major. We have heard biology is a dime a dozen but his true intended major is biology (marine biology specifically). He has extracurriculars and his essay backs this up. His desire is to major in marine biology bc it’s a true interest and see if it’s a viable career path (we know nothing about what one actually does as a marine biologist) but also to take required premed classes to maybe go into a health field of marine biology as a career doesn’t seem appealing.

To me this is a healthy approach (I mean what 17 kid truly knows what they want to do with their lives??) but if he states marine biology is that putting him at a disadvantage versus maybe history or classics which are less popular??

I think it's totally school dependent. Some don't care at all. Some want to know school (A&S, Engineering etc). Others are major specific. Think that's why you have a list of 6+ schools compromised of reaches. targets and safeties.

[Anonymous]

Agree this depends on the college. For some, undecided is the golden ticket. For others, if you don't declare and get accepted into a specific school, you won't be able to transfer into it later.

[Anonymous]

I agree with the "it depends" comments. I am not associated with admissions at all, so take my thoughts with that in mind From what I gather from my research, I think much of the commentary on biology as an 'over-declared' major has roots in the pre-med track. For many students who aspire for the medical field, biology seems like the natural track for that. It is also a given that at any given school a substantial number come in thinking they will purse one thing and eventually pivot to something else as they learn more about what opportunities exists in the world.

Except for majors that have a tendency to be impacted (often seem to be the more pre-professional tracks), or significantly undersubscribed these days (English, Classic, History), Im not sure it matters that much excepts as it pertains to showing uniqueness and individuality.

If you have 10 students stating an interest in Biology and 9 of them are Pre-med with one interested in pursuing Marine Biology as a profession, all things equal, marine biology stands out a bit more - assuming its an authentic application. If I were taking 4 of the ten, i might add-in the marine bio for diversity of interest in a class.

[Anonymous]

For colleges where you are just applying to arts and science or a LAC college, it probably does not matter one bit. And his "why us?" supplemental will be much stronger if he's looked at the course catalog and can honestly say that some of the bio or marine bio classes are his dream classes that match up with his extracurriculars. For a school that has no supplementals and is still a LAC college or university where you don't declare until sophomore year, it probably doesn't matter but he could choose history if he wants to test that approach.

[Anonymous]

It depends on the college. DS should also find out how easy it is to change majors at each school. In some places, it's nearly impossible to get into another program, at others switching is very easy.

[Anonymous]

It depends. We weren’t strategizing, but looking back, it I think it was a major piece of DC’s acceptance at WM. DC applied for an IR/critical foreign language double major and had some very significant and unusual things already on their transcript and in ECs to make it seem likely they would stick with that combo. And they have.

What I didn’t realize is WM is a small school and needs to keep departments running in critical languages to keep the IR major strong (and IR is one of their strongest majors). But, Dc’s language department has maybe 6-10 grads a year. They really need majors in that department, because keeping it functional supports a much larger, more important (to the college) major.

Unhooked applicant accepted ED with a GPA below the 25th percentile from NOVA. Something tipped the application into yes. I think it was the language major with the very real receipts from HS to back it up and indicate a talent for and interest in languages and that area of the world.

Then again, maybe the essay or a LOR struck a note with an AO. It’s an opaque process.

My other kid was STEM and their preferred science field didn’t seem to hurt. Or help. Applied to WM (also admitted) and a range of LACs.

[Anonymous]

Regarding the comment for where to apply -
The marine biologist I know went to GW Undergrad.
Hobart William Smith has an Aquatic Science major (They are on a lake)
My niece did research on watersheds while at Virginia Tech
Just sharing as sometimes there are things out there that you had not considered