If you are a student applying to U.S. universities, you may notice that many schools offer the option to apply as an “undecided” or “undeclared” major. Most students may hesitate and feel that selecting this option will, somehow, lessen their chances of getting accepted into their dream schools. As someone who applied to all eight Ivy League schools with an “undecided” major, I know that is definitely not the case. While there are schools and/or degree programs that either require or would be advantageous for students to declare a specific major on their applications, there are many scenarios when applying as “undecided” could be more beneficial. It really depends on an individual student’s situation.
So what might be some of those situations?
When you have several interests, but not one very strong passion yet. It is difficult to ask most 17- or 18-year-olds to decide exactly what they want to study the next 4 years or know what they want to do as a career. In this case, it would be better to use the first year of college to explore various courses before deciding on a major by the end of freshman year or beginning of sophomore year. Colleges usually have a core curriculum that all students are required to take, no matter what their intended majors are. Use this time to fully research potential fields of interest. You’d be surprised at how many students have unexpectedly “discovered” an area of interest that they had not come across or thought they were good at before. Throughout high school, I always thought writing was my weakness, so I assumed a math or science major would fit me better. However, after taking an expository writing course in my freshman year at Harvard, I realized that I was actually quite skilled in analytical writing. Hence, I ended up choosing a major in the Humanities.
When you need to strengthen your grades in your core field of interest. For some students, they may know what they want to major in. However, their secondary school grades may not be competitive enough to enter the specific programs if they apply with their declared majors. This usually applies to the math and sciences core fields. In that case, it may be more beneficial for students to apply as “undeclared” and then use the first year to improve their grades in courses that are taken at the college level. Keep in mind, however, that this strategy would only work for majors that do not have required courses that students would need to take from the first day of freshman year.
When you are unable to choose a major from the available choices and, instead, want to design your own major. Some universities allow students to create their own majors to align with their very unique passions and/or career goals. This may entail combining majors or coming up with a brand new one. In these cases, students would usually need to make a very strong case for their customized majors and get approval from the involved departments once they have matriculated at the schools.
So what’s the big takeaway from this? If you find it difficult to select a major when filling out your U.S. college applications, ask yourself this question: “Have I learned enough to make this informed decision right now?” If you feel unsure, and if the college you’re applying to allows it, then declare yourself as “undecided.” Don’t be nervous about it. Furthermore, it is not uncommon for students to change their majors early on in their college years, which indicates that interests can shift as students learn more about various fields and potential career paths. Really take the time to think about your situation and talk it through with your high school counselors and family members to see if applying as “undecided” or “undeclared” would be the best option for you. Should you select this option though, keep in mind that your personal statement should align with your declaration of being an “undecided” major. For example, you wouldn’t want to be writing about your passion in space exploration and not declare one of the sciences as your major. That just wouldn’t be logical in the eyes of the admissions office.
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