Which Is Easier to Get Accepted to School of Engineering or Arts and Science

Does your major impact your credence into colleges? Can choosing a less pop major requite you a meliorate shot at getting into your dream schoolhouse? If so, what major is easiest to get into college with?

At that place are a lot of misconceptions about the role your intended major plays in college admissions and which majors are "best" for people hoping for a higher access gamble. This guide will explain everything y'all demand to know on how your major affects your access, which majors are typically the well-nigh competitive and to the lowest degree competitive, and if it'southward a skillful thought to choose a major based on acceptance rates.

Does Your Major Affect Your Acceptance Into Colleges?

Does your major touch on access into a particular college? The simple reply is: no. In the vast majority of cases, your intended major does not touch on your chances of being accepted to a sure schoolhouse. A big office of this is because colleges know many students volition modify their major sometime during higher. Data shows that about a third of students will change their major, and about 1 in ten will change their major more than than in one case.

Colleges are well aware of this. This means that, in most cases, colleges don't consider the major you lot put on your application to be bounden or even an authentic predictor of what caste y'all actually end upwardly graduating with. Many colleges don't fifty-fifty require students to officially declare a major until the end of their sophomore year because they look students to change their minds every bit they take dissimilar classes. So your intended major isn't a factor schools consider, in most cases.

When Does Your Major Impact Your Acceptance Chances?

There are some instances when your major does bear on your admission chances. This typically occurs with large public universities with multiple departments and limited slots for each major. The most well-known is the University of California system, ix schools that together enroll more 280,000 students. The UC schools rent faculty and staff based on predetermined enrollment numbers of dissimilar majors, and they wouldn't be able to accommodate it, say, if 10,000 students suddenly switched from technology to political science. So students go put into slots based on their intended major and, while it's possible for them to change their major once they're enrolled, they're not always guaranteed a new spot.

To make sure they take enough resources for each student, schools like the UC schools volition consider intended majors when making admissions decisions. So, if y'all're applying as a communications major, and they've already filled all their communications major slots, it'due south possible you could be denied access while you would have been accepted if you'd practical with a different major. Notwithstanding, even in these scenarios, your intended major will merely be a factor if y'all're on the cusp of being admitted. If you're a strong applicant who schools want, they'll by and large be able to find a identify for you.

Some schools also cap certain majors at a specific number and/or have more competitive requirements for certain majors, even if they don't consider intended majors for the bulk of their applicants. This is often the case for nursing programs (which often have lower access rates than the rest of a schoolhouse), or a programme the school is especially well-known for. For example, the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign has a renowned engineering program. It factors intended majors into admissions decisions, and its technology programs typically have lower credence rates than those of other departments. The same is true for the University of Pennsylvania. Its Wharton Schoolhouse of Business is 1 of the highest-ranked concern schools in the country, and getting accustomed as a business major is more often than not harder than getting accustomed every bit, say, a chemistry major.

Does Choosing an Obscure Major Improve Your Chances of Getting Accustomed?

Some students retrieve that choosing a less common major volition give them a leg up in admissions. However, there are several problems with this. Commencement, as we mentioned higher up, most colleges don't acknowledge a set number of certain majors. For these schools, your intended major will have no impact on your application process, regardless of how pop or obscure it is.

2d, majors with low enrollment numbers are at risk of existence downsized or fifty-fifty eliminated. For example, Illinois Wesleyan University, a small individual university, recently eliminated its French, Italian, religion, anthropology, and American cultural studies programs because enrollment had been steadily declining. The reduction of humanities programs is happening at many universities across the country, so applying to a less popular major can actually hurt yous if the schoolhouse is planning to eliminate that major soon. Even if they're keeping the majors, there may likewise just be a very pocket-sized number of open slots for more obscure majors, then they can actually be more than competitive than popular majors.

Third, and almost important, i of the all-time ways to print a higher is showing your commitment to your future area of study. For instance, if y'all want to major in applied science, nosotros'd recommend a lot of math classes, high scores on the Math section of the Saturday or Deed, participation in math competitions, a strong letter of recommendation from one of your math teachers, for example. If yous desire to exist a journalist, we'd recommend high level English classes, participation in the student newspaper, or even debate competitions.

Nosotros telephone call this a spike, and it's an extremely effective way to stand up out from the thousands of other applications colleges review. This means that your application will be stronger if you're applying to a very competitive major and have a potent application that ties into it compared to applying to an obscure major that doesn't seem to necktie into your grade or extracurricular choices. Taking a lot of, say, writing and English classes and choosing Mechanical Engineering as your intended major volition likely simply misfile higher admissions teams, rather than impress them.

What Major Is Easiest to Get Into College With?

So choosing an obscure major isn't a guarantee of an increased chance of getting into higher. But are there certain majors that improve your gamble of getting into college? Possibly, merely before nosotros go into them it'southward important to know that in that location are much more constructive means to amend your admissions chances compared to picking a less common major. Your major, at best, will only ever accept a modest impact on your applications, peradventure helping you if you are right on the cusp of beingness admitted or not. To really improve your chances of getting into your dream schoolhouse, it'southward much more effective to focus on your grades, test scores, extracurriculars, personal argument, and/or messages of recommendation.

Still, it is true that, for schools that consider majors, certain majors have college acceptance rates than others. Below we go over some of the more than competitive majors and some of the least competitive majors. Information technology's of import to remember that this will vary past school, but we've included examples of item schools to bear witness how the data actually looks. This data comes from a combination of the most electric current admissions statistics provided on private schools' websites, information from US News and Earth Report, and the data compiled in this spreadsheet by a helpful Redditor! We've focused on UC Organisation schools since they have the near complete data sets, but these trends typically hold truthful across other schools' admissions statistics as well.

More Competitive Majors

This will vary by school, but these majors are often particularly competitive and accept lower acceptance rates than the schoolhouse's average.

Nursing

Nursing programs are often very rigorous, so schools only want to have students they're confident have the motivation and piece of work ethic to complete the program. This ways that nursing programs are often highly competitive. At UCLA, the acceptance charge per unit for the entire school is x.7%, simply, in 2021, the acceptance rate for the nursing plan was just one%! Other schools may non be this farthermost, merely if a schoolhouse has a separate nursing program or reviews nursing applications split up from the full general pool, it's often harder to get accustomed every bit a nursing major.

Business

Business-related majors, such as concern administration, accounting, and finance, are some of the most pop majors for undergraduates, so spots for them are often in demand. This is especially true at schools with highly-ranked business organisation programs, where students from all beyond the country will be vying for a spot.

Information science

Computer science is exploding in demand, and students have been enrolling in apace rising numbers. At many schools, information technology's non only the near popular major in engineering departments, it's ane of the most popular majors at the school.

In 2021, for the University of Washington, the access rate for Computer Science majors was but 9%, well beneath the school's overall acceptance rate of 56% for that year. Similarly, at UC Berkeley, the acceptance rate for 2020 applicants to the Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences major was just v%, which makes the school's overall acceptance rate of 18% seem pretty generous!

Fine Arts

Fine Arts programs (such as Studio Fine art, Drama, Dance, Theater, etc. majors) often have a lot of competition for limited slots. Particularly for highly-ranked programs, competition can be potent. Carnegie Mellon University released credence rates for unlike departments. In 2020, the university equally a whole had an acceptance rate of about xv%, simply its Schoolhouse of Drama had by far the everyman credence rate, at only 4%. However, these statistics can vary widely by school and program, depending on how highly information technology is ranked. For example, the School of Music at Carnegie Mellon had an acceptance rate of 31%.

Less Competitive Majors

What's the easiest major to get into higher? Once again, this varies by school, but these majors often take college credence rates than the school's average.

Mechanical Engineering and Materials Engineering

These two are oftentimes the least pop engineering specialties to major in, which tin can make them easier to get into, especially compared to more competitive engineering degrees like computer scientific discipline. While UC Irvine had an acceptance rate of 13% for Computer Scientific discipline majors, it had an acceptance rate of 24% for Mechanical Engineering and 32% for Materials Engineering in 2019.

Social Science Majors

As many recent college graduates have struggled to find jobs, at that place'due south been a general shift abroad from social scientific discipline majors, such equally history and political science. This decline is adequately recent, so many schools still take a high number of professors and staff to support more new students than they're getting. As a result, some of these majors can exist easier to get into. At UCLA (overall acceptance rate of 12%), history majors take a whopping 51% acceptance rate, art history has a 46% acceptance rate, political science is 33%, sociology is 36%, and anthropology is 28%. At UC Irvine (overall credence rate of 26%), art history majors accept a 43% acceptance charge per unit, and urban studies majors have a 41% acceptance charge per unit, both of which are significantly higher than the full general acceptance rate.

Math Majors

Mathematics, Statistics, and other pure math concentrations have never been as pop every bit related majors like engineering science. Notwithstanding, considering lots of students demand to accept math classes, universities oftentimes have lots of math professors and therefore lots of spots for math majors. This can make these majors less competitive but, make no error, y'all'll need to show exceptional math skills to be considered a strong applicant for a math major. At UC Berkeley, the acceptance charge per unit for Statistics majors is 32%, and it'due south 26% for Mathematics majors. At UCLA, Statistics majors have an acceptance rate of 39%, and Mathematics majors accept an acceptance rate of 37%. At UC Irvine, the acceptance rate for Mathematics majors was 34% in 2019.

Should You Choose a Certain Major to Increase Your Chances of Admission?

We don't recommend choosing a major you're non interested in to increase your higher access chances. There are four main reasons for this:

1. Most schools don't factor your intended major into their admissions decisions.

2. It can exist difficult to know which majors are more than or less competitive at a sure schoolhouse.

3. Colleges want your classes and extracurriculars to relate to your chosen major. Randomly choosing an obscure major that you don't seem interested in won't impress them.

4. Afterward you've been accustomed, it can exist challenging to alter to the major you actually want.

So, for most people, we don't recommend trying to game the system past choosing a certain major. You lot're much better off strengthening other areas of your application, such as your grades, test scores, and personal argument.

However, there are a few instances where choosing a unlike major may give a pocket-sized boost to your admission chances. This only works for colleges that factor intended majors into their admissions decisions (these are often large public schools). If you find that sure majors have a much higher admission rate, y'all may want to list 1 as your intended major. Before y'all do, yet, consider 3 very of import things:

1. Exercise yous actually know that this major volition make information technology easier to get into that school? As y'all've seen in this article, choosing an "unpopular" major doesn't necessarily mean y'all'll have an easier fourth dimension getting accepted. Only base of operations your decision off actual admissions data, not only a feeling that this will be an easier path.

2. Does your application testify your involvement in your stated major? If it doesn't (say, you're applying every bit a statistics major but have taken primarily English and social scientific discipline classes and oasis't been in any STEM extracurriculars), it'll just look random to colleges and will likely injure you.

3. How piece of cake is it to change majors? Colleges that consider intended major ofttimes have a certain number of slots for each major, and the major you lot actually want may be full by the fourth dimension you lot switch. That is not a state of affairs yous want to be in, and so be sure y'all fully empathize the process for changing your major.

Equally you can meet, choosing a major for the purpose of making it easier to get into college is rarely helpful, and it can be risky in some cases.

What's Side by side?

What are the best college majors? Nosotros've come up up with a list of the very best majors by looking at their salary potential and employment growth. See if your major made the cut!

What are the easiest majors? The hardest majors? Read all about which majors you might have an easier or more difficult time with here.

Considering double majoring? Nosotros tell you what a double major is and go over the pros and cons of having two majors in higher.

Desire to build the all-time possible higher awarding?

We tin assistance. PrepScholar Admissions is the world's best admissions consulting service. Nosotros combine world-class admissions counselors with our information-driven, proprietary admissions strategies. We've overseen thousands of students become into their meridian choice schools, from land colleges to the Ivy League.

We know what kinds of students colleges want to admit. Nosotros want to get y'all admitted to your dream schools.

Learn more virtually PrepScholar Admissions to maximize your chance of getting in.

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Nearly the Author

Christine graduated from Michigan State University with degrees in Environmental Biology and Geography and received her Master'south from Duke University. In high schoolhouse she scored in the 99th percentile on the SAT and was named a National Merit Finalist. She has taught English and biological science in several countries.

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Source: https://blog.prepscholar.com/does-your-major-affect-your-acceptance-into-college

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