Answer these 5 Questions, and I Can Tell You Your Major

Story by Anne Keogh
April 11, 2024

When applying to college, it might feel tempting to check off “undecided” when selecting a major.

After all, you might have several competing academic interests, and it feels hard to choose among them. Or you may not feel passionate about any subject at all yet. You might have a subject you love – but can’t seem to do well academically in it. Or you may have one long-standing academic interest in which you have invested a ton of time – but lately, you can feel your enthusiasm for it waning.

These emotions and experiences are very typical and completely normal.

So, should you just put “undecided”?

If you google “Will I be at a disadvantage if I put ‘undecided’ for my major on the Common App?” most click-bait responses will tell you no — that you will not be at a disadvantage by choosing “undecided.”

However, while you might not be disadvantaged by selecting “undecided,” at Varsity Vine we believe you are passing up a significant opportunity for an advantage.

Think about it from the perspective of the admission officer reading your application. Reading an application (where an academic major has been selected) frames the entire reader experience. The admissions officer will experience multiple “aha!” moments as they draw connections across your file based on the major you put down. You have taken away the guesswork.

On the other hand, if you put down “undecided,” it’s a bit more work for the admissions team.

The admissions reader will look at your transcript, essays, and activities and try to infer where your strengths lie. The reader will have to spend time contemplating how you might bring those various strengths to their university. And he or she will ultimately make a decision based on your file and those inferences.

When you leave off a major, for the admissions reader it’s like reading a book without a strong plotline; it might be well-written, but it still lacks a strong central message at its core.

You don’t want to give up your plotline.

When filling out your college applications, selecting your major – backed up by evidence found elsewhere in your application – is your “plotline.” Your strong central message makes an easier case for those admissions readers.

However, then the following questions may start to arise:

What major should I pick? Should I select what I’ve been good at in high school? Should I pick what I want to do later in life? Is there a strategy in my choice?

In fact, there are two strategic components to choosing a major.

First, you need to assess your authentic self as you are now – not as you hope to be one day in the future. I’ll warn you – this can be a tough assessment because the person you are now might not be the person you aspire to be.

For example, you may really want to go into business. You would love to apply as a business major. However, right now, you don’t have the evidence for it. You jumped off the advanced math track after 10^th grade because you got a C in Algebra 2, and you don’t have any significant activities yet that suggest you are destined for the business world. Does this mean you won’t go into business one day? Absolutely not! Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, for example, double-majored in medieval history and philosophy, and she ended up in the corporate boardroom.

However, in your case, as of today, an admissions reader wouldn’t see the evidence in your file to jump to that boardroom conclusion. On the other hand, you may have excelled in your English classes, have a great Letter of Recommendation from your AP Lang teacher, and you are the Editor-in-Chief of your school’s magazine.

You know what I’m going to say:

You need to lead with your strengths as they reveal themselves right now — in this snapshot of time. You may want to go into business – and you can, and you will. But in applying for college, you need to follow your existing evidence of classwork, grades, activities, and talent in the moment you are applying. And, in this example – you would ideally not be applying for business. You would be applying with a major somewhere along an English subject continuum line that includes literature, journalism, communication, and even tangential fields such as history, art, philosophy, theology, or education. However, nothing would stop you from completing business internships in the summer, working during the year, joining business fraternities and clubs, and building up evidence for a career in business. I was an English major and still ended up at Harvard getting my MBA and starting a small company. Major choice does not dictate the life you will ultimately lead.  

It can be a bitter pill to swallow, but it’s better for you to know how to lead with your strengths in a competitive application process against tens of thousands of other people, rather than lead with who you hope to be one day.

So, here are the 5 questions you need to honestly answer:

1. Looking at your transcript, which of the 5 core subject areas (English, Math, Science, History, World Language) have you shown rigor for all 4 years? (Note: You can have more than one rigorous area, but if you have dropped a subject area senior year, it knocks that academic core out of the running).
2. Now, among your most rigorous core areas, in which classes have you consistently received the highest grades?
3. Do you have an excellent relationship with at least one teacher from one of your strongest core subjects in which you received an A in the class the teacher taught?
4. Now, looking at your Activity List, do you show any significant leadership (or sustained, multi-year experience) in an activity that matches the subject areas where you also have the highest rigor and highest grades?
5. Do you have any awards that also underscore your talent in this subject area?

Voila! You now potentially have zeroed in on your major… or, at least, a hint of a related major that makes sense for you to list.

But it’s not 100% decided yet.

Earlier, I said there were two strategic components in choosing a major, and here is the second part:

You need to assess your likelihood of getting into this major at this specific college. Because every college has its own quirks related to majors, here are 5 more questions to investigate:

1. Am I competitive overall as an applicant to this college in general?
2. Have I met the curriculum requirements for this major?
3. Is this major non-restrictive? (Watch out: some colleges have space-restricted majors. For example, at Clemson, Nursing, Health Science, Education, Communication, and Architecture have limited spaces.)
4. If this is a highly popular major, can I cleverly find a slightly more obscure but “related major” that still pulls on my evidence but sets me apart?
5. Do I like the actual course descriptions from the college’s online course catalog in the major I’ve selected, and can I see myself wanting to take those classes?

If you have answered “yes” to all, then you have a winner.

Finally, don’t be surprised if you find yourself applying to slightly different majors at different colleges. Each college on your list will inevitably provide a different road map. And that’s ok! After all, it shows you are spending time understanding the context of each college on your list – and how you can best fit on that campus given your “plotline” and who you are today.

And that’s majorly positive, in my book.

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