Admission / Major Connection

Colleges & Universities Amherst College
1

<p>Two questions:</p>

<p>1) Are chances for admission at Amherst influenced by choice of major? Do applicants who state a less popular major on their application have a better chance of admission than students who state a popular (and, therefore, more competitive) major? </p>

<p>2) Are Department Chairs ever involved in admission decisions? For instance, if stats are not outstanding, but experience gained (say, in biology) through a summer internship is worldclass and would definitely be appreciated by the biology depart, would biol. depart even be consulted on the admission decision?</p>

2

<p>There is an admissions committee that makes the decision. The schools do want a mix with kids of all kinds (I guess you can interpret that as majors) but many kids get in with undeclared. In terms of Dept. Chairs, I don’t think they are consulted, but they certainly can give input voluntarily. If you have those credentials, then I would contact the chair to discuss the dept, etc. Let them know that you are interested due to your internship, and it will be up to them at that point. Good luck!</p>