Do Minors Influence Acceptance Decisions?

Applying to College
1

<p>I want to major in Marketing, and I’m thinking about minoring in Engineering or English. Is there a spot on the application to tell them what you might want to minor in?</p>

<p>Also, since there are fewer girl STEM majors, would an engineering minor give me a better chance of acceptance?</p>

2

<p>No minors will not affect your admissions decision whatsoever. There is no spot on the application to declare an intended minor nor does any school really care what you plan to minor in.
Some schools don’t admit by major so even your major choice won’t necessarily make a difference UNLESS you are applying engineering in which case -on average- your chances of acceptance decrease -girl or no.
There is an entire thread somewhere on the forum about how schools look at major but to summarize:
There are three types of schools.

  1. Admits you directly into a major (or college which houses your intended major) - Major matters
    The UC schools work this way as do many other public schools.
  2. Admits you into the school but doesn’t take major into account - Major doesn’t matter
    Private schools and LACs tend to work this way
  3. Admits you into the school, but only takes major into account for certain majors. - Major might matter
    Private and some public schools work this way. For example when applying to Hopkins your major doesn’t matter unless you’re applying as a biomedical engineering major. BME majors have to be accepted by the BME department as well as the school. Similar idea for Penn-Wharton, Berkeley EECS (or really any Berkeley engineering major where you have to be accepted by the school, college of engineering, and then by the specific major department). </p>
3

<p>There is no minor in engineering</p>

4

<p>@twoinanddone‌ that varies by school. I know for a fact that UC Berkeley offers minors in engineering. </p>

5

<p>By the way, try to major in Business rather than Marketing. Your potential employers will be more impressed w/a business major who took a load of marketing classes than a marketing major. Why? The prejudice is that marketing major is a business major wannabe but doesn’t have the quantitative skills and is weak in math and accounting.</p>

6

<p>Thanks everyone! Especially @saif235. </p>

<p>To @T26E4‌ : When you major in marketing, the degree you receive IS a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in most circumstances. I’m choosing to major in Marketing because it balances my creativity with my practicality. I find it more interesting than, say, accounting because it has a creative aspect, not because I’m weak in math. Thanks for your input, though. It’s good to get an outside view of what people think of your degree. </p>

7

<p>Market research involves some pretty sophisticated statistical modeling. I wouldn’t necessarily assume all marketing majors are weak in math.</p>

8

<p>The vast majority of applicants apply to college as liberal arts majors and then choose a major during their sophomore year. Consequently, colleges ask about your “intended major” or “intended minor” to gauge your interest, but Admissions understands that more than half of students change their major at least once during their four years of college. So, colleges cannot use “intended major” or “intended minor” as a tool for admitting students, as the data doesn’t correlate to a student’s actual major upon graduation. There are a few exceptions to that rule. For example, students interested in a business degree apply to Wharton at UPenn. Ditto with students interested in design apply to RISD. But, by in large, for most students, your choice of “intended” major or minor does not affect the college’s decision to admit you as a student.</p>

9

<p>Thanks @gibby‌ and @qialah!</p>

10

<p>No one care about minor in admission. Most of the students do not even have a slight idea of what to minor if at all when apply to college.</p>

11

<p>There are plenty of colleges that offer minors in engineering. Other examples include MIT, Smith, Michigan, etc. The first two (not sure about the third) don’t care about your intended major for admissions, let alone your intended minor.</p>

<p>That said, discussing in an admissions essay and/or interview why your combination of intended major and minor at a particular school will help you with your future goals may be beneficial.</p>

12

<p>^^^ UMich also do not care about intended major. It is solely for survey purpose on the application.</p>

13

<p>The short answer is no. I’ve heard from a number of admissions officers that unless you are applying for a specific school (ex. engineering, business) they don’t really even pay attention to your expected major in admissions decisions. This is because approximately half of the students going in with an intended major end up switching majors during college.</p>

14

<p>Thanks everyone. I guess I just know what I want to do and was wondering how to communicate this to schools. Thanks for the suggestions @photodad!</p>