How does Yale determine your undergrad major?

JHS
Thu, 08 Jan 2009 09:03:08 +0000

The obvious answer, I think, is that it doesn’t care. As at most similar colleges, students are not required to declare a major until the end of their second year, and not permitted to declare one formally until the end of their first year. Many, maybe most students change majors. Unlike Penn or Cornell or Northwestern, there are no separate schools within the college to which students apply. So, generally, I don’t think Yale pays attention to what an applicant says he or she is likely to pick as a major.

That’s not to say that Yale doesn’t pay attention to an applicant’s interests. I’m sure it does do that, and tries to admit a class with a broad range of interests. I suspect someone checks to make certain that there are enough students with a strong interest in Classics to maintain the vitality of the Classics program (although I bet that happens naturally), and that enough potential engineers are being admitted to continue to grow the Engineering program. That is, they may pay attention to marginal programs that need to be managed; no one will bother counting the potential History, English, or Economics majors. And I doubt any of this is a function of the declared major on the Common App; it’s more a question of what students’ focuses are as shown by their course selections, achievements, ECs, and personal statements.