<p>Will the adcoms take my prospective major into account when looking at my low math scores? I have strong graders in humanities courses (i.e. A’s in English & Social Sciences) but basically flat B’s in math and some B+'s in sciences.</p>
<p>Would the adcom pay more attention to my strong humanities grades? I’m guessing they wouldn’t completely disregard my lower science/math grades, but would they pay less attention to them?</p>
<p>I wouldn’t count on it.
Saying what your major would be is not very significant when you are applying to Liberal Arts. I suppose that students applying to the School of Engineering might expect to have their math and science grades weighed more heavily, but I would be surprised if the same applied to applicants to Liberal Arts.</p>
<p>They don’t admit you based on the major you’re interested in; they admit you based on how qualified you are for the Liberal Arts College.</p>
<p>I had a pretty similar question like yours, and that’s what the Admissions lady told me.</p>
<p>Ah, thank you.</p>
<p>“They don’t admit you based on the major you’re interested in; they admit you based on how qualified you are for the Liberal Arts College.”</p>
<p>This is 100% true. Your major does not factor heavily into our decisions.</p>
<p>HOWEVER! Different students have different skill sets and it’s ok to better developed in one than in another. Your strength in the humanities or social sciences does not somehow become less meaningful because your math skills aren’t quite as potent. There are lots of ways to be qualified for Liberals Arts because the Liberal Arts are themselves so broad. We certainly don’t throw out your other grades (or scores), and having equally strong quantitative would help you, but there are students where we are more interested in one set of skills than in the other. </p>
<p>A student that shows a clear aptitude in the humanities, a clear fit with Tufts, and who presents an interesting application will not be torpedoed for having math grades/testing incommensurate with those humanities strengths (to a point). Likewise, those with great quantitative skills will not be excluded just because their writing doesn’t sing (again, to a point). Can we count on you to stay an IR major, or a physics major, or an English major? No. But can we make decisions knowing that a student will represent a force in a social science program? Or a math program? Of course!</p>