In the common app, I saw several colleges telling you to list the top two or three majors you are interested in. So is the purpose that if you aren’t qualified enough to get into the first choice major, they would determine whether or not you would be qualified to get into the second one?
I wanted to go into business and since it is so competitive I just thought I would go into political sciences instead. But should I just apply to business as my first choice and then apply to communications or political science as my second? If they don’t think I am qualified for their business school, would they consider accepting me into their political science or communications school instead?
Economics is very different from being in an undergraduate business school. Economics is a liberal arts course of study and gets very theoretical at the higher levels. If you do an undergraduate business school you will take a business core of introductory classes in subjects like accounting, finance, IT, management etc. and then major in one of those disciplines. Both are fine, but they are two very different paths. If you check the course offerings for both the differences should become clear.
I would say to apply to the business school as your first choice as long as you feel you are a competitive candidate and then have other liberal arts choices following that.
Schools that admit by major usually don’t allow you to switch to the majors that are more difficult to get into after you have been admitted. If you apply as a political science major at one of these schools, you may have to stay there.
It depends. At some schools, it benefits you to list one major over another. Other colleges really are curious. It really just depends what schools you’re talking about.