Just saying, lol, January of junior year is terribly early to be asking for an LoR. I’d think a school administration would set some guidelines, to avoid this very problem.
@NewEngParent Remember, I’m talking about uber selectives, with lots and lots of strong candidates.
It’s true hs kids aren’t exposed to what I call “the buffet” of things that can be studied in college. Nor do they have a concept of the variety of careers. But yes, adcoms can look at what he/she notes as a possible major as a guage. How they think, how they pursued the possible goals. The kids who have their ducks lined up can be in a better position than those who seem to be pulling ideas out of the air. Obviously, a kid who has a true interest in, say, “public policy,” won’t have studied it in hs. But they could expect this kid to show engagement in local affairs or advocacy, maybe MUN or debate, etc, and the history and govt classes. And be able to explain the interest, if a supp question asks.
As for competition for a major, yes, with a caveat or two. There is still a lot of competition for stem (and a lot of space.) It’s possible a kid is the umpteenth (and maybe also the umpteenth from particular geo area.) But at the other end, the Scand Lang wannabe doesn’t necessarily have a better shot, because that dept may be tiny, with few profs/classes, or other issues. Maybe the college would be happy with only one new kid. Or maybe they realize most kids who take Scand lang courses are actually majors from other fields (IR or Nordic history or literature, whatever.)
There are kids who try to game it. Maybe they feel they don’t have the stats/rigor to get in with a stem intention, but really want to be a doctor and think, once there, they can change. They know, eg, that classics and English generally need more males. But it’s hard to seem like a sensible classics kid, eg, if you never took Latin, took the minimum number of humanities classes and are top heavy with stem clases and ECs. It’s a funny double-edged sword.
Make any sense?