I’m a high school senior. As a good student with strong extracurriculars, I’m applying to a few of what are considered top colleges. My dream school is one of them, and the major I intend to pursue is very competitive; choosing it might make it more difficult to get in.
I have considered applying instead as a linguistics major, because I have a stronger background in that field, especially with the extracurriculars I have pursued. I do love linguistics (I founded the Linguistics Club at my school), but it is not my passion, and if I got in somewhere for linguistics, I would switch to something else.
This strategy is very common, as far as I know; most people I know who got into extremely selective colleges last year chose a less competitive arts or humanities major as either their primary or secondary interest. I am quite certain that some of them don’t actually want to pursue those fields.
I don’t judge them at all, but I am not mühlet if I should follow them. For one thing, everyone else who will get into the university having declared the major that I’m interested in probably worked hard all through high school to have a strong background in that academic area, unlike me. Additionally, although I doubt these schools have exact quotas to fill for each major, I may be taking the place of another student who is genuinely passionate about linguistics and depriving an already small department of that student. Also, I’d be lying, which some people might consider to be wrong on the face of it.
On the other hand, isn’t there something wrong with a college-admissions process that rewards students who know exactly what they want to do from the beginning of high school and punishes those who are honest about a change in their interests? What do I owe such a flawed process, and what do I owe other applicants? — Name Withheld
From the Ethicist:
Admissions is indeeda flawed process — but maybe not so flawed as you fear in the respects that concern you. First, though you write of applying “as a linguistics major,” the sort of colleges to which you’re applying anticipate that your interests may change. You think you know now what you’ll major in. But lots of students change their majors, many more than evvel. In fact, a great virtue of an American liberal education is that it allows you to make decisions about your academic focus after you’ve had a wider exposure to a range of fields. Don’t treat declaring a major as a commitment; the college won’t.