Ensuring Fit/Alignment to your Intended Major

When you apply to a particular major in college (especially a competitive major like Engineering, Business, or Computer Science), your application to that major should make sense. An admissions officer should be able to look at your application and quickly connect the dots of the courses you’ve taken and your extra-curricular involvements to a genuine interest in (or even passion for) the subject you intend to pursue in college. To be clear, this doesn’t mean you are expected to have gone to extraordinary lengths like doing graduate level research or starting your own business, or being published in an academic journal, but there should be a coherent story. A story that illustrates the seeds of an interest, to progressively going deeper to pursue that interest at higher levels. Here are my suggestions about how you should be thinking about aligning yourself to an intended major (if you have one!) starting as early as freshman or sophomore year:

• Take as many and the most rigorous courses you can in that subject, and ideally do really well in those classes to demonstrate your mastery of the subject(s). For instance for any STEM majors and Business, you should be taking the highest level math you have accessible (yes, this means Calculus!). If you aspire to a pre-med track, AP Bio and/or AP Chem (if they’re available) is a must. If you’re more humanities-minded, taking as many English and History courses at the highest level you can is advisable. If you can’t find the courses you need at your high school (or want to just go above and beyond what is available), I encourage you to seek out courses online or at a local community college!

• Almost as important as classwork, how you spend your time outside of class speaks volumes! Try and target clubs, volunteer work, internships/jobs, or independent projects that demonstrate your passion/leadership in a particular area. Creative or personal initiatives (blogs, performances, coding, etc.) can be valuable too! Looking for opportunities outside of your high school shows initiative and a real commitment to what you're doing. Don't feel like you should only spend time pursuing things connected to your major/career goals, however. Make sure you have time to pursue other interests or hobbies if you have them! This will not in any way “harm” your admissions chances, but rather make you look like a 3-dimensional human with a range of interests! 

• Especially if you’re unsure about your intended college major (which is totally OK!), try and find things early on that pique your interest, and lean into those pursuits organically. Start simple by joining a club, finding a volunteer opportunity in your neighborhood, taking an online class, etc. Then as those interests become more defined, think of ways to go deeper and create more opportunities for yourself within that area. Then, maybe start to think about connecting those dots to possible college majors. 

Finally, avoid last-minute resume-padding and doing things because you think they “look good” on your college application. Admissions readers can sniff out this kind of behavior and have a good sense of when a student is pursuing a genuine interest. Try to focus instead on how you want to spend your time, what intrigues you or brings you joy, what problems you want to try and solve. The downstream effects of pursuits that demonstrate real curiosity, follow-through, and authenticity is that they will be appealing to colleges!