Not sure what you want to do with your life or even what you wish to study while in college? Thinking about writing “undecided” when asked your intended major on college applications? A piece out in US News & World Report by Anthony Todd Carlisle entitled “Pros and Cons of Applying to College as an Undecided Major” shines a light on how it’s quite common for college students not to know what they wish to study, and to even change their minds multiple times during their college years. The piece also correctly focuses on how being undecided can lead students to explore fields they may never have even known about before. And the liberal arts curriculum, which is the curriculum at the vast majority of our nation’s elite universities, essentially helps facilitate this exploration. 

But looking at this subject in terms of admissions competitiveness (as is Ivy Coach’s wont), is applying undecided all that it’s chalked up to be?

Many Students Are Less and Less Sure of Their Academic Prospects

As Carlisle writes in his piece, “Emily Shinaver, interim director of student services for University College at the University of Toledo in Ohio, says more opportunities for students is one reason many of them don’t rush to decide a major.

’I think this generation of students don’t want to make the wrong decision, and they want to make sure they are making a decision that’s going to set them up for success in the future,’ Shinaver says. Lost opportunities to work with professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic hindered career understanding for some high school students, Roberts [Kathleen Roberts at Duquesne University] says.

’I think a lot of students tend to be very successful in a wide variety of subjects in high school, but they sort of need more in-depth study or experience before they can actually decide how does that translate into a career,’ Roberts says.

’I think particularly I noticed the last few years the kinds of shadowing experiences that students maybe had in the past – where they could go and observe professionals at work and get a sense of what that might look like – that was kind of shut down for a whole year. It has become limited for a variety of reasons beyond the pandemic. So all of those things come together to make a pretty substantial population of undeclared students.’”

But in Admissions, Undecided Can Hurt Big Time

We absolutely agree with the framing of this article, which essentially argues that a confluence of factors have increased undecided college applicants in recent years. But from an admissions standpoint, this isn’t necessarily a good thing, despite the fact that going in undecided ostensibly allows students to explore all of their academic options. 

Students applying to highly selective colleges should not articulate they’re undecided. That would fly in the face of showcasing to admissions officers how they’re going to change the world in one super specific, often small way — which is a big part of Ivy Coach’s secret sauce and a big reason why our students so often earn admission to their dream schools. We always tell them early on in high school that when they get to college, they can change their minds. They can major in just about anything they’d like since they have that flexibility within a liberal arts curriculum. And many of the nation’s top schools, including Harvard University, do not even allow students to choose a major until the second half of sophomore year for the purposes of academic exploration!

Undecided? That’s a Decision You Don’t Want to Make

But when they’re applying, they’d be doing their applications a disservice to articulate that they’re undecided. Heck, it’s also why we’ll always suggest economics to a student interested in business. Because if they’re interested in business, they might very well be interested in economics and, this way, they’re not pigeonholed in a business school that will likely be harder to get into in the first place (not to mention, most elite colleges don’t offer undergraduate business!).