Читать книгу Accepted!. Secrets to Gaining Admission to the World's Top Universities онлайн

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Although my memory is getting a little foggy, I believe I applied for English to Yale, government at Harvard, financial engineering at Columbia and Princeton, English at Stanford and the Huntsman Program (a business degree and an international studies degree combined) for the University of Pennsylvania. All of these majors were reasonable given my high school achievements and activities. At the time I applied, I was relatively sure I was going to study economics and try and break into Wall Street, but I reasoned that I should really not just go and tick economics everywhere. The strategy proved to be successful and, thousands of admitted students later, it is an empirical reality that major selection is critically important.

I don't particularly like the US system and the gymnastics it requires. When it comes to UK universities, you apply to the university and the course. So given I wanted to study economics at Cambridge, I applied for economics. Candidates have to declare what degree they want to study (or read as it is called at Oxbridge) from the outset, and if they apply for it, they have to study it. This takes the gaming out of major selection and lets candidates focus on showcasing what they actually want to study.