The University of Pennsylvania is a prestigious Ivy League university in Philadelphia, PA with a tiny acceptance rate. When admitting the Class of 2029, only 4.9% of applicants were accepted. Based on the statistics, most of those applicants shared a few areas of academic focus. The concentration of interest in a few departments and majors is so significant, in fact, that a student being dead set on a particular area of study can tip an otherwise strong application into the “no” pile.
Looking through the most recent Common Data Set, a collection of university data Penn publishes each year, we can see half of the undergraduate student body graduating in 2025 pursued majors in just three areas: Biological/Life Sciences (14%), Social Sciences (13%), and Business/Marketing (21%). Areas including foreign languages, English, history, and conservation each accounted for only 1% of graduating students. Those departments may not be as large as the biology department, but they do have faculty, office space, and the expenses associated with running an academic department at a prestigious university. It becomes part of the admissions officials’ job, then, to make sure that they are admitting students for, for example, the English department — not only Biology.
When we advise students who have some flexibility in what they want to pursue but who are certain that they want to go to Penn, we advise them to be strategic and to start early. Penn allows, for example, double majors between the School of Engineering and the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS). So, preparing a standout application for a more niche field offered by CAS can open doors wide enough to fit an engineering second major through.
In this post, we are going to share five of the top majors in CAS, and the alternatives we would recommend building a Penn application around. Remember, too, that in CAS at Penn you don’t declare your major until sophomore year, and they don’t check what you are declaring against your first-year application. Changing your mind is okay, but the application needs to strongly support the major you list. That means pursuing activities and leadership roles related to the major, and, ideally, developing genuine passion and enthusiasm for the field long before you would be pressing submit.
Penn does have a few wild cards we need to address, though, before diving into the top 5CAS majors, and alternatives you should consider. Because of the undergraduate business degrees offered through their famous business school, Wharton, business is one of the most popular majors at Penn. It’s also one of the hardest programs to get into, and there really aren’t any easier alternatives that still get an aspiring Wharton grad what they want — a Wharton degree. That is why, for this post, we are going to be focusing on another huge piece of the Penn pie, but one with way more options and opportunities: the College of Arts and Sciences. CAS is the way into Penn if you know you want the university, but are flexible as to your course of study. Below, are the 5 majors that can make it easier to pull off an acceptance.
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Penn CAS offers more than 55 majors, including all the majors you can probably think of off the top of your head that a typical top school has. The problem with those majors isn’t that they aren’t exceptional — they are. The issue is that everyone applying thinks of just those few. The key to an acceptance, often, is to think outside of the box just enough to remain true to your passions and talents as a student while putting yourself into a less competitive consideration pool.
Instead of BIOLOGY, do EARTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
Biology and the biosciences more largely are one of the most popular majors for high school seniors to list on their application as a first-choice option. One of the big reasons is that a biology major is a route into research, medicine, and the intersection of the two. Especially at a time when the future of the historically hyper-lucrative computer sciences fields is in question (thank you, AI), medicine feels packed with potential. Human bodies still need to be fixed.
This is all well and good, but writing about wanting to be a doctor isn’t very compelling. Potential MDs tend to pursue the same extracurriculars, like science quiz bowls, research internships, and hospital volunteering positions running blood bags around. That’s all awesome for developing the individual, but it isn’t great for creating an application that stands out from the pack. We advise our students to tailor their application in a different direction with more options for action.
The Earth and Environmental Science major at Penn offers overlap with biology, but unlike medicine, which you cannot ethically take hands-on part in yet unless you become an EMT as a high schooler (which we’ve had students do, by the way!), you can get elbow deep in environmental science literally today. We’ve found that this allows our students to build an application rooted in actions they are already taking that stand out as distinctly different from their other science-minded peers without having to win championships to stand out.
In your application, you can even highlight the opportunities in Philadelphia to engage with the natural world even in the midst of an urban city, such as conduction research along — and in — the Delaware River.
Instead of BIOCHEMISTRY, do HEALTH AND SOCIETIES
Like Biology, Biochemistry is a very competitive major at Penn and first-year applicants who list biochemistry as their prospective major on their application are facing an uphill battle. Many students interested in biochemistry are drawn to it due to the strong links to medicine and medical research, as well as setting them up for advanced study in fields like Genetic Engineering or Neurobiology.
If this is your dream, that is awesome. However, we coach students, for the purpose of the application, to consider listing Health and Societies as their prospective major instead. The Health and Societies program is geared towards students looking to prepare for going into the medical fields, but through an approach grounded strongly in the humanities. Excelling in history and English in high school, parallel to your science curriculum, sets you up as a great candidate for this program, whereas standing out as a prospective biochemistry major can be a lot trickier.
For students considering a Health and Societies route to Penn, we advise putting a strong emphasis on communication of knowledge while in high school. That could include leading or even coaching a Science Olympiad team, writing science-focused articles for your school newspaper, or anything else that puts the power of language on the same level as the power of science.
Instead of POLITICAL SCIENCE, do LAW AND SOCIETY
In 2024, Penn launched a new major: Law and Society. Any time a top school introduces a new major, it’s an exciting opportunity for prospective students to stand out. They need students to begin pursuing the major immediately. They need to validate the risk they have taken in launching the program, and seeing interest among applicants goes a long way in accomplishing that. This is why we are currently recommending that hopeful political science students actually list Law and Society as their prospective major on their application.
It isn’t enough to simply name the major and move on with an otherwise political science-focused application, though. Like most things in college admissions, pulling this off smoothly requires preparation and planning. You need to add at least one extracurricular to your schedule that speaks to the core tenets of the Law and Society major, like debate, and you need to be engaging with big questions around the role of law in social, economic, and political life whether through a long-term internship with a local politician, a regular column in your school newspaper, or independent (and published) research.
Instead of ECONOMICS, do PHILOSOPHY, POLITICS, AND ECONOMICS
You may have noticed that many of these alternatives we are suggesting are a focusing in more than a turning away. We’re not suggesting that you change what you care about, but instead lean into an area of the field you love that is less competitive for first-year applicants simply because fewer first-years know about the programs. That is especially true for the Philosophy, Politics, and Economics program at Penn, which is a great option for students who want to study economics but also want to stand out among the sea of economics applicants.
Economics is an extremely popular major at Penn, and it’s because the program is great. Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, or PPE, isn’t necessarily an easier way into Penn, but if you have the time to craft your application around the major it is a great way to show how ideal of a fit you are for the Penn program. See, all the top colleges offer economics. PPE, though, is a bit of a unique beast. By thoughtfully pursuing extracurriculars and academics that speak to PPE, like taking a philosophy course junior or senior year, you can strengthen your application when read against other students who have simply followed the normal trajectory for an econ-minded kid. This may mean enrolling at a course at a local college or taking a summer class, but be sure that whatever you do is accredited and, ideally, will show up on your transcript.
Instead of INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, do HISTORY
It’s not surprising that students interested in a prestigious Ivy League university like Penn are often drawn to International Relations. It’s a social sciences major, but with a clear professional trajectory. That is, however, a bit of the problem when you are working on your application. The students drawn to an IR major tend to have a lot in common and it can be difficult to differentiate between them on paper. There are the same courses, the same summer programs, and the same extracurriculars (like Model UN). Being a leader in your clubs and getting straight As in your courses is great, but when everyone is doing that it’s just more of the same. This is why we encourage IR students to consider a different option for their prospective major (at least on the application) at Penn: History.
The undergraduate history program at Penn has a wide variety of avenues and options for students to choose from, which allows applicants to truly personalize their application to their particular passions. A strong application needs to bring your interests to life, and this empowers that approach, whether you are into European History or Intellectual History. Pick out your potential concentration within the history major as far in advance as possible such that you can tailor some projects in junior year, and in senior fall, to amplify the seriousness of your interest.
WHARTON, NURSING, AND ENGINEERING
If you are set on attending Wharton, the School of Nursing, or the School of Engineering at Penn, there aren’t really many clever substitutes that can increase your chances of admission. However, we have some tips that have worked for us.
If you want to go to Wharton, you need to specify a concentration other than Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Artificial Intelligence, or Finance in your application. We recommend choosing between Marketing & Operations Management, Leading Across Differences, and Environmental, Social, and Governance Factors for Business. If you have time to get a retail job before applying, throw in Retailing as a secondary concentration. If you’ve never worked behind the counter, though, that can fall flat.
If you want to go to the School of Nursing, there really isn’t a way around how tough it is to get in, as there are very few options within the program that you can point to as an applicant. So, buckle down and start volunteering doing boring stuff but learning by watching at a local hospital.
And if you want to go to the School of Engineering, we recommend considering applying to the College of Arts and Sciences with engineering as a second major, which is allowed through an exchange between the colleges.
Getting into a top-tier college is extremely difficult, so you need to be looking for opportunities to make it even just a tiny bit easier. Picking a major that will help you stand out, while still staying true to your interests and goals, is a powerful strategy for greater success if you commit to it early and see it through in your actions before applying. From strategy to submission, we can help.
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