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So far as I heard, it is required to mention intended major in graduate school during GRE registration. I am curious to know, what would someone do if he wants to apply to different grad schools for different (but somehow related) programs? For instance, he wants to apply to the grad schools A, B, C, D for the grad programs P, Q, R, S respectively. My questions are:

  1. When registering for GRE, which one would he select as his intended major at grad school? P, Q or, R?
  2. Would selecting the program P as his intended major at grad school, lower his opportunity to get into programs Q or, R?
  3. If he mentions "Other fields" as his intended major at grad school (that is, he mentions that his intended grad major is undecided) then would it lower his chance of getting into grad programs P, Q and, R?
  4. If S is an interdisciplinary grad program and it is possible to apply to the program S with background in P, would mentioning P as his intended major at grad school lower his chance to get into the program S?
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    It's definitely not binding.
    – Compass
    Jul 21, 2015 at 17:25
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    I don't think "intended major" is even reported with GRE scores. Grad programs will never know what you told ETS.
    – JeffE
    Jul 21, 2015 at 18:46

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I wouldn't worry about it because that portion is used for statistical purposes like compiling average test scores by major, like in the example here: http://www.ets.org/s...uide_table4.pdf

The information that schools look at that regard majors are if you take a subject test, like in computer science or physics. And of course all of your undergrad data.

Additionally, marking undecided is possible if you really dont want to choose one.

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  • That link seems to have been compromised somehow.
    – pjs36
    Jul 21, 2015 at 18:49
  • According to ETS: The GRE Computer Science Test was discontinued following the April 2013 administration. Scores will continue to be reportable for five years Did it come back?
    – Nobody
    Jul 22, 2015 at 4:40
  • @scaaahu you are correct, they did discontinue the computer science test
    – Sophie Gairo
    Jul 22, 2015 at 14:38
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When I took the GRE (last year), I put down some flavor of inorganic chemistry, took the test, then turned around and applied to a whole bunch of computer science programs.

Personally, I think that a program that would disqualify you based off of the answer to a question like that (on a standardized test!) is a program I would have second thoughts about joining.

(However, I will say that I did better than I expected on the GRE, and the chemistry graduate school at Portland State has been hounding me ever since, so take that into account.)

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