Faking Majors?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It works because there isn't strong competition for the humanities seats, and there is no good way for a college to detect "humanities talent" in a high schooler. It's incredibly easy to fake humanities talent because plagiarism is easy.

It doesn't work because you don't just have to add in the humanities, you'd have to subtract out some of the STEM stuff.

There are tons of kids with APs across every subject and ECs like sports or student government that are neither stem nor humanities

[Anonymous]

One thing I've seen that surprises me is the number of kids declaring undecided majors who are admitted into ivies or other top tier schools. Anyone else notice that?

[Anonymous]

I have noticed that especially from the private high schools in this area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I did this to stand out as an applicant. I had extra curriculars that I could tie to the major I said I wanted to study and got a perfect score on the SAT II (back when that was a thing) for my intended major. Even 20 years ago, you couldn't get into an Ivy as a white kid from the suburbs with straight As who was president of a few clubs. You needed a story. Since I had no idea what I wanted to major in, I just picked the thing that I thought would most help me get in. Since I had the grades and test scores to back it up, I did not see anything wrong with it. Other kids have parents who donate buildings or pay for years of travel sports. I bought a Princeton Review book and spent hours studying for the SAT subject test.

Not true for my UMC ORM white neighborhood. Being tops at academics with the standard meangless ECs was plenty. "Straight As" wasn't enough, but APs were. It wasn't enough to coast on the baseline curriculum.

That is enough for a top Ivy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi, is it a popular trend for students who are planning on doing a STEM major (Engineering/CS etc) to apply with a humanities major like English and History and then pivot once admitted? I heard this is quite popular in the private school kids applying to top colleges. How do they manage to 'hide' the evidence in their resumes? Won't AOs be able to see that they are bluffing?

Of course admissions will see you're bluffing. If you spent 4 years coding and doing robotics, admissions is not going to believe you're genuine about being an English or elementary education major.
I actually don't know anyone who has tried this and my kids go to competitive private high schools.

DP. Agree. And same but from top magnet school. My kid did apply for arts first coming from a stem magnet (listed 2 arts and math on potential majors), but they had the depth in both arts. Double majoring in math and an art and minoring in other art. Kid's stem classes were math focused, and they had classes and extensive EC in both arts. Colleges can see through, and as a pp sai, many have direct admit programs. I don't see how this is successful. Also, don't lie.