Anthropology majors

[Anonymous]

Your kid should just do whatever ECs they enjoy and will commit to. Schools are not looking for EC-major alignment—most don’t even admit by major! They are looking for passion and leadership and growth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your kid should just do whatever ECs they enjoy and will commit to. Schools are not looking for EC-major alignment—most don’t even admit by major! They are looking for passion and leadership and growth.

While true, your application is "read" with the major you list in mind. For selective/T20 schools, your ECs do absolutely matter. Evidence for major matters. You can't credibly list a major in business or CS without certain "evidence" - from transcript AND ECs.

Here is what a national counseling firm said recently- remember anthropology is an underrepresented major:

A Simplified Example: How a Class of 100 Might Be Allocated

Priority Category Approximate % of Seats

Recruited Athletes 10%
Legacy / Donor / Faculty Kids 12–15%
Full-Pay International 10%
First-Gen / Low-Income 10–15%
Underrepresented Majors 10%
Mission-Aligned Profiles 10%
Academic Standouts 25–30%
(These proportions vary widely by school, but the framework helps.)

If you’re not in a hooked group, your best strategy is to align your application with a school’s current priorities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Digging in the dirt?

That’s archaeology.

My bad. Maybe going to observatories?

At the digs I participated in we had both archaeologists and sometimes anthropologists present. The fields work hand in hand.

At Pitt, the archaeology studies and fieldwork classes were associated with the Anthropology Department.

https://www.as.pitt.edu/news/archaeology-day-pitt-takes-trip-meadowcroft-rockshelter-and-historic-village

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your kid should just do whatever ECs they enjoy and will commit to. Schools are not looking for EC-major alignment—most don’t even admit by major! They are looking for passion and leadership and growth.

While true, your application is "read" with the major you list in mind. For selective/T20 schools, your ECs do absolutely matter. Evidence for major matters. You can't credibly list a major in business or CS without certain "evidence" - from transcript AND ECs.

Here is what a national counseling firm said recently- remember anthropology is an underrepresented major:

A Simplified Example: How a Class of 100 Might Be Allocated

Priority Category Approximate % of Seats

Recruited Athletes 10%
Legacy / Donor / Faculty Kids 12–15%
Full-Pay International 10%
First-Gen / Low-Income 10–15%
Underrepresented Majors 10%
Mission-Aligned Profiles 10%
Academic Standouts 25–30%
(These proportions vary widely by school, but the framework helps.)

If you’re not in a hooked group, your best strategy is to align your application with a school’s current priorities.

Correct. Those who claim to have interest in underrepresented majors get the most scrutiny at elites because it is a known hack to try to pretend you are a classics major (or anthro, english, many others). It became a bigger thing during TO, often pushed by expensive clueless counselors. Elite schools have talked about this on podcasts and interviews. This is why they look for depth of rigor across all areas in high school, in case they get fooled the person will still have a good chance to succeed as a secret pre-med.
A slightly weaker stem kid (lets say 730 on Math and 4s on Stem AP) who has a genuine deep goal to study the ancient mayans, with years of corresponding EC, will have better luck than the kid who has scattered stem and humanities ECs, no clear focus, yet writes an essay on interest in studying a niche underrepresented field. The first kid will also have a benefit over the kid who has a deep passion and ECs in the ancient mayans yet did not challenge themselves with Stem APs/rigorous stem IB.
With 50-70k applicants for each ivy level private, there are enough applicants clicking interest in underrepresented majors for the AOs to be picky.
Mental health on campus is a huge problem. Many ivy/T15 if not all of them have had at least one suicide in the past 3 years, and the mental health resources are in constant demand. These are high pressure schools. The applicant pool is deep and talented: admissions does not want to take a chance on unprepared students whose true interests align with premed or econ yet they have a story that makes it seem as though they are all-in on anthropology. The kid can pick anything once there, remember. They want the lesser-demand majors to be full, sure, but they also want to avoid major misalignment causing mental health crises and transfers. They pride themselves on 96+% retention after first year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your kid should just do whatever ECs they enjoy and will commit to. Schools are not looking for EC-major alignment—most don’t even admit by major! They are looking for passion and leadership and growth.

While true, your application is "read" with the major you list in mind. For selective/T20 schools, your ECs do absolutely matter. Evidence for major matters. You can't credibly list a major in business or CS without certain "evidence" - from transcript AND ECs.

Here is what a national counseling firm said recently- remember anthropology is an underrepresented major:

A Simplified Example: How a Class of 100 Might Be Allocated

Priority Category Approximate % of Seats

Recruited Athletes 10%
Legacy / Donor / Faculty Kids 12–15%
Full-Pay International 10%
First-Gen / Low-Income 10–15%
Underrepresented Majors 10%
Mission-Aligned Profiles 10%
Academic Standouts 25–30%
(These proportions vary widely by school, but the framework helps.)

If you’re not in a hooked group, your best strategy is to align your application with a school’s current priorities.

Correct. Those who claim to have interest in underrepresented majors get the most scrutiny at elites because it is a known hack to try to pretend you are a classics major (or anthro, english, many others). It became a bigger thing during TO, often pushed by expensive clueless counselors. Elite schools have talked about this on podcasts and interviews. This is why they look for depth of rigor across all areas in high school, in case they get fooled the person will still have a good chance to succeed as a secret pre-med.
A slightly weaker stem kid (lets say 730 on Math and 4s on Stem AP) who has a genuine deep goal to study the ancient mayans, with years of corresponding EC, will have better luck than the kid who has scattered stem and humanities ECs, no clear focus, yet writes an essay on interest in studying a niche underrepresented field. The first kid will also have a benefit over the kid who has a deep passion and ECs in the ancient mayans yet did not challenge themselves with Stem APs/rigorous stem IB.
With 50-70k applicants for each ivy level private, there are enough applicants clicking interest in underrepresented majors for the AOs to be picky.
Mental health on campus is a huge problem. Many ivy/T15 if not all of them have had at least one suicide in the past 3 years, and the mental health resources are in constant demand. These are high pressure schools. The applicant pool is deep and talented: admissions does not want to take a chance on unprepared students whose true interests align with premed or econ yet they have a story that makes it seem as though they are all-in on anthropology. The kid can pick anything once there, remember. They want the lesser-demand majors to be full, sure, but they also want to avoid major misalignment causing mental health crises and transfers. They pride themselves on 96+% retention after first year.

It's why the strongest humanities /underrepresented majors come from private selective HS with those distinctive LOR to match the major.
See it in action every single year. These kids aren't switching to STEM or engineering either once in college (that's a public HS thing).
Perhaps a double major in economics with anthropology so they can secure a job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your kid should just do whatever ECs they enjoy and will commit to. Schools are not looking for EC-major alignment—most don’t even admit by major! They are looking for passion and leadership and growth.

While true, your application is "read" with the major you list in mind. For selective/T20 schools, your ECs do absolutely matter. Evidence for major matters. You can't credibly list a major in business or CS without certain "evidence" - from transcript AND ECs.

Here is what a national counseling firm said recently- remember anthropology is an underrepresented major:

A Simplified Example: How a Class of 100 Might Be Allocated

Priority Category Approximate % of Seats

Recruited Athletes 10%
Legacy / Donor / Faculty Kids 12–15%
Full-Pay International 10%
First-Gen / Low-Income 10–15%
Underrepresented Majors 10%
Mission-Aligned Profiles 10%
Academic Standouts 25–30%
(These proportions vary widely by school, but the framework helps.)

If you’re not in a hooked group, your best strategy is to align your application with a school’s current priorities.

I have an anthropology major at a highly selective school. This is bunk sold by expensive college consultants. All the kids I know getting into top schools are great students with highest rigor and leadership in ECs they are invested in.