S/O getting shut out of privates - do you have to declare major for Brown all?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Intrigued by humanities boy who got into Brown despite DCUM predicting he wouldn’t. Do you have to declare a major when applying to Brown? My DS has strong credentials in unusual humanities area. Not necessarily what he wants to study though. Can he apply as the unusual major and then switch if he wants?

Even if students don’t declare majors, they usually give hints about what they want to study and be.

It’s idiotic beyond human understanding for unhooked, non-URM kids who are not National Merit valedictorians with national awards to hint to T50 schools that they want to be CS, business or premed-oriented biology or chemistry majors.

Those are very difficult, expensive majors for colleges to offer right now, because hiring is difficult and the infrastructure needed to support the classes is expensive. Meanwhile, every boring, money-worshipping, AI-cheating-focused, parent-pushed moron is trying to major in those subjects.

The goal for unhooked students with just OK stats is to hint to the schools that the students will be fun and cheap to educate, and that they will be great at keeping service clubs, performing arts organizations or school publications alive.

So, even at T50 schools that pretend not to care what kids will major in, it’s critical to give the impression that the applicant will first-major in the humanities or social sciences. Express an interest in business, CS or premed only if the applicant’s record is such that there’s no other way to present the applicant’s record.

You'll notice a ton of colleges are beefing up their fine art programs and buildings, because they realized that it is not sustainable for half the College to be in CS and Business. Colleges need a healthy does of liberal arts majors (Math, History, Philosophy) where the total costs are a blackboard and some faculty. Many institutions also relied on POC/Women to fail out of STEM programs and majored into the Humanities, but that tide has quickly turned.

Math is liberal arts?

Do you know what the M in STEM stands for?

Yes Math is part of the traditional liberal atrs curriculum. Physical sciences (and Economics) are too. You would know that if you had paid attention in school.

+1

I dont know who else needs to hear this but Liberal Arts is not a synonym for Humanities

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Intrigued by humanities boy who got into Brown despite DCUM predicting he wouldn’t. Do you have to declare a major when applying to Brown? My DS has strong credentials in unusual humanities area. Not necessarily what he wants to study though. Can he apply as the unusual major and then switch if he wants?

Even if students don’t declare majors, they usually give hints about what they want to study and be.

It’s idiotic beyond human understanding for unhooked, non-URM kids who are not National Merit valedictorians with national awards to hint to T50 schools that they want to be CS, business or premed-oriented biology or chemistry majors.

Those are very difficult, expensive majors for colleges to offer right now, because hiring is difficult and the infrastructure needed to support the classes is expensive. Meanwhile, every boring, money-worshipping, AI-cheating-focused, parent-pushed moron is trying to major in those subjects.

The goal for unhooked students with just OK stats is to hint to the schools that the students will be fun and cheap to educate, and that they will be great at keeping service clubs, performing arts organizations or school publications alive.

So, even at T50 schools that pretend not to care what kids will major in, it’s critical to give the impression that the applicant will first-major in the humanities or social sciences. Express an interest in business, CS or premed only if the applicant’s record is such that there’s no other way to present the applicant’s record.

You'll notice a ton of colleges are beefing up their fine art programs and buildings, because they realized that it is not sustainable for half the College to be in CS and Business. Colleges need a healthy does of liberal arts majors (Math, History, Philosophy) where the total costs are a blackboard and some faculty. Many institutions also relied on POC/Women to fail out of STEM programs and majored into the Humanities, but that tide has quickly turned.

Math is liberal arts?

Do you know what the M in STEM stands for?

Yes Math is part of the traditional liberal atrs curriculum. Physical sciences (and Economics) are too. You would know that if you had paid attention in school.

+1

I dont know who else needs to hear this but Liberal Arts is not a synonym for Humanities

Everyone. lol

Biology major here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Intrigued by humanities boy who got into Brown despite DCUM predicting he wouldn’t. Do you have to declare a major when applying to Brown? My DS has strong credentials in unusual humanities area. Not necessarily what he wants to study though. Can he apply as the unusual major and then switch if he wants?

Yes you can do this almost everywhere if it’s in humanities/arts & sciences.

People do this all the time at Stanford.

why specifically Stanford?

Bc CS at Stanford is not housed or silo’d in a separate school there. Common advice from private college counselors is never to apply to CS at Stanford since everyone can be a CS major anyway.

Look at the Stanford major #s. Apply as history, philosophy, English, other liberal arts, etc provided evidence for stated major.

People try this for ivies and Duke and Stanford all the time from our private, almost always kids not quite considered in the top smarts group by courses and grades. It never works. Instead multiple top schools took the Stem/engineering kid with the stem ECs plus some crazy music EC and rejected the humanities ones(who were not quite tops). And some years a true humanities kid with ECs and awards for 4 yrs to back it up, get in to ivy. But they are also at the very top of the class. You cannot game the system, AOs can tell true interests from activities and essays and LOR

[Anonymous]

^ look even the intended humanities majors for ivies and T10 are taking APs in science and calc and getting As in class 5s on AP exams.

My kids are at Ivies and always did equally as weak in math, science, English. Foreign language, etc.

I was certain my younger one would major in stem, he was always pulled out and accelerated in math/sci- but went international relations. Native English speaker that picked up 2 other languages very easily.

So, yeah. You have to bring it in every subject at the top.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Intrigued by humanities boy who got into Brown despite DCUM predicting he wouldn’t. Do you have to declare a major when applying to Brown? My DS has strong credentials in unusual humanities area. Not necessarily what he wants to study though. Can he apply as the unusual major and then switch if he wants?

Yes you can do this almost everywhere if it’s in humanities/arts & sciences.

People do this all the time at Stanford.

why specifically Stanford?

Bc CS at Stanford is not housed or silo’d in a separate school there. Common advice from private college counselors is never to apply to CS at Stanford since everyone can be a CS major anyway.

Look at the Stanford major #s. Apply as history, philosophy, English, other liberal arts, etc provided evidence for stated major.

People try this for ivies and Duke and Stanford all the time from our private, almost always kids not quite considered in the top smarts group by courses and grades. It never works. Instead multiple top schools took the Stem/engineering kid with the stem ECs plus some crazy music EC and rejected the humanities ones(who were not quite tops). And some years a true humanities kid with ECs and awards for 4 yrs to back it up, get in to ivy. But they are also at the very top of the class. You cannot game the system, AOs can tell true interests from activities and essays and LOR

well, it takes a LOT of planning!! you obv need really long and enduring ECs.And ofc take out all the Stem ECs!! Duh!!
No whiff of CS or engineering in the application AT ALL!

Also, we know so many dual humanities and CS majors at Stanford. Its normal there.

And anyone has to be

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^ look even the intended humanities majors for ivies and T10 are taking APs in science and calc and getting As in class 5s on AP exams.

My kids are at Ivies and always did equally as weak in math, science, English. Foreign language, etc.

I was certain my younger one would major in stem, he was always pulled out and accelerated in math/sci- but went international relations. Native English speaker that picked up 2 other languages very easily.

So, yeah. You have to bring it in every subject at the top.

This sounds like a public school thing.
It's different at privates. Many Ivy admits from privates aren't always in the highest math - but a high enough math and high scores etc. They need to have a pointy admissions persona/academic hook though.

[Anonymous]

I don’t claim to be an expert, I have a freshman. My own kid and my perception of his peers based on what he’s shared is that they are all intrinsically motivated and have lots of interests thus utilizing open curriculum. Also, authentic, not gaming interests for supposed concentrations to be declared sophomore year. I have a stem kid that didn’t pretend to be anything else and it was fine, just talked about that many areas he wanted to explore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Brown looks for kids who are self-driven and aware and will thrive in the open curriculum.
They need to have evidence of the drive and their own intellectual awareness.

Brown is looking for: (1) Unusual independence; (2) Unusually self-motivated and (3) Unusual expertise in one academic field.

those looking for what brown looks for in its students. might be harder for boys to show this?

Why is it harder for boys to show independence, motivation, and expertise?

[Anonymous]

How is he shut out of all privates? Tons of privates that would take him, just not necessarily ones you want him to go to.