NP. CS kids are a drag, especially males; wish they could all be rounded up and sent to WPI and RPI to live with the other cliches where they belong. |
UC Berkeley publishes acceptance rates by major choice for transfer students. While they don’t do it for freshmen, I thought they could be applied to freshmen. There is a 50% acceptance rate for those picking American Studies as a major choice. We are instate, BTW. I made my son pick American Studies for Cal and Davis and similar majors for other UC’s. It didn’t work for Cal but did for Davis. Once he enrolled, I took a look at what faculty was specializing in. It’s absolutely absurd. Here’s one area of study:“Recuperating radical left articulations of legal lynching as a form of class warfare, the book theorizes lynching photographs as moving images that illuminate the constitutive relationship of racial terror to global capitalism.” Here’s another faculty’s area: “ maps racialized queer and disability histories of white social nonconformity across the rural US, from the 1910s to the 1990s. Cartwright is at work on a second book examining how, in the early-to-mid twentieth century US, chronic illness came to be understood as a gendered, racialized "social burden." My DS switched to Economics as soon as he could. |
Found this thread to be helpful. |
so they think people are "gaming the system" with major choice. you don't say. |
If you are a junior parent or have younger kids, read this thread. Very eye-opening. |
The kids fill out the Instagram posts and can put anything they want. I've seen a bunch with total jokes (underwater basket weaving) and I assume that they treated their applications seriously. The Instagram posts don't represent gaming admissions but likely do represent what different people have been encouraged/discouraged from thinking about. |
Art history major might work for students who have art as ECs for many years and taking art classes including AP art history in high school. Or is that a common idea? |
On one hand high-priced outside college counselors are supposed to cultivate and package your kid’s authentic self. I just don’t understand trying to game the system by having your kid apply as a major in an area in which they’re not genuinely interested. I guess I’m not getting it, and I’m hopelessly stuck in the 90’s,but I’m not going to pretend that my kid who struggles in math and have never done math club/robotics club/science research is an aspiring physics major. (My kid was ‘24 and applied as a humanities major because their grades and activities support that!) |
agree, trying to game is silly. AOs can tell. easily. |
No one is gaming it. But if deciding between Jewish Studies and History, with evidence for both, I know what 100% of counselors would say. |
DS not gaming system but their intended major is one by which females outweigh males at least 2x if not far more depending on the school. Year and years of experience, academic and EC/summers/volunteering etc.
Assuming this could carry a benefit, varied by school. Not relying on it but we’re aware of it. |
This thread might be helpful to the poster who thinks that selective colleges don’t admit by major or care about your major…. |
Yes yes yes. Every day. |
they said what everyone has been thinking all along. Wish more AO were forthright. |
I see underwater basket weaving a lot, too. What is that a reference to? A meme? |