Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this why on the Instagram posts the private school kids have majors like English or anthropology or migration studies and all the public school students have math or science majors, computer science or engineering?

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.

I see underwater basket weaving a lot, too. What is that a reference to? A meme?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Several podcasts discuss “strategic positioning”.

Search apple?

From YCBK today about Duke and institutional priorities in admissions (recorded in Jan I think:

“But even so, there's some things I couldn't share, because if Duke indicates that, you know, we have this under-subscribed major and we might have to lay some faculty off because we're only getting four to six kids in this class, unless we get more interest here, then they're going to have people lining up to pretend they're interested in that major.

Right, yeah, of course, of course, yeah.

So there's some things you really can't do, because people will just try to game the system.

Yeah.

Or if it's a school that's trying to get more full-pay, not that Duke could have this problem, but trying to get more full-pay families or more people that have donor potential. How does that sound to say that in front of a group of people that need financial aid? Like they'll get out and walk out on you.”

From Your College Bound Kid | Admission Tips, Admission Trends & Admission Interviews: Is It Ever A Bad Idea To Submit A Test Score That Is Too High, Feb 26, 2025

they said what everyone has been thinking all along. Wish more AO were forthright.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most people I know who got into Ivies went in as “undecided”.

that's maybe what they put on the IG and social media. I know DC won't put what DC applied as and will likely put "undecided" bc these ethnic/field studies can be looked down upon....

At our private, the successful Ivy and Ivy+ early admits were below - not our CCO highly recommends these niche majors too with good to great outcomes (assuming ample evidence for major):

Anthro
Archeology
Art History
Chicana/Latino Studies
Classics
Comparative Lit
English
History
Iranian Studies
Jewish Studies
Medieval Studies
Phil
Sociology
Women's/Gender Studies

Great list. But keep in mind that English and history, despite a decline the past few decades, are doing OK; their major counts are much higher than the other majors listed. Philosophy is also not as undersubscribed as many people think. History and, especially, philosophy, are also majority male.

All things being equal, with ample evidence for major, does an Archeology major at Brown or a Medieval studies major at Stanford have a better shot than Applied math or economics?

Yes yes yes.
Every day.

This thread might be helpful to the poster who thinks that selective colleges don’t admit by major or care about your major….

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Anonymous wrote: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.

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!)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most people I know who got into Ivies went in as “undecided”.

that's maybe what they put on the IG and social media. I know DC won't put what DC applied as and will likely put "undecided" bc these ethnic/field studies can be looked down upon....

At our private, the successful Ivy and Ivy+ early admits were below - not our CCO highly recommends these niche majors too with good to great outcomes (assuming ample evidence for major):

Anthro
Archeology
Art History
Chicana/Latino Studies
Classics
Comparative Lit
English
History
Iranian Studies
Jewish Studies
Medieval Studies
Phil
Sociology
Women's/Gender Studies

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?

Anonymous wrote:Is this why on the Instagram posts the private school kids have majors like English or anthropology or migration studies and all the public school students have math or science majors, computer science or engineering?

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.

If you are a junior parent or have younger kids, read this thread. Very eye-opening.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Several podcasts discuss “strategic positioning”.

Search apple?

From YCBK today about Duke and institutional priorities in admissions (recorded in Jan I think:

“But even so, there's some things I couldn't share, because if Duke indicates that, you know, we have this under-subscribed major and we might have to lay some faculty off because we're only getting four to six kids in this class, unless we get more interest here, then they're going to have people lining up to pretend they're interested in that major.

Right, yeah, of course, of course, yeah.

So there's some things you really can't do, because people will just try to game the system.

Yeah.

Or if it's a school that's trying to get more full-pay, not that Duke could have this problem, but trying to get more full-pay families or more people that have donor potential. How does that sound to say that in front of a group of people that need financial aid? Like they'll get out and walk out on you.”

From Your College Bound Kid | Admission Tips, Admission Trends & Admission Interviews: Is It Ever A Bad Idea To Submit A Test Score That Is Too High, Feb 26, 2025

so they think people are "gaming the system" with major choice. you don't say.

Found this thread to be helpful.

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most people I know who got into Ivies went in as “undecided”.

that's maybe what they put on the IG and social media. I know DC won't put what DC applied as and will likely put "undecided" bc these ethnic/field studies can be looked down upon....

At our private, the successful Ivy and Ivy+ early admits were below - not our CCO highly recommends these niche majors too with good to great outcomes (assuming ample evidence for major):

Anthro
Archeology
Art History
Chicana/Latino Studies
Classics
Comparative Lit
English
History
Iranian Studies
Jewish Studies
Medieval Studies
Phil
Sociology
Women's/Gender Studies

Great list. But keep in mind that English and history, despite a decline the past few decades, are doing OK; their major counts are much higher than the other majors listed. Philosophy is also not as undersubscribed as many people think. History and, especially, philosophy, are also majority male.

All things being equal, with ample evidence for major, does an Archeology major at Brown or a Medieval studies major at Stanford have a better shot than Applied math or economics?

Not aware of if Stanford has decent medieval studies, though I know they have great humanities. But the answer to the spirit of your question is an unequivocal yes.

One reason is that a student who can even make a sort of plausible case for an applying as a medieval history majors is going to look like a culturally literate, engaged student.

Plenty of CS students aren’t, too, but no selective school wants the kinds of money-minded CS majors who’ve dutifully done what their parents told them to do, without joy, and then watched TV when they weren’t following the commands of their elders.

Ouch. Why so angry towards CS?

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.