We’ve said it once and we’ll say it again: colleges are very, very hard to get into these days. Kids try all kinds of tricks to get into great schools, going so far as to move into lower-performing school districts in their final years of high school to get ahead in the rankings. (By the way, we do not recommend this. Doing so takes away spots from potentially less-privileged kids who’ve earned the opportunity). Instead, we usually prescribe good-ole-fashioned hard work and planning. There is no substitute for excellent grades, a solid resume, and stunning essays. But there are a few strategies you might want to consider. Choosing the right major is one of them.
CARVING OUT A NICHE
We encourage all of our clients to build an academic brand for themselves over the course of high school. This should be a highly specific academic area (think ‘American policy’ over merely ‘humanities’). The classes you choose and your extra-curriculars should be in the vein of your academic niche. The universities to which you apply should have a major that fits well with your area of expertise. When you apply, you should be signaling to your school of choice that the two of you are a perfect fit. They have an academic offering that’s a natural extension of what you’ve been working on for four years of high school.
A side bar: schools aim to develop a freshman class full of experts in different niches. This is because they hope to produce graduates who will go on to be the top performers in their respective fields who will then go on to succeed in life and donate to the endowment. Schools have a game and the name of the game is business.
HOW TO PLAY THE GAME
But the thing about majors is that some are more popular than others. We encourage our students to develop a highly specific academic niche because it will position them as a unique candidate. But if you want to elevate your application, and if it aligns with your interests, you might consider applying as an expert in a less-popular field. We researched the number of graduates in each particular major at Yale. A disclaimer: this isn’t a perfect science. There might be more spots in a super-popular program like Economics than there are in smaller, more niche majors. But if you’re academic niche is closely related to one of the less sought-after majors, you might elevate your game by applying to one of those more specialty majors.
THE FINDINGS
We looked at Yale’s annual data for graduates in each major dating back to the 2009-2010 school year. These were the least popular majors and the number of degrees they awarded over that time period.
Physics & Geosciences (2)
Portuguese (2)
Judaic Studies (3)
Russian (5)
Physics & Philosophy (6)
East Asian Languages and Literatures (7)
Astronomy (8)
German Studies (10)
African Studies (11)
Archeological Studies (13)
At Yale, we found STEM-related majors were less-popular overall than majors in the Humanities.
If you can marry your academic niche to a less-popular major at a school like Yale, you might just boost your odds by competing with fewer students for open spots. One thing to keep in mind: many of our kids tell us they want to go into school as an undecided major. Applying to a particular major isn’t binding. Once you get in and enroll, if you decide you want to change your mind and pick another major you can. But positioning yourself as an expert in a field with a bit of less competition might help you get into a hyper-competitive school.
Need help deciding which major is right for you? Reach out to us. We’re great at helping students match at their top choice schools.