A major in classics is about as old-school as majors come after, maybe, Latin. We can’t say that we hear from a lot of high school students who are dreaming of a degree in classics. We wish more would, though. While there aren’t many obvious jobs outside of education and academia that come from a degree in classics, a degree steeped in the humanities is actually a bit of a superpower these days.  

The University of Southern California Marshall School of Business has become one of the most popular colleges among our clients and business-hopeful students writ large over the last few years. While many parents think of USC as the safety school of their generation, we can tell you this is far from true these days – USC has a sub-10% acceptance rate, and it’s getting lower and lower every single year.

A major in English attracts students interested in writing, teaching, communications, and media. It is a classic liberal arts major, although not limited to liberal arts schools, and every top school has a strong English major. Particularly notable universities with strong English departments include Harvard, Williams, Vassar, Columbia, and Amherst (discover more). An English major is so classic, in fact, that it is easy to take it for granted. You take English and speak English and that’s enough as long as your games are great, right? That is a big mistake.

In the next installment of our “Deep Dive” series, where we share how certain schools gained their reputation for excellence in a particular discipline, we’re looking into New York University’s renowned music programs.

The first computer science degree was introduced in the 1950s, and the first Computer Science Department in the United States was created in 1962 at Purdue University. This is very recent in the world of college majors, but computer science went on to take the world by storm. Before too long, it became one of the most popular majors in the country and attracted hundreds of thousands of students to an opportunity to gain a degree that offered almost certain employment with outstanding starting salaries.

First, let’s break down what data science even is as it isn’t common area of interest that we hear from high schoolers. Data science is a field that brings together math, statistics, and computer science to distill data and extract insights from the results. The best colleges for data science are also many of the best colleges for STEM, but it’s worth noting that not every school has an undergraduate Data Science major. Instead, schools like Harvard offer a variety of courses in data science that can be layered onto another major. If you want to attend a top-tier school with a data science major, consider Yale, UC Berkeley, MIT, or UChicago. Those aren’t the only options, though, so definitely get in touch if you want a personalized college strategy calibrated for your interests and experiences.

Business is one of the most popular majors for undergraduate students in the United States, with nearly 20% of all undergraduates graduating with a business degree in hand. It makes sense. A major in business can be used in so many more ways than simply knowing how to start a business (although you can do it with that, too). A business degree empowers graduates to enter the corporate world or join a growing business. Business graduates can launch into impressive, fast-paced careers, or choose to take their education somewhere that lets them savor life more slowly. Unlike many other tracks, like pre-med or pre-law, graduating with a business degree doesn’t mean you are lining yourself up for many more years of schooling before the big paychecks roll in. Instead, you have the option to get right into it.

Chemistry is a classic science major, and a cornerstone of STEM, but high school students are often stumped as to how to stand out as chemistry-focused college applicants. There aren’t, often, chemistry clubs in the same where that there are robotics clubs. You can’t build an app like with coding, and it can be hard to stand out beyond having strong grades and matching test scores. At the same time, standing out is critically important. Relying solely on your grades and scores isn’t a good strategy.