College Admissions Consulting Articles - One major can complement another

BY GERALD M. BRADSHAW

gerald_bradshaw@post.harvard.edu

Bradshaw College Consulting

(219) 663-3041


Dear Mr. Bradshaw:--


I read your last column about the stress students are under when they apply to college. I have another other issue: the stress of choosing a major.

I have a general idea that I want to study business or history, but no firm convictions either way. I may even decide on law school, but I want to wait until I am in college before I choose a career.

How important is it to decide on a major early on? My parents are worried that I might make the mistake of choosing a major that is unmarketable.

— Undecided

Dear Undecided:

— What is a marketable degree? The answer is in the eye of the beholder.

To choose history does not mean you are locked out of a business career. To choose business does not mean you must be a business person.

Either major will open doors to a whole range of career options. Law and medicine are attainable with either degree, as are other careers such as financial planner, teacher or the military.

Consider Chief Justice John Roberts of the U.S. Supreme Court as an example. He was a history major at Harvard College and went on to Harvard Law School. Roberts was editor-in-chief of the Harvard Law Review, so, clearly, the writing skills he learned as a history major helped prepare him for law school.

Roberts graduated from La Lumiere School near LaPorte, a small Catholic boarding college-preparatory high school.

Conor S. Tochilin, the newly selected editor of the Harvard Law Review and a second-year law student, has a similar background. He graduated from Westminster School, a small Christian high school in Atlanta.

Tochilin started as a math and philosophy major, switched to history after reading Adam Smith and Karl Marx, and finally decided to major in economics and philosophy.

These two examples show that students can end up at the same place, but take different approaches to choosing a major. Roberts remained focused on history as an undergraduate; Tochilin needed to experiment with several fields before making a decision.

My professional suggestion is to deviate slightly from Roberts and pick a major that requires some math.

If that approach is not for you, I suggest taking at least a core of applied math classes, including statistics.

Math will sharpen your critical-thinking skills while giving you an edge on the competition if you decide to go to graduate or professional school.

Students excel on the GRE, LSAT and GMAT if they have a strong background in math.


College Admissions Consulting Articles - One major can complement another

Harvard Business School Admits More Women, Fewer Finance Candidates

Harvard Business School (HBS) earlier this month released a preliminary profile for the Class of 2013, revealing a record number of women in the fall entering class and a notable drop in admits from private equity and finance backgrounds.

Women will make up 39 percent of the incoming class, the highest in the school’s history and an increase of 3 percentage points over each of the past two years. The percentage of admits from private equity and investment banking backgrounds, meanwhile, fell – 5 and 2 percentage points respectively. Overall, finance types will make up 25 percent of the fall entering class, representing a small but significant shift for a school where class makeup doesn’t often change much from year to year. Candidates with manufacturing backgrounds gained ground and will make up 14 percent of the entering class, up from just nine percent last year.

A recent PoetsandQuants piece attributes the shifts to the new HBS dean, Dean Nitin Nohria, noting that many believe the school now “appears to be favoring a more diverse set of applicants from manufacturing, healthcare, the military, the government, and non-profits over those from such financial powerhouses as Goldman Sachs, KKR, and Blackstone.”

P&Q went on to note that the shift away from finance could have ripple effects at other top-tier schools, especially those that tend to admit more finance candidates, such as Wharton, Columbia, and Chicago Booth.

In other HBS class profile news, the median Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT) score rose this year to 730, breaking last year’s record high of 724. The overall number of applicants fell slightly, from 9,524 to 9,134, and the class size increased slightly, from 910 to 918, resulting in a slightly higher admissions rate, 12 percent as compared to 11 percent last year.

HBS is the first of the top-tier business schools to share Class of 2013 profile data. The school did note when it released the information that it was accurate as of June 1, 2011, and is subject to change.

For the full HBS Class of 2013 profile, click here.