<p>Bioarchaeology is “relatively new” or “obscure” only if you happen to know nothing about archaeology. Contemporaries of mine – people in their 50s – have been doing it all of their professional lives, and they didn’t invent it, either.</p>
<p>I don’t know that any American university has a “bioarchaeology” major. Yale has an interdisciplinary Archaeological Studies major, and an Anthropology major with four major categories, one of which is biological anthropology, and another of which is archaeology. (The Archaeological Studies major looks like it could be less technical than an Anthro major, and include more things like ancient history and classics, art history.)</p>
<p>Anyway, no prospective choice of major is going to increase your chance of admission “exponentially”, or maybe even at all. I’m sure you would get points for being interested in something specific and sophisticated, and for having learned something about it on your own, but no one is saying “Oh, we need more bioanthropologists!” It’s the kind of thing most people learn about after they get to college, and the faculty is reasonably certain, I’m sure, that a few students every year will get interesting enough to pursue it more. Having learned a little about it in high school doesn’t put you meaningfully ahead of the pack.</p>