<p>As the mother of a Yale Classics major I can tell you that my D met with professors in her field at Harvard, Yale, and Columbia when she was applying. They were all very encouraging, and happy to talk to her…and all told her flat out that they had absolutely no pull at all with the admissions office.</p>
<p>A fair number of kids with a good background in Classics apply to the tippy-top schools every year. The admissions office is not amazed or impressed by this: while most colleges have some sort of Classics/Classical Civ. major, many don’t have the depth of courses to satisfy someone who’s already had multiple years of Latin and/or Ancient Greek in HS. Yale and most of its peer institutions do, and there are plenty of would-be Classicists who are rejected by them every year.</p>
<p>The bottom line is that if you think you want to major in a certain field, say so. If you have the background, it certainly can’t hurt your application. But there’s also no guarantee it will help.</p>