<p>I suppose that like many questions regarding admissions at highly-selective schools, the answers are not clear cut, not admitting of either a “yes” or a “no.”</p>
<p>I think it comes down to two basic issues: supply and demand; and the school’s image of what it should be.</p>
<p>Harvard has tenured faculty, and lots of them. Faculty need students. And students need faculty. Over a long time, the university can change the composition of its faculty to meet long-term enrollment trends. But, there must be a rough match between resources available in the short-term and demand as represented by incoming students. Even though a school may not give much weight to a declared major on an individual basis, the school must pay some attention t to the overall number of folks who initially declare in a particular field. If, by some quirk of fate, a university found that 75% of the students it wished to admit to its incoming class had the intention of majoring in medieval French literature, that would be problematic. Obviously, the university wouldn’t allow its admissions process to get into such a situation, but that means in a year where there are many more students expressing an interest in medieval French literature than the school expected, at some point, the admissions people will need to address the imbalance, and that may be partly by turning away some otherwise-qualified applicants.</p>
<p>To the degree that the school anticipates accurately its enrollment trends, it will be less likely that declared intended majors will have a bearing on who is accepted and who is rejected, except in unusual circumstances.</p>
<p>That’s if all things are equal.</p>
<p>But all things are not equal. The fact is that Harvard’s humanities enrollments are down considerably over time, and the university doesn’t think that’s a good thing. Harvard’s ideal self-image includes vibrant, flourishing humanities. It would be unsurprising, then, if in Havard’s overall holistic approach, folks who credibly assert an intention to major in the humanities may, in some cases, gain a small edge.</p>
<p>A “credible assertion” means something other than marking the checkbox for a particular field. A student who marks “classics” but who took loads of AP science and math courses, but who took neither Latin nor Greek during high school may strike the admissions committee as not credible. Conversely, the student with four years of Latin, a couple of years of Greek, and a range of high achievements on the National Latin and National Greek Exams looks more credible. If the university is keeping its eye out for realistic and well-qualified candidates in classics to keep the department thriving, or even viable, that student will have an edge. My impression is that right now, at least some highly-selective universities are looking to bolster their humanities departments, and thus, in some cases, there might be a small edge to those who credibly declare a humanities field.</p>