History Major at Penn?

Cue7
Thu, 03 Aug 2017 14:40:56 +0000

@“45 Percenter” - The numbers actually aren’t that similar. Penn’s numbers in “non-bankable” (for lack of a better term) majors are still a little low. Remember, CAS itself is rather large - with about 1600 CAS students per class.

Here’s Princeton, as a counter example, which only has about 980 non-engineering students per class:

https://registrar.princeton.edu/university_enrollment_sta/Degrees-Conferred.pdf

At Princeton, about 80 students per year major in history. 80/980 = 8% of the class

At UPenn, probably about 60 students per year major in history. 60/1600 = 3.75% of the class/

At Princeton, about 30 students per year major in Anthropology, which is a very good but not absolutely preeminent department at Princeton. 30/980 = 3% of the class.

At Penn, about 20 students per year (20/1600 = 1.2%) major in Anthropology - which is absolutely, no-argument, one of the top 2 or 3 Anthro departments in the country. Penn Anthropology is probably the finest department at Penn - and this includes the standing of Wharton, Med, etc. BUT, only about 1.2% of students major in this subject, compared to 3.75% of Princeton’s class.

Interestingly, economics, which is a very good but not top 5 department at Penn sees nearly as much interest as economics at Princeton (which is probably one of Princeton’s finest departments).

At Princeton, about 125 students per year major in econ - so 125/980 = 12.7% of the class.

At Penn, about 180 students per year major in econ - so 180/1600 = 11.2% of the class

So the numbers actually aren’t too similar - some of Princeton’s departments get 2X or 3X the interest in comparison to UPenn.

(And note, I’m actually underestimating Penn’s universe of eligible students, as it’s possible someone from Wharton or Engineering looked to double major with a BA/BS in history or anthro or something. So the real target number of potential candidates at Penn is probably closer to 1800-1900, NOT the 1600 I mention. Viewed in that light, maybe only 3% of potential candidates at Penn majored in history, and maybe only 0.9% majored in anthro. These numbers are lower than their peer schools, for sure.)