D is saying she wants to major in gender studies. As far as I know she is not gay (to quote Seinfeld, not that there is anything wrong with that) but I mentioned to a couple of relatives and close friends in their 40s and they all asked me!
Is this the impression AOs get as well?
Is this an unusual major so gives a slight boost (at a coed college) or is this common and so no better than listing Linguistics or English?
Gay or not, it’s not an admissions boost. But, you might want to see this: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1921560-least-valuable-majors.htm
Absolutely not- ESPECIALLY for a female. A male, perhaps, but sexuality will almost certainly not make a difference in admission.
Also, yes, fairly common but I would check out just how popular it is because if it’s a very small department you run the risk of having only a handful of courses each year in the dept.
I think it adds to a “quirky” application. That can be an advantage at a school looking for “quirky” (UChicago being the Motherland). I hope she’s not applying to Southern Methodist or William & Mary.
If a school offers a gender studies major it’s hard to believe a school would look down on a kid interested in it. FWIW I know a recent gender studies major from UMich who was recruited on campus and is now working for Yelp. It is not the kiss of employment death.
No applying to mostly liberal to moderate schools like Vassar, Tufts. Probably not applying to Oberlin or Wesleyan.
Yes saw the thread about useless majors. It does suit her personality and she is quirky but in a very normal way (not sure how else to describe it).
I don’t think considering that a kid might be gay is looking down on it.
I just thought it odd that every person I mentioned it to asked me if she was! Note these are people who are close enough to ask that kind of question not random other parents. It was something she mentioned at a college visit and the AO looked interested when she said it. I guess it was a nice change from the economics and business majors they usually see?!
It’s also fairly common to see someone double major or dual major with gender studies (based on that schools policies around pursuing a double major).
I assume you meant Women’s Studies and yes, I know several WS majors from UMich who are quite successful right out of college. (I am very closely tied to the WS department here including running a WS independent studies course for a few years.)
OP, my D1 is double majoring in Gender and Women’s Studies and English. She’s not gay (although she identifies as asexual) and when I asked her if she had many classmates in the school’s LGBTQ+ organization, she told me they were mostly straight.
I don’t give input into my kids’ majors, but I think that GWS is becoming more acknowledged, at a minimum, as a useful complement to other majors – communications, business, writing, English, etc.
Nope
Nope.
" I hope she’s not applying to Southern Methodist or William & Mary."
I don’t get this comment. Why would SMU or W&M care? They’d surely be approving. Both schools offer a major in Women’s and Gender Studies. I don’t think the school would have a whole department dedicated to that academic area and then look askance at any student interested. It’s a pretty mainstream major these days and even more moderate/conservative leaning schools like the two mentioned fully embrace it as an area worthy of offering a major. It’s not just some “quirky” Oberlin/Vassar thing. Hello, 2016!
“It was something she mentioned at a college visit and the AO looked interested when she said it. I guess it was a nice change from the economics and business majors they usually see?!”
I bet it is refreshing. We found on college tours a good half of the students touring were interested in biology or some other major with pre-med aspirations.
Was this the gender studies Yelp employee you know?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/02/23/i-was-picking-up-pennies-ex-employee-says-after-decrying-yelps-wages-and-losing-her-job/
We had fun on CC discussing that one…
I think many people think of
https://www.theodysseyonline.com/attn-basket-weaving-majors
when they hear that as a major.
I guess I get how people may think a person in that major is gay…but here is a shocker every gay woman or man does not sit around and “act”/“think” gay all day. most go to college and to do crazy stuff like become doctors, scientists, teachers etc…(sorry I am a little sarcastic)
I don’t get the reference to William & Mary. I live in VA , know lots of grads/current student, one of my kids applied and was accepted there. It is NOT a conservative school by any means.
@Oregon2016, if you do a search here for W&M and “quirky,” you’ll find that many folks think of W&M as a good fit for quirky kids.
I want to agree with @doschicos in post 10 that there’s no reason for a school that offers a specific major to look askance at a student who wants to pursue that major. And I agree with @FallGirl above that W&M is not a conservative school in any case. If the OP’s daughter might be considering W&M, they’ve had gender studies as an interdisciplinary major for more than 25 years (originally Women’s Studies, now Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies). http://www.wm.edu/as/gsws/about/index.php
@zobroward I completely agree which is why I thought it strange that my relatives asked that as their first question.
I honestly know very little about W & M but will look into it.
@doschicos @frazzled1 just going on the basis of my personal experience with alternative Portlandia applicants. No offense intended and I’ll start recommending these two schools to the kids working at Voodoo Donuts. Thank you
They will assume that you had money to burn on a college degree with a negative return.
^This attitude that only certain majors are worthwhile is why we end up with threads like this:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1922942-did-your-child-make-an-under-the-radar-major-change.html#latest
My older daughter chose gender studies as one of several minors. Psych was her major…human dev & family studies, spanish, and gender/sexuality studies minors. She’s in grad school now for licensed clinical social work. She loved it, it helps with what she wants to do; she’s also passionate about feminism. I don’t think it’s a great major…but as a minor…go for it. Expand your world. And no, she’s not gay.