<p>I think it's important to be strong in both areas. My school is one of the few that actually enforces this idea.</p>
<p>Well I simply read "humanitarian" but it seems, on a closer look of the thread, that the "humanities" would be more fitting. </p>
<p>I really have no say in this, as in a couple of other threads I've noted I am neither "humanities-oriented" or "math/science-oriented", but perfectly neutral; my "passions", aptitude, skill, and even interest are virtually equal in these two areas (not saying I'm good at both, but in relative context both are of equal status...I'm one of those rare ones, perhaps because I'm only done with 1 year of hs and was lazy all the time). </p>
<p>Looking at my cousin, though, it seems that the humanities and maths aren't so much non-related; he went to law for grad, which people view as a mainly humanity-memorization kinda thing, involves mathematics and logic and I believe the LSAT average's major, the highest is math/physics, which was what he pursued for undergrad.</p>
<p>CCC-
You pose a good question.</p>
<p>While I am math/science oriented, I'm going to approach this problem from a different perspective: My sister's.</p>
<p>My sister is a professional musician. So is her husband...and pretty much all of their friends. My sister was a good/great student in high school and was very involved with music (orchestra, marching band, drumline, leadership) along with things such as Humanities (IB) and Video Production. She attempted calculus but as I recall dropped it within a few weeks. She played piano since age 5 and started percussion in high school... proving to be one of the best in the district within a few years.</p>
<p>For undergrad, her okay portfolio got her in to Chapman (and I believe USC, but something happened with the financial aid) doing music performance. While there, she tore up the program and proved her willingness to work hard in the field of music. By her senior year, this active outlook yielded her admission to CalArts music for a Master's in performance. </p>
<p>She kept at it, kept her eyes and ears open and most importantly, kept herself a sharp intellectual by taking interest in the more tangible things in life...such as the life sciences. She loves reading National Geographic.</p>
<p>The fact of the matter is that most successful "humanitarians" (as you call them) work very hard to:</p>
<p>1) Stand out from the crowd of under-achieving blobs that go to college because their parents told them to.</p>
<p>2) Understand or be interested in the remarkable achievements/ideas that bring insight to being human...Artistic inspiration comes best from an original idea.</p>
<p>3) Challenge our notions of what it means to be human...which often requires having scientific ammunition to back non-scientific experiments. (Really moving works of literature most often create a strong universal basis that stems from non-artistic fields)</p>
<p>4) Keep connections alive. You never know where you will get a gig or a writing assignment from. This means you need to professionally stand out as a specialist in something so your buddy says, "Hey, I know just the person to call..."</p>
<p>Finally, I'd like to point out that this idea that you must fit into a box is an illusion. It really reminds me of Freud's "The Future of an Illusion".</p>
<p>Slight digression, but I'm loath to start a new topic on this quick question. If an applicant is significantly skewed, as in a genius at math/sci, but absolutely horrible at humanities, or the other way around, how will he or she be judged? Because, while the applicant could have Cs in weaker areas, he or she could also be top of the class in the stronger areas. This seems especially hard for humanities people who as I have stated before, have fewer opportunities to prove their excellence.</p>
<p>so i was the asker of this question, and its kind of funny. because i actually did mean humanitarian, not neccesarily humanities. but its absolutely fine the way the thread turned out.</p>
<p>i was looking at it from more of an extracurricular point of view. those who spend much of their time dedicated to math/science competitions, awards, etc. versus those who spend time on purely humanitarian efforts like Save Darfur, habitat for humanity, bringing about changes in a school, political/election awareness, model united nations, amnesty international, etc. obviously there are people doing both, but i'm just saying in general, the people who excel in either one.</p>
<p>PBailey ...</p>
<p>I have the same question. I think carefully picking the right colleges may be very important and having the kid really show his/her strenght through as many vehicles as possible.</p>
<p>Do the colleges look at actually grades in support of the majors they intend to pursue?? I think it depends on how much time tha adcom's have.</p>
<p>pardon the typos ...;)</p>
<p>They look at your grades anyway.</p>
<p>what do you mean?</p>
<p>ilovepeople: Benjamin was a great scientist and a great diplomat. Bill Gates is the greatest technologist and philanthropist of our time.</p>
<p>In other words, they're going to see your grades, so I don't get why you're asking if colleges see your grades in support of the majors. If you were that interested in a certain major, your grades probably would be high anyway.</p>
<p>i THINK i heard it somewhere that schools like Liberal ARts colleges lean more towards humanities... Granted, they're liberal arts, so you kinda have to be well-rounded in all aspects, but I believe I heard it somewhere that, in the case of LACs, they look into students' writings and essays and such than the rigor of science courses. Did I hear that right or wrong, does anyone know?</p>
<p>I think they look at everything, including the rigor of science courses, but I think they care more about how clear your writing is and the difficulty of the humanities courses and your grades in those courses, since there's such a strong emphasis on writing in many of the liberal arts colleges. But that doesn't overshadow the importance of being strong in other respects. So I think different colleges and universities basically "grade" your application differently.</p>
<p>... so the LACs/smaller schools most probably pull the grades apart and look at the specific classes etc. ... which I think answers the initial question.</p>