Would my unusual major be considered as a hook?

Chance Me / Match Me!
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I’m a high school junior planning on applying to several Ivies. My counselor has told me that my stats make me competitive (3.95 UW GPA, 11 honors/AP classes throughout high school, top 10% of class at a top prep school, have not yet taken an official ACT but projected to get 33-35 based on practice tests). I am wondering whether an unusual humanities major would be considered a hook.

I plan to study comparative literature; I am passionate about both foreign language and literature, so my interest in the major is authentic. All of my extracurriculars point towards comp. lit:

  • Salesperson and YA section manager at an independent bookstore

  • Assistant manager at a nonprofit book festival in my hometown, which sees 20k visitors per year (40k+ during the online festival)

  • Italian and Graphic Design editor for my school’s world language magazine

  • Projected Editor-In-Chief for my school’s world language magazine (a spot reserved for seniors)

  • Former summer camp counselor at a French immersion preschool (9th-10th grade)

  • Five-time gold medalist in the Grand Concours (National French Contest); French Honors Society member; Scholastic Gold Key winner in poetry

On top of that, I am taking Post-AP French, Intermediate Italian (two levels offered at my HS, no AP), Honors English, AP US History, AP English next year, Honors English Seminar next year, Art History Honors next year, and Shakespeare (11th and 12th.) I self-studied for AP European History and plan to self-study to take AP Italian next year. I will be getting teacher recommendations from my English Honors and French teachers, both of whom I have a lot of mutual respect with– I trust them to write great recs. My passion for comparative literature is genuine; is it unusual enough of a passion to make me unique to Ivy League (specifically, Brown and Yale) admissions officers?

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Comparative literature is about 0.4% of Yale undergraduates and 1.2% of Brown undergraduates.
https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=yale&s=all&id=130794#programs
https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=brown&s=all&id=217156#programs

It would not really be a hook (most hooks are unearned attributes, except for recruited athlete), although an admission reader may find your application more memorable and interesting after reading through mountains of applications from pre-meds, Wall Street seekers, CS majors, etc., if it is otherwise strong enough and well matched to what the college is looking for.

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It’s not a hook. Any activities you pursue related to your interests always help. Like many, you may also change your interests once in college.

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Agree, not a hook. But you probably have strong writing skills and a solid narrative to present in your application.

Nail your supplemental essays. Make it clear why those schools are the best place for you, and that you fit what they are looking for.

To me, you seem to be an interesting applicant. In your case, it will mostly depend on your teacher recs and supplemental essays. Keep on doing what you are doing.

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I think that the term you’re looking for is “spike”, meaning a highly developed interest with very strong achievement. A hook is being an under-represented minority, or the child of a major donor, or of a very famous person, or even a legacy. For example, the older Obama girl had a hook, in that her father was the president, and she was an under-represented minority. Andrew Barth Feldman had a spike in musical theater, in that he had already starred in a Broadway musical.

I think you look very interesting as a humanities applicant. Your GPA, class rank, projected test score, and extracurriculars put you into range for top schools, including Brown and Yale, but it’s no sure thing.

It sounds as if Comp Lit is who you are, whether or not it would give you a jump on acceptance. I don’t think that you would do better to try to re-package yourself as a different type of scholar, even if you could. But I don’t think that admissions committees will think, “Oh, finally! Someone who is NOT planning on a career in medicine or Comp Sci. Let’s take her!” So the answer is no, I don’t think that your field of interest will give you a strong advantage over other applicants.

Scholastic Gold Key is a regional award. Are there any other national-level awards that you could apply for that would have results out in time to be considered for early or regular applications? Having a national level award would be a definite plus.

Another thing that is very do-able to improve one’s application credentials late in the game is to prep for the ACT or SAT. It sounds as if you’re decided upon the ACT. Do you seem to do better, percentile-wise, on the ACT practice tests than you did on the PSAT, or on SAT practice tests? If yes, then I agree, focus on the ACT. You can do a LOT to improve your predicted ACT score. My oldest said that the best late-in-the-game thing one could do, with the most return on time invested, to improve one’s application, was to put in some standardized test prep time. The best prep for the ACT is to do sections of retired ACT tests (which can be found LEGALLY online). Even if you don’t have time for private individual tutoring (your anticipated current range would make me think that a standard group prep class for it would not be relevant for you), you can lay out a self-prep routine that could boost you to a 36. You’re probably close enough on English that all you would need to do is practice tests. Science isn’t about science - it’s about interpretation of data as presented in tables, graphs, etc. All you need for that is practice, by doing retired ACT tests. For the math, my son used Brook Hanson’s two volume series, and practice tests, but he said that he would have done much better if he had already had Calc BC, because it taught him the calculator functions that would have helped him go through the test more quickly. After you have prepped yourself for math as well as you can, THAT is when a private tutor might be of assistance, since I suspect this is your weak point (you don’t mention any AP math). That’s what we should have done, looking back, when kid kept getting 34-35 on the ACT math practice tests. Anyway, kid started off with maybe a 31-32 on his first practice ACT, and with about 40-60 hrs of self-prep (using the retired tests and the Brooke Hanson 2-volume series Best ACT Math Books Ever), he wound up with a 36 overall, with a 34 in math, on the one administration he took. This is one thing that you can do now to improve your application. A top score on the ACT would say to top schools that you can excel there (even though next year will be test-optional too).

So no, I don’t think that your intended major would give you a significant advantage, but I do think that with the trajectory of achievement that you’re already on, hopefully combined with a top standardized test score, and possibly with a national level award, if you can get one in time, you do have a chance at one or more of the most competitive schools, especially if you use early action/decision judiciously.

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I respectfully disagree on putting time and energy toward test prep. Your projected scores sound fine and I think time is better spent in other ways. Not sure about the self-study either.

COVID poses a lot of limitations but wherever possible, explore interests outside of your school as well. Whether that is volunteering, interning, studying or applying for awards.

I think it’s great that you are working, by the way and are managing the YA section. I assume the book festival is a one day affair but that you spend a lot of time on that too. Your EC’s look great as they are, but if you have opportunities to extend them, fantastic. But don’t worry too much about even that.

If Comparative Lit is your “Passion”, just present yourself as you are, regardless of advantage or not with admissions. But your interests are certainly appealing I would think.

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OP- you sound great, and I’m sure you’re going to have some fine choices. Just put some time into finding colleges with less competitive admissions and you’ll be in great shape.

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Yale and Brown do not admit by major. I doubt that having an unusual major would make much difference.

However, you are clearly a competitive applicant. I think that it is well worth an application to these two schools if you are interested in them. Clearly you also need safeties.

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Agree, that you have a passion for your major, but this is not a hook. Remember that these are not LARGE schools and their seats are targeted by large numbers of students. Every valedictorian applies (~35K in the US), as well as thousands of other students-domestic and international.
Apply, but make sure you’ve applied to safeties.

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There were a few threads by Michael Short, who has some experience with admissions, where he strongly felt making a case for what you wanted to study was critical for admissions to top tier schools. I don’t think his advice is helpful to most kids, who don’t know what they want to study. However, his advice seems like it might be excellent for kids like you. Certainly this thread would be worth your time to read:

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Let’s think about this another way. I’ll answer with a question. What marketable skill are you trying to obtain from college? What do you plan to do with comparative literature after you graduate? If it’s teaching literature (which is what one can expect with a comparative literature degree), then your state school is far better equipped to certify you as a teacher.

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College major does not have to be tied to a particular career path. Comparative literature prepares you for many different career paths. It is intellectually challenging and will ensure excellent reading, writing and analytical skills as well as knowledge of languages and about different cultures. Employers will be impressed. In the meantime, it is still a wonderful thing to study what you love for 4 years.

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While I do think it’s a good idea to always be thinking of what you are going to do after college (and I’m not one to encourage “starving artist” paths) it is WAY too soon for this high school student to limit her thinking.

She could go on to medical school, if she wanted to, with a degree in comparative literature. Or go into any number of areas – publishing, advertising, college advising, development (fundraising), etc etc etc. I certainly would not pigeonhole her (him?) as only qualifying to teach high school with that degree.

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I went to Brown back in the day when comp lit was a VERY popular major, and not a single one of my friends or acquaintances ended up teaching literature. And the “marketable skills” you get from studying comp lit are not limited to the content you study (i.e. literature). I was a Classics major and do not teach Latin. I cannot imagine a career I am less suited to than teaching (I grew up in a family of teachers, none of whom were Ed majors btw).

Coolguy-just out of curiosity- what did you major in and what do you do?

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I will not address the post-college practicalities, as some of the previous posters did. Let’s focus on the intellectual adventure of these four years, and on getting into a place where such adventure would be possible.
Think about the story you will tell in your essays. Don’t repeat things revealed in other parts of the application but get to the bottom of it - why Romance languages? Is there a family connection, and/or something about these cultures that fascinates you? Read books in these languages and think about how to mention some of them in your writing, remembering that it must feel necessary for your story, or else you risk being seen as showing off.
I’m a bit of a one-trick pony here, not an admission professional, but my D has a very similar profile (Romance languages, similar GPA, 34 on ACT, a well-known college prep school, albeit public) and she was recently accepted ED to a college with Ivy-like selectivity so I hope you will see some sense in what I wrote.
I would also explore these lit departments in detail, perhaps even contacting a professor or two here and there. Why “Y” and why “B” sounds a lot more convincing if you can honestly say that Prof. X’s research into Italian inspirations of Stendhal is something you want to continue.
A perhaps surprising suggestion: can you think about a math or science teacher that would write an enthusiastic recommendation? I don’t think I have to explain why it would mean a lot in these super selective places.

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Oh, I have a list of safety schools that I love (public in-state, public OOS and private.) I just want to know my chances at my two dream schools!

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I have been studying French ever since I went to the local French preschool at age 3. While I’m not a native speaker (my parents are both English only), I’ve always felt very connected to the culture and to actual French-American kids! I haven’t had the opportunity to study literature in French (my school used to offer French Lit Honors but got rid of it for this school year), so it seems like the natural next step for someone comfortable reading teen novels, but who wants something a little more challenging, like what I am used to reading in English.

Italian I took because 1) it was sort of close to French and 2) I wanted to honor my heritage!

I’ll think about the STEM recommendation- thank you!

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I plan on either returning to LA (my hometown) and working in the entertainment industry (I have a lot of family ties), or working as an IP lawyer. But thanks for the presumptuous questions!

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Oh, I have a few! I just wanted to check my chances at my dream schools.

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Hmmm. So only apply to Yale if you want to be a captain of industry or an investment banker. People can become those things at state schools too, btw.

The OP can apply to wherever they like, to study whatever they like. If OP wants to be a lit teacher, or an entomologist, or a social worker, or an entertainment lawyer, why shouldn’t they apply to the schools they are most interested in attending?

OP, you might consider looking at some LACs too. That environment, where there are lots of small discussion based classes, could really suit your interests.

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