If you go to most college admissions offices in the US, attend an admissions tour, and ask the people who work there if there is a strategy to what major you should apply to on your Common Application, they will stare at you, just a little offended, and tell you with a poker face as if no other answer will do justice to your question: “You should apply for what you love!”

Wrong.

Pay close attention because this is a relatively unsettling but crucial strategy to understand and master.

When you apply to most US universities, you have to declare your academic interests or potential majors. A major is the focus area for your degree. Some universities may call this a different thing. Harvard calls their majors concentrations, for example. In essence, the university wants to know what you actually intend to study when you turn up on campus.

If you look at Stanford, the most popular major of choice is computer science.ssss1 It makes perfect sense. Computer scientists from Stanford can go on and earn $US100 thousand+ at major technology companies and live comfortably knowing they have a wide spectrum of choices. They can go and raise money from venture capitalists who trust that Stanford gave them some coding skills and recruiting networks they need to be successful. Computer science is a versatile skill that builds mathematical reasoning, data analysis skills, creativity, and logic in spades. It is a fantastic but difficult major. Among Crimson alumni, it is the second most popular area for coursework.