What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?

On Oct. 9, the Class of 2029 gathered on the steps of Widener Library to celebrate their concentration declarations. Their decisions come at a pivotal time, as critics fear artificial intelligence will erode the first rung of the corporate ladder and make entry into higher education more competitive. Meanwhile, the looming grade cap, set to begin in Fall 2027, has also sparked concerns and will likely affect some concentrations more than others. Students must navigate how much their fields of study will be affected by these new influences.

Harvard offers 50 concentrations and 49 secondary fields, which students can explore through their first year before declaring in the fall of their sophomore year. In 2022, the College introduced double concentrations, which permitted students to complete the full requirements of two fields of study without having to write a senior thesis. The option has grown increasingly popular, as the number of students pursuing double concentrations rose from 525 in the 2022–23 academic year to 991 in 2024–25.

For the Class of 2026, Economics remained Harvard’s most popular concentration, accounting for 16% of the graduating seniors. Computer Science ranked second. Government, Applied Mathematics, and Psychology were also popular.

For this year’s sophomores, concentration declaration arrives amid significant changes to Harvard’s academic environment. The College’s new grading policy will generally limit A grades to 20% of a course’s enrollment plus four additional students. Some courses have already begun changing their grading practices in anticipation of the cap, raising concerns about how students’ academic choices might affect their GPAs.

For Yassin Mohamedy ’29—who declared Psychology with a secondary in History, though he plans to switch to a concentration in Social Studies—the policy has introduced new concerns about academic exploration.

“I’m worried it will influence me not being able to take the classes I want [because] I need to care [about] my GPA for law school,” Mohamedy said. “[Decisions are] definitely GPA dependent now… not as intellectually curious because you may get punished for it.”

Hafsah Khan ’29, who declared a double concentration in Art, Film, and Visual Studies and Economics, expressed particular concern about the cap’s application to small studio courses. While Economics has drawn attention in discussions of grading reform, Khan worries that evaluating artistic work through a restrictive grading distribution could prove especially difficult.

“Most of the classes that I take are around nine to 12-person classes. So if you do the math, 20 plus four means that about half of the people will get A’s in those classes, which I don’t really believe is an accurate representation of the work that everyone puts in those classes,” Khan said.

The question of whether students should prioritize intellectual curiosity or professional advancement is hardly new to elite universities. Harvard and other Ivy League institutions have long faced criticism for producing graduates who enter college with ambitions to pursue public service or social change, only to follow career paths in corporate, more lucrative industries: 64% of Harvard’s 2024 class pursued careers in finance, technology, or consulting following graduation. This aligns with other Ivy League students, about 60% of whom went into high-paying, white-collar jobs directly after graduation.

Grace Rhee ’29, a History concentrator with a secondary in Government, noted that this pattern continues. “I think Harvard students are extremely pre-professional, and I think a lot of people are pursuing Economics more as a ‘means to an end’ versus ‘Oh, I’m actually interested in this,’” she said.

This aptitude wasn’t always the case. Rhee recalled a conversation with her best friend’s mother, a Harvard undergraduate in the 90s. “She told me there were a lot of Folk and Mythology concentrators, which is now a very, very small department—three people every year concentrating or secondarying in it,” Rhee continued. “I think that speaks a lot to the changes in concentrations.”

Khan has opted to double concentrate to balance her professional ambitions with her academic interests. “I definitely declared a double with Econ for my future career prospects, but my main academic interest does truly lie in Arts, Film, Visual Studies,” Khan said.

“I do think that students in my class are approaching the decision to declare their concentrations differently,” Khan added. “The combo that most people are running is one so-called practical majors, so something like Econ, Gov, Math, like something very oriented towards careers in the real world, and then one major that lies a bit more in the humanities world or in the, you know, like more niche studies,” Khan noted.

“A lot of my friends are doing Gov alongside something like South Asian studies or Near Eastern studies, or like I’m doing, [Theater, Dance, and Media] or AFVS.”

Mohamedy, Khan, and Rhee are all considering law school, although Khan is also interested in pursuing a career in startups. Their shared interest in law comes at a pivotal moment, as competition for admission continues to intensify. The Law School Admission Council reported that 82,487 individuals applied to law school during the 2026 admission cycle, a 7.9% increase over 2025 and a 27.4% increase over 2024. Around 43,000 applicants eventually enrolled. LSAT testing volume also increased approximately 6% during the 2025–26 testing cycle.

However, applications for elite institutions barely grew: Harvard Law School’s acceptance rate remained 9.2% from the 2025 admission cycle to 2026. This contrasts with the University’s Arts and Humanities and Science divisions, which slashed graduate admissions by 60% and 75%, respectively, in 2025 due to growing financial pressures.

Beyond graduate school admissions, students face a rapidly changing employment landscape. Rapid advances in artificial intelligence have raised concerns about entry-level white-collar work, which most Harvard students enter after graduation. Traditional entry-level job postings declined 10% between 2019 and 2025, while postings demanding more advanced AI skills increased 35%.

Despite these developments, many students remain relatively optimistic about their intended professions. “Maybe it’s naive, but I think the legal world will be okay job-wise even with AI,” Mohamedy said. Although AI is becoming increasingly capable of legal research and document drafting—skills firms have relied on entry-level associates to do—the profession still requires human judgment.

Rhee decided to push against using AI in her studies. “I think my philosophy in freshman year was very, ‘Oh, I don’t want to be behind, and so I am going to utilize AI, and I am anticipating the use of it,’” she explained. “But I think that I realized how unfulfilling that was for me.”

“It’s something that I kind of put on the back burner,” she continued. “I hope that it won’t be that important or critical in my future.”

Automation does not necessarily eliminate entire professions. A 2025 International Labor Organization study estimated that 25% of global employment will fall within occupations potentially exposed to generative AI. The ILO concluded that job transformation, rather than complete replacement, is more likely.

For Harvard’s sophomores, however, the uncertainty extends beyond the job market itself. “In the future, I’m not sure what career I want to pursue,” Khan said. “Going to have to wait a little later in my college career to see how that plays out.”

Mohamedy’s own change in academic direction reflects the flexibility students retain after declaring. Harvard lets students change concentrations, and the choice made in sophomore fall does not necessarily determine their eventual degree, much less their career.

Courtney Hines ’28 (courtneyhines@college.harvard.edu) writes News for the “Harvard Independent.”