The Air Force has been using its scholarship system for some time to more or less prioritize specific majors. It's a system that tends to undervalue some areas, and can be slow to shift in times of need. That said, it has been very successful at recruiting engineers.
The foreign language incentive idea is good, but it's only going to apply to those schools big enough to fund programs in some of the exotic languages that come onto the list. I've seen the one for the AF, and the majority of them are not really available outside of a narrow group of schools...some of which may not be receptive to any ROTC program.
It's very difficult to stereotype majors as useful or not useful because there really are no standards of instruction for them. A history major from one school will most likely stand head and shoulders above a history major from another school based on the quality of faculty involved. And at times the smaller schools actually have better faculty, so school size (or name) isn't always an indicator. One of the joys of academia.
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