Have you ever done a poll of your college associates to find out what might be the most popular major in your school? Without a doubt, the most popular major in a specific school is going to depend on what that school's strengths are and the demographics of those attending the college.

In my school, for example, the most popular four year program is the elementary education program. This may be the case because there is a lot of local support, both from donors and local educational institutions, for this program.

However, have you ever wondered what the most popular majors in U.S. colleges are today? The problem is that the information we can find is about two years old, but the information does reflect the general trend over the last five years.

The National Center for Education Statistics reports the following information for the school year 2004-2005:

*There were 1,439,000 bachelor's degrees awarded during this school year.

*Business degrees were the single most popular bachelor's degree awarded, with 312,000 of them being awarded.

*The next most popular degrees were in social sciences and history with 157,000 degrees conferred.

*In third place were education degrees, with 105,000.

In the area of graduate school, the NCES reports the following:

*167,000 Master's degrees in education were awarded, in contrast to 143,000 Master's degrees in business.

*Education also saw the most doctorate degrees awarded, with 7,700; while engineering, health sciences, biology and psychology followed pretty closely behind.

A final issue to think about is whether people received a degree in the major that the first declared. There are no statistics on this issue, but it would be interesting to learn whether the most popular major is one thing, while the most popular degree is another. In other words, some people might enjoy studying art more than business, but they choose to get a degree in business because that will help them get a job.

References:
http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/d isplay.asp?id=37

Learn more about this author, Jared Garrett.
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