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+--- Thread: What are the most popular majors? Not gender or ethnic studies. (/Thread-What-are-the-most-popular-majors-Not-gender-or-ethnic-studies)
What are the most popular majors? Not gender or ethnic studies. - sanantone - 10-28-2017
Across various fora, I see large groups of uninformed people complaining about most students these days majoring in worthless subjects such as Women's Studies, Mexican American Studies, and African Diaspora Studies. Even if you didn't have the statistics, common sense should tell you that it's impossible for these majors to be popular since most schools don't offer them. But, like they say, common sense isn't common.
I do have the stats for college graduates by field of study. Gender and ethnic studies degrees are among the least popular degrees. Out of the nearly 2 million degrees awarded in 2014-2015, less than 8,000 were in area, cultural, ethnic, gender, or group studies. Philosophy, which is another major people complain about, had a little over 11,000 graduates. Compare these numbers to the over 300k business graduates and over 200k health professions graduates.
https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d16/tables/dt16_322.10.asp?current=yes
RE: What are the most popular majors? Not gender or ethnic studies. - bluebooger - 10-28-2017
> 8,000 were in area, cultural, ethnic, gender, or group studies. Philosophy, which is another major people complain about, had a little over 11,000 graduates.
so you're saying 19,000 students wasted their time and money ?
I agree with you
although if the Philosophy students went on to law school then I guess that's ok
RE: What are the most popular majors? Not gender or ethnic studies. - jsd - 10-28-2017
Heh, not even a full 1% of students.
Like you said, even without the stats it was pretty obvious that this was just another boogieman that folks liked to feign outrage over, but it's nice to see it explicitly broken down.
RE: What are the most popular majors? Not gender or ethnic studies. - sanantone - 10-28-2017
(10-28-2017, 05:30 PM)bluebooger Wrote: > 8,000 were in area, cultural, ethnic, gender, or group studies. Philosophy, which is another major people complain about, had a little over 11,000 graduates.
so you're saying 19,000 students wasted their time and money ?
I agree with you
although if the Philosophy students went on to law school then I guess that's ok
Philosophy majors do have some of the highest LSAT scores. Humanities majors also have higher MCAT scores than biology majors.
RE: What are the most popular majors? Not gender or ethnic studies. - DavidHume - 10-28-2017
Folk that poo-poo on philosophy generally have no idea what philosophy entails.
RE: What are the most popular majors? Not gender or ethnic studies. - Life Long Learning - 10-28-2017
Neat chart. Thanks for sharing!
RE: What are the most popular majors? Not gender or ethnic studies. - Ideas - 10-28-2017
It would be interesting to see stats from before the 2008 recession. After that, I think everyone who was still pursuing a degree realized that only a few fields offer job security anymore. Mostly healthcare and IT professions. Although I've heard of some nurses having trouble finding work, it's still a lot easier than most fields.
I think that people were also wise enough to avoid those majors beforehand. It was more in the 90's that they didn't realize that major should be related to the career?
RE: What are the most popular majors? Not gender or ethnic studies. - sanantone - 10-28-2017
(10-28-2017, 06:20 PM)Ideas Wrote: It would be interesting to see stats from before the 2008 recession. After that, I think everyone who was still pursuing a degree realized that only a few fields offer job security anymore. Mostly healthcare and IT professions. Although I've heard of some nurses having trouble finding work, it's still a lot easier than most fields.
I think that people were also wise enough to avoid those majors beforehand. It was more in the 90's that they didn't realize that major should be related to the career?
The chart goes all the way back to the 1970s.
RE: What are the most popular majors? Not gender or ethnic studies. - Joeman200 - 10-28-2017
I'm surprised to see the amount that major in Parks and Rec!
I would think most people know gender studies doesn't comprise the majority of degrees. However, I think the reason degrees like that are the butts of jokes is because the few people that do major in those degrees have very noticeable characteristics.
(10-28-2017, 05:54 PM)DavidHume Wrote: Folk that poo-poo on philosophy generally have no idea what philosophy entails.
My guess (this is just my guess) is because the majority of people think modern day philosophy means anti-religious, moral relativistic, nihilistic views--so they back away from those courses/degrees. I wish colleges made courses such as how to reason, think critically, etc.. degree requirements.
RE: What are the most popular majors? Not gender or ethnic studies. - Ideas - 10-28-2017
Oh, interesting! I'm surprised that CIS isn't much higher, but I guess that some of the business degrees have concentrations in CIS/MIS or similar.
(10-28-2017, 06:41 PM)Joeman200 Wrote: I'm surprised to see the amount that major in Parks and Rec!
They stuck Fitness into the same category. Fitness has been big because of all the baby boomers aging. It can be a rewarding career with great pay.