Top five majors see increase in enrollment

Correction Appended

After a two-year decline in the number of students concentrating in the five largest academic departments at the University, 490 members of the Class of 2009 joined the top five departments last week. The resurgent enrollment in politics, economics, history, the Wilson School and psychology suggests that progress may have stalled in Dean of the College Nancy Malkiel's efforts to diversify students' concentration choices.

This year, 41.1 percent of sophomores signed into the five largest departments, down from about 46 percent historically. This marks a reversal from the downward trend in the past two years, with 38.9 percent of the Class of 2008 and 40.3 percent of the Class of 2007 currently enrolled in top-five departments for their respective years.

Despite these numbers, Malkiel said she is still confident that students are taking to heart the message of her "Major Choices" initiative, which was launched three years ago and seeks to encourage students to look beyond the five largest departments when selecting their majors.

"Remember the overriding purpose of this initiative, which is to encourage students to study what they love, not what they think they have to study, or what their parents tell them to study, or what they see the largest number of their classmates studying," she said in an email.

She added, "My sense is that students are getting that message, and if they are making decisions on the basis of their intellectual passions, that's the right way to proceed, no matter which departments they choose."

This year, psychology surpassed molecular biology as the fifth-largest department, regaining the top-five spot it held for the Class of 2007. Prior to that year, English had traditionally been the fifth-largest department.

The University's smallest and largest departments generally have leveled off or seen increases, while the medium-sized departments experienced the largest decreases in numbers. English, for example, has seen a significant longterm decline over the past decade, going from a high of 110 graduating majors in 2001-2002 to 53 majors this year. The average number of graduating majors from 1995 to 2006 was 88.

Chemistry also saw its numbers drop, going from 34 in the Class of 2008 to 26 students this year. The department's undergraduate administrator, Kirsten Arentzen, said that though this is not an all-time low for the department — only 11 students in the Class of 2004 chose to major in chemistry — this year's numbers are similar to the department's yield before Major Choices was started.

"We're not off by much," she said, "but I am a bit surprised given Dean Malkiel's push to show students other majors." She added that she had expected the department's numbers to be "in the high 30s."

The department of French and Italian saw the largest percent decrease in students, going from 11 junior concentrators to five this year. Molecular biology also saw a significant decrease, dropping from 70 to 54.

Astrophysics had one student sign into the department from the Class of 2009, as did the department of Slavic languages and literature. Astrophysics undergraduate representative Neta Bahcall said that students frequently transfer into the department as juniors from departments like physics. She added that it is normal for only one to three sophomores to sign into the department initially and that this year's nine graduating majors mark an all-time high.

"On a whole, the numbers have been going up quite a bit and that has been a trend, and I expect that to continue to be," she said.

The departments that saw the largest increases in sophomore concentrators this year are politics and Operations Research and Financial Engineering (ORFE). Politics went from 97 junior concentrators to 126 members of the Class of 2009 — a jump of almost 30 percent — while ORFE saw its numbers jump from 37 concentrators last year to 61 this year, an increase of almost 65 percent.

The department of German saw the largest boost in enrollment, with a 133 percentage increase from three concentrators in the junior class to seven new sophomores. Sociology also saw a 100 percent rise in enrollment, with 44 sophomores in contrast to their 22 juniors.

Since students sometimes change majors after initially signing into a department, these numbers may not reflect the final concentration numbers for the Class of 2009.

Politics department director of studies Alan Patten called the upswing "a snowball effect," saying that he thinks students choose their majors in part based on what their peers have selected.

Malkiel attributed the jump in politics concentrators to successful faculty hiring and interest in the subject spurred by current events like the Iraq war. "It's no wonder that students are drawn to a department that engages such matters in its courses," she said.

ORFE department chair Robert Vanderbei said in an email that he was "flattered" at first by the large increase in students but then started to feel "fear and panic." Vanderbei added that ORFE classes will be more crowded for the next few years until the department adds more faculty members.

He added that he believes Major Choices' impact on the ORFE department has been "minor."

"Students know what they want to study," he said, adding that Wall Street's high demand for ORFE students in recent years has contributed to increased interest in the department.

Correction

The original version of this article stated that the highest number of graduating English majors in the past decade was 138 in 1999-2000. In fact, it was 110 in 2001-2002. The Daily Princetonian regrets the error.