Despite steadiness in concentrations, sociology major declarations drop

While the growth of some departments may be due to the larger number of admitted students in the sophomore and junior classes, a department-by-department breakdown of the numbers nevertheless reveals a few shifts in student interest.

There are 53 sociology majors in the class of 2013 and 62 in the class of 2012 according to the Residential College Facebook, but only 28 in the class of 2014. Departmental representative Paul Willis did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the change in the department.

Another — slightly less dramatic change — occurred in the history department, which appears to have bounced back from last year’s large drop in numbers. Last year, only 56 sophomores signed into the department compared to 80 the year before and a previous yearly average in the 90s. This year, the number is back up to 75, causing departmental representative Alec Dun GS ’04 to speculate that last year’s numbers were possibly just an aberration.

“We didn’t have a number of our big drawing courses [last year] because people were on leave or people were away,” he said. “That meant that fewer seats were being filled, and therefore people weren’t getting exposed to the department.”

The ranking of the biggest departments on campus remained almost identical to that of last year. The economics department once again topped the charts with 134 majors, a number that acting chair Mark Watson said in an email was “well above our historical average.” However, in light of the number of majors the department has seen in the recent past, this number is hardly surprising. There are 141 majors in the Class of 2013, which Watson called “extraordinary,” and 124 in the Class of 2012.

At the heels of the economics department is once again politics, with 115 majors compared to 104 in the junior class. The Wilson School claimed the third spot with a predictable 85 concentrators, followed by ecology and evolutionary biology with 74. The EEB department has seen a steady increase in majors in recent years, as there are currently 65 juniors and about 55 seniors in the department. EEB departmental representative James Gould said that a few years ago the average number of students signing in was about 45. He proposed a few theories for the increase.

“One is the increasing interest in conservation,” he said. “Another is the reduced competition from finance. A third is the high satisfaction level of our seniors, which spreads by word of mouth,” Gould explained.

The molecular biology and psychology departments tied for the fifth-highest number of concentrators with 65 new majors each. Incidentally, the two departments tied last year as well at 72 sign-ins.

Interest in conservation and the environment may be responsible for sustained interest in the geosciences department as well, which has seen a rising number of majors over the past five years. In 2007, four students signed into the department as opposed to this year’s 11 students and the 15 that joined the department in the Class of 2013.

“We attribute this increase to students’ greater awareness of the environment and the relevance of learning about Earth’s past climate, environmental changes and their effects on life that yields insights into what we may expect of future climate and environmental changes,” geosciences department representative Gerta Keller said.

Most of the small and medium-sized departments have retained roughly the same level of interest this year. The anthropology, architecture, astrophysics, chemistry, and East Asian studies departments show numbers consistent with those of recent yearly averages.

The physics department, which experienced an unusually high number of majors — 40 — two years ago, has returned to its usual levels. The department welcomed 25 new members in the Class of 2014 and 23 in the Class of 2013, according to physics departmental representative Edward Groth.

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The computer science department has 83 new majors, but only 26 of them are AB students. The department has almost doubled in size since 2009, although the bulk of its concentrators are BSE students.