As students begin course election for the Spring term, many look to select classes that meet requirements for their respective majors. Although the percentage of majors awarded to undergraduates by each academic department has stayed relatively constant over the past decade, certain trends in various departments — such as the popularity of government and Asian and Middle Eastern studies — have developed as a result of changes within the departments or in national and global affairs, according to AMES professor Allen Hockley.
The majority of the 10 most popular majors of the 2010-2011 academic year were also prevalent 10 years ago, with the exception of the AMES major, according to data presented by the College Fact Book, compiled by the College's Office of Institutional Research. Last year, the departments with the most majors were economics, government and psychological and brain sciences.
Although economics and government ranked as the first and second most popular majors for 2001 graduates, respectively, the departments graduated more majors last year than they did a decade ago.
The biology, English and history departments, which ranked fourth, sixth and seventh in popularity, however, had fewer majors in 2011 than 2001, according to the Fact Book. English dropped from second place in 2001, with the number of completed majors falling from 115 to 72 over the 10-year period.
More students have recently elected majors in government and AMES as a result of national and global events, according to professors in both departments.
"Enrollments in the Asian studies program tend to follow the front page of newspapers," Hockley said. "Since 9/11, the Middle East has been the focus of the news — China as well as it's an economic powerhouse. Both are now extremely popular tracks in AMES."
In addition, more students studying government or economics tend to study AMES because they recognize an opportunity to make a global impact and to gain better employment, Hockley said. Eleven students double majored in government or economics and AMES in 2011 as opposed to five in 2006.
Government professor and department chair John Carey also said the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks impacted the popularity of the government major.
"There's a very large part of the world, and of the population, people don't know much about," Carey said. "For the years before 9/11, we lived in a relative era of peace."
Colin Harris '13, a government major, said the major is on the rise because Dartmouth students see an uncertain world full of political problems.
"It's always been in the nature of Dartmouth students to solve the world's problems," he said.
Internal departmental changes have also influenced major statistics over time.
The biology department, for example, graduated 97 majors in 2001 and 74 majors in 2011. However, the number of biology majors has increased since the 2005-2006 academic year, according to professor Patrick Dolph.
While Dartmouth's trends parallel nationwide patterns, they are also related to changes the biology department has made to requirements for the major, Dolph said. In the 2005-2006 academic year, the major requirements started to allow students to spread courses over a large variety of disciplines instead of focusing on one of four concentrations in the previous system, he said.
"Obviously it's a rigorous major," Vaidehi Mujumdar '13, a biology and anthropology double major, said. "But I feel they're going in the right direction. Biology 8/9 is a new class that doubles Bio 11 and Chem 5. Combining the science classes is a good way to ease into it."
Course selection in the department depends greatly on the interests of students who plan to attend medical school, Dolph said.
"We now have more interdisciplinary courses like Biology 11, and I think this has helped the student and faculty to connect," he said.
The psychological and brain sciences department has grown from 85 majors in 2001 to 124 majors in 2011 due interest from pre-med students, according to the Fact Book. However, because the department encompasses both psychology and neuroscience majors, the increase in majors may have resulted from the creation of the neuroscience major in the 1990s, professor Howard Hughes said.
"The number of psychology majors over the years has been relatively steady," Hughes said. "But I don't think anyone anticipated how popular and successful the neuroscience major would be with the students. A lot of students hoping to go the medical school are interested in that major."
Other departments have also experienced varied growth. The number of anthropology majors has nearly doubled since 2001, while the number of computer science majors has dropped from 48 students in 2001 to 22 in 2011, according to the Fact Book.
College Registrar Meredith Braz said the popularity of double majors and modified majors is likely to continue to increase.
"From what I hear from students, they have a lot of interests," Braz said. "These interests might also make them more hirable for work."
A curriculum review led by a dean of the faculty has also been implemented in order to further investigate trends in majors, according to Braz.