Today’s students are tomorrow’s business leaders.
When it comes to Americans’ choices in majors, believe it or not but business has often taken a seat behind education studies and the social sciences. That appears to have changed, however, as stats from the National Center for Educational Statistics reveal a new reality for American students.
US College students have been making a serious shift towards business and health degrees. According to statistics, the most popular bachelor’s degree from 2016-2017 was business. During that academic year, almost 20% of all graduates had completed their studies in a business or health field. This represents a serious increase over the last half-century. In 1970-1971, only 13.7% of graduates had degrees in business. In the 1970s, only 3% of students were studying for health professions, but that figure is currently around 12.2%
The stats from the National Center for Educational Statistics also reveal larger trends which have been taking place over the course of decades. During the last few decades, health and business have become more popular choices of study, while education majors have been declining significantly. In the 1970s, education majors were very popular, representing 21% of all majors. By 2016, this figure fell to just 4.4%. Social science and history majors have also been declining, from 18.5% in the 1970 to about 8.1% now. Psychology and biomedical sciences have also increased in popularity slightly from the 1970s to today.
The biggest changes in Americans’ choices in majors are the sharp decline in education majors, and a sharp increase in health majors from 2003 to today.
