Picking a major is one of the most important decisions a student can make during their college career. As WSU Vancouver offers 24 majors covering a diverse range of subjects, some degrees appear to be more sought out than others.
To determine the four most and least popular undergraduate majors on campus, The VanCougar researched several different degrees that were granted to students during the 2020-2021 school year. Katrina Choi, lead academic coordinator for the College of Arts and Sciences, explained looking at the degrees already declared by students is a more reliable method than looking at the number of undergraduates tentatively enrolled in each major. Choi explained there are some requirements students must fulfill in order to formally declare their major, but when those requirements are not yet completed, students are not officially enrolled in their chosen degree path.
“There are several majors on campus that require students to complete coursework, sometimes with a specific GPA, before they are accepted in the major. For example, psychology requires that students complete PSYCH 311 with a C- or higher, and have a WSU Vancouver GPA of 2.5, so students are not admitted into the psychology major right away,” Choi said.
(Photo courtesy of WSU Vancouver)
Elias Cohen, campus director for institutional effectiveness, provided information on the number of undergraduate degrees that were given out for each major at the end of the 2019-2020 academic year. Cohen said there were no drastic changes in major selections for the 2020 school year, as compared to previous years.
“There were 945 bachelors granted, 96 masters [and] 40 doctorates. Social sciences was the most popular undergrad major, with 94 degrees conferred, followed by nursing, 81, biology, 77 and psychology, 66,” Cohen said.
Additionally, the four least popular majors in 2020 were mathematics, with only four degrees attained, hospitality business management with eight degrees, sociology with 10 degrees and entrepreneurship with 11 degrees.
While the least popular major on campus in terms of degrees conferred is mathematics, Alexander Dimitrov, associate professor of mathematics and the mathematics program leader, explained the mathematics major is newer than most of the other majors offered on campus, and students insist on minoring in math instead of taking on the full major.
(Photo courtesy of Connie Nguyen-Truong)
“We are a relatively new program. The math major on this campus started around three years ago. It is a pretty new major. We, in some sense, also have not advertised that well,” Dimitrov said. “People like math, but they do not want to do only math. Another measure that you may think about are the math minors. I have about 55 or 56 math minors, data analytics is about 66 minors, now we are talking about hundreds of people that are interested in math.”
Nursing is the second most popular major on campus and the third top degree. Connie Nguyen-Truong, assistant professor of nursing, said the nursing program at WSU Vancouver is designed to accommodate part-time students who already work in the nursing field and helps students advance further in their profession.
“In about three-fourths of employers, they have a strong preference for hiring bachelor of science in nursing prepared nurses. The second half of the care facilities in the United States require new hires to have a BSN, and that can really open doors, for example, to leadership and management positions,” Nguyen-Truong said. “That contributes to a reason why students come to Washington State University College of Nursing, and also because we do have faculty that engages actively in research and scholarships.”
With the various degrees WSU Vancouver has to offer, choosing a major can be daunting for some students. However, seeking out topics and classes that interest you can be a great start for those pursuing higher education, as the university’s ultimate goal is to offer transferable skills students can utilize for many types of jobs within their future careers.