The College of William and Mary prides itself on its academic rigor and liberal arts curriculum, which allow its students to pursue a wide range of fields and hone in on their passions. Students can choose to explore popular STEM majors or, just as easily, a less-traveled path like French and Francophone studies. But what are students at the College drawn to the most, and how has it changed over time?
The growth and decline of majors reflect societal shifts, technological advances and the school’s evolving reputation in different disciplines. In a world of developing technology, it is understandable that some of the most popular majors are in scientific and technological disciplines such as biology, psychology, computer science, data science, and neuroscience. Part of this could also be because of their potential salaries upon entering the workforce. As Forbes Advisor highlights, the sciences were among the highest salary earners in recent years. The combination of a variety of careers, dynamic disciplines and high incomes is a possible factor for those majors’ higher enrollment numbers at the College.
It is also no surprise that international relations is one of the most popular majors at the College. The school ranks among the top 20 undergraduate universities to study international relations and is the third-best school for international relations in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Its enduring growth highlights the program’s longevity and sustained reputation that continues to attract new students.
The liberal arts curriculum also helps to explain why social sciences majors — such as government and economics — and humanities majors — such as history and English — continuously rank among the highest enrollments. Through these classes, students are equipped with excellent critical thinking, research, communication and reasoning skills that can be utilized in a plethora of careers.
There are some majors, though, that are slowly starting to have a bigger presence amongst the student body. A deeper dive into this study analyzed the growth rates of majors and revealed surprising insight into which programs have expanded the most.
The data science major had the largest average growth rate. As artificial intelligence evolves, data science has gained steady momentum, and students have begun to shift away from computer science. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicted an incredibly fast growth rate of 34% for data scientists over the next 10 years. College students love nothing more than a growing job market, and the major’s growth reflects this prediction.
Likewise, several other STEM majors continue to steadily increase their enrollment numbers, which could be connected to their expanding career prospects. Careers like psychiatrists, computer and information research scientists, and financial examiners are among the fastest growing occupations, and they value backgrounds from majors in the graph above, such as psychology, biology, computational and applied mathematics, and computer science.
Humanities majors like linguistics, classical studies, Japanese Studies and sociology have shown the most growth in recent years, despite their lower overall enrollment numbers. The College published an article about this trend, citing rising economies and a “globally driven market” as a reason for these trends. These types of degrees equip students with excellent critical thinking skills and global perspectives, which can be applied to a wide array of career fields, giving students a unique flexibility in their job search.
The Flat Hat also compared these results to a larger scale of major enrollment growth. The College’s growth percentages do not differ greatly from those found in a nationwide study by Student Choice. For example, at the College, psychology grew approximately 5% from 2016 to 2023, and the “Student Choice” study found that it grew approximately 6%. Similarly, at the College, biology has increased at an average rate of 3% in enrollment, and the graph shows an increase of about 4%.
The beauty in the College’s liberal arts curriculum is that it prevents any one major from dominating the student body.
The major enrollment numbers versus growth represent the school’s vibrant academic diversity as humanities majors coexist with STEM majors as some of the most prominent. Just as importantly, the growth of majors represents the school’s ability to adapt to a modern society and help prepare students for success.
