More Dartmouth juniors are majoring in laboratory sciences today then five and 10 years ago, while fewer are choosing to study mathematics and humanities like English and religion.
Statistics for the Class of 1996 reveal a continuation of recent trends at Dartmouth and nationwide. The number of students majoring in biology at the College has tripled in the last 10 years and the number of chemistry majors has doubled.
Several department chairs suggested the numbers are following cyclic national trends and may be directly related to the increase in medical school applicants in recent years.
Mathematics Department Chair Kenneth Bogart cited national trends to explain the department's drop from 35 majors in the Class of 1986 to 14 majors in the Class of 1996.
"Enrollments in mathematics, and numbers of majors, tend to cycle over long periods of time nationally," he said.
Although national trends may help explain the rise in biology majors, they do not help the department deal with the extra students. One hundred eight members of the Class of 1996 have declared themselves biology majors, up from the 31 majors who graduated 10 years ago.
"The enrollments are really high now, two of our introductory courses [Biology 15 and 16] are running around 300 students," Biology Chair Mary Lou Guerinot said.
To deal with the large enrollments, the department is offering Biology 15 and 16 twice each year now, and will be adding an additional professor this year. "We are hoping to add other people in additional years," she said.
Two laboratories are also being renovated.
While most departments aim to attract majors, when a large number flock to any one department, the possibility of a shortage of resources -- including facilities and professors -- arises.
"Being able to offer one-on-one research experiences becomes more difficult," Guerinot said. "That's the problem faced by many of the departments with popular majors."
Guerinot suggested that a restructuring of the biology major and an increase in the number of medical school applicants contributed to the increase.
The increase in science majors comes at a time when the College's new curriculum requirements will further raise the number of students taking laboratory science courses and doing advanced research.
"We are hopeful that additional faculty can be added to meet the needs of increased numbers of majors that will face the culminating experience requirement of the new curriculum," Chemistry Department Chair John Winn said.
But while the sciences are becoming more popular, several humanities departments have fewer majors.
Only eight '96s declared a religion major, compared to 31 in the Class of 1991.
Religion Department Chair Robert Henricks said the increases in medical school applications could be hurting the number of students majoring in his department.
"It could also be that students are very concerned at the moment that they have the right degree for business school or law school or medical school at the end of four years," he said.
He also blamed the decrease in religion majors on an "image problem."
"Parents ... invariably try to talk their sons and daughters out of a religion major, fearing the only thing they could possibly do with this major is become a priest or a nun or a Rabbi. That is not what we are all about in this religion department," he said.
But Henricks said he was not concerned with the decline, adding that enrollments in religion courses have not dropped.
"We have never seen ourselves as a major-focused department. Ninety percent or more of the students taking our courses are, and have always been, non-majors," he said.
Because enrollments are still high, the religion faculty has not been cut, but has been increased by more than one full-time position in the last few years.
Budget cuts have reduced the size of the mathematics faculty by more than one full-time position in the past five years. But Bogart said the department is trying to attract more majors and predicts that the enrollment decline is short-lived.
"We have reshaped the major to let students choose from one of several tracks," Bogart said. "Our undergraduate program committee is examining the structure of our prerequisite courses to see if they are unnecessarily discouraging potential majors.
"I believe that [the Class of '96] is an anomaly," he said. "Overall enrollments are turning up, and this suggests that the number of majors will turn up also."
Although the Class of 1996 had fewer English majors this year than usual, Department Chair William Cook said he does not believe this reflects a trend.
The English department has only 92 majors in the Class of 1996, down from 143 five years ago, but Cook said the total number of majors -- which includes more than just juniors -- has increased.
The department is still working to keep its major numbers up, Cook said. "Although the number has not declined, the department has made a number of changes to knit majors closer to the department," he said.
The changes include having a professor coordinate the needs of the English majors with those of the department, Cook said.
