Liberal arts majors draw fewer students

Liberal arts majors draw fewer students

By Patrick Marantal

On any given day, students migrate up Bruin Walk, diverging at
the fork to their respective classes in north and south campus.

But despite the fact that some students may feel the pull of
north campus, more and more are choosing to admire the buildings
from afar rather than indulge in a liberal arts major.

As the enrollment of undergraduates at UCLA increases, students
are currently tending to gravitate toward more vocational majors,
such as the sciences and business, while avoiding majors in the
liberal arts, according to figures released by the Office of
Academic Planning and Budget.

The biology major, for example, has has seen increased
enrollment in the past five years. During the 1990-91 school year,
1,586 undergraduates were enrolled in the biology program. That
jumped to 2,363 undergraduates during the 1994-95 school year,
making the total increase nearly 800 students over the past five
years.

On the other hand, enrollment in the English major has slowly
declined over the same period. During the 1990-91 school year,
there were 1,656 students enrolled in the major, compared to last
year’s total of 1,305 English undergraduates.

Experts cite varying theories to explain where these trends are
rooted. Some believe that students come to UCLA with major-specific
preconceptions. Others believe family and cultural pressures
combine to cause students to gravitate toward certain fields.

"I would guess a number of students who are pre-med don’t know
what they are going into," said Mark Mallick, the undergraduate
counselor for the biology department. "Students enter the major
because of myths, family pressure from home or an ideal image (of
the major) without spending time thinking on what the day-to-day
life of a doctor really is."

The growing trend among undergraduates to enter certain
departments is not limited to the sciences alone. While areas such
as biology and engineering have experienced a greater influx of
undergraduates over the years, other vocational and preprofessional
majors have also grown.

The total number of students in the economics department has
been dwindling, yet the economics/international relations and
business-economics specializations have been at a steady
increase.

In the 1990-91 school year, 386 undergraduates were enrolled as
business-economics students. In contrast, last year, the number of
undergraduates registered as both business-economics and
pre-business-economics went up to 1,086 students, a five-year
increase that more than doubled the number of students in the
majors.

Experts believe that the impetus for seeking a
business-economics degree stems from both interest and a desire to
enter their chosen field once they graduate from college.

"Most students want to enter (business-economics) to do what
they want to do," said Deborah Frohman, the business-economics
department advisor. "Their interest is in getting a job once they
get out of college to make money (in) a job most people like."

While the number of undergraduates in the science and business
fields has increased, the amount of students enrolling in liberal
arts majors has been steadily declining in recent years.

In 1990-91, the political science major enrolled nearly 2,000
students. However, last year, there were only about 1,500 students.
Many students do not see the value of a liberal arts education and
are prone to enter vocational areas, experts said.

"You don’t get such a great liberal arts education like you do
in English or philosophy. People don’t think it (liberal arts) is a
practical thing," said Mary Jo Johnson, the undergraduate counselor
for the sociology department. "In the liberal arts, you can learn
more about people … it makes more interesting doctors."

However, experts agreed that many students do not realize that
there are more ways to enter a certain field other than through one
particular major. In high school, potential undergraduates do not
usually have access to a wide variety of courses, which often
limits the scope of the majors from which they choose.

"In high school, students have biology, but no other life
sciences like physiology. (The) university increases enrollment and
more people enter as biology," Mallick said. "People come in
assuming biology is the best path into the medical sciences. Do the
major you’re best in … and not biology by default.

"Med schools aren’t looking for a certain major, (but for)
well-rounded students with a capacity to learn medicine," he
added.

Many students enroll in majors in the economics department
because they believe it is the closest major to what they want to
do in the future, Frohman said. He claimed that this stems from the
lack of a specific business major at UCLA. However, Frohman
stressed that one need not major in business to get into that
particular field.

While the undergraduate enrollment point to a trend toward
vocational education, there are still many students who are
choosing their majors regardless of money or potential for future
employment.

"It’s one of those things where you kind of know where you want
to go although it may not earn a job," said Maria Trinh, a
second-year geography and environmental studies student. "Political
science is more mainstream and more people have heard of it and
(that) it can get you a job. It’s a good major for a lot of people
but not me."Comments to [email protected]