15 College Degrees That Are Going Extinct

Business Insider ^ | 02/21/2011 | Leah Goldman

[SeekAndFind]

The world is changing fast, and schools are scrambling to keep up by offering new, innovative majors.

With new majors comes the death of old ones. The Chronicle of Higher Education compared the academic fields four year colleges were offering in 1971 to those offered in 2006, and some of the once-notable majors seem to be disappearing quickly.

The literature, math, and science fields have been hit the worst.

Click here to see the dying majors →

[BenKenobi]

For those who want the list, a few things shocked me.

Math
Physics
Chemistry
English
History
Economics

are ON the list.

Sociology is on the list.
Library sciences is on the list.

[Neoliberalnot]

What is disgusting is the degrees that are replacing the dying ones include homosexual studies, womens studies, african studies, hispanic studies, transgender studies, and celebrating deviant lifestyles.

[Neoliberalnot]

What is disgusting ARE the degrees that are replacing the dying ones include homosexual studies, womens studies, african studies, hispanic studies, transgender studies, and celebrating deviant lifestyles.

[Perdogg]

ping

[MasterGunner01]

If this is the case, what are the “growth” fields of study? I can guarantee they are those branches that have very loose to none CRITICAL thinking associated with them. This is the institutional “dumbing down” of the curricula.

Next question: if college cannot provide an education that is worth anything, why bother? Better to learn a skilled trade to fix things when they break.

[King_Corey]

#1 Germanic Languages and Literature: - 17.6%

Explains why in Houston Texas (4th largest city in the USA) I can not get a German Advanced Class.

I can go to private tutoring, or go it alone. But for Intermediate or Advanced German Language classes, I am out of luck.

If I wanted SPANISH, I can get free schooling from the State.

[thackney]

Pretty silly for an article to use that title then list degress offerws by nearly half to more than 3/4 of all colleges.

#13 Physics: - 5.8%
Percentage of colleges offering in 1971: 53.2%
Percentage of colleges offering in 2006: 47.4%

#10 Economics: - 6.6%
Percentage of colleges offering in 1971: 56.0%
Percentage of colleges offering in 2006: 49.4%

#8 Chemistry: - 7.7%
Percentage of colleges offering in 1971: 80.3%
Percentage of colleges offering in 2006: 72.6%

#7 English: - 8.7%
Percentage of colleges offering in 1971: 94.7%
Percentage of colleges offering in 2006: 86.0%

#6 Mathematics and Statistics: - 9.3%
Percentage of colleges offering in 1971: 89.5%
Percentage of colleges offering in 2006: 80.3%

#5 Sociology: - 9.4%
Percentage of colleges offering in 1971: 77.1%
Percentage of colleges offering in 2006: 67.7%

#4 History: - 10%
Percentage of colleges offering in 1971: 91.6%
Percentage of colleges offering in 2006: 81.6%

#2 Romance Languages and Literature: - 17.0%
Percentage of colleges offering in 1971: 75.6%
Percentage of colleges offering in 2006: 58.6%

[discostu]

“Going extinct” is kind of a strong phrase. They say English is still a major in 86% of colleges, yeah there’s a big drop but anything in 86% of colleges is a long long way from extinct. There’s a few other on their list well over 50%.

[BenKenobi]

Hmm,

Ethics (x6) — Philosophy 300 level
Theory of Knowledge (x3) — Philosophy 100 level
Biomedical Ethics (x3) — Philosophy 400 level
Introduction to Computer Science (x6) — Computer Science 100 level

So 18 credits out of my 120 credit degree were in ‘non-dying’ fields, and only 3 credits of 30 in my 400 level courses. Wow.

[Houghton M.]

The article’s a scam. Some of these majors declined from 90% of the schools offering it to 85 % or from 82 % to 71 % or from 14% to 9 %.

The article is a joke. Don’t waste your time on it.

[Vigilanteman]

Pretty bogus methodology, if you ask me.

For example, Germanic languages and literature is #1 on the soon-to-be obsolete list because only 26.2% of colleges offer the degree now, compared with 44.2% in 1971. Math and Statistics in #6 because only 80.3% of colleges offer the degree now, compared with 89.5% in 1971.

Still, these percentages (just to take two random examples) are far higher than some which would make the all time trendly list now with the same methodology because they doubled from 2% to 4% of colleges offering the degree.

[mmercier]

I work with a kid who will be in debt for the rest of his life paying off his MBA... He makes pizza with me on occasion, and manages a hiavai (how that is spelled, me not know) store.

It is a good thing to die young. I blew that opportunity like so many others presented.

Shattered dreams and whatnot.

[Houghton M.]

This scam depends, probably, on widening the databse of schools surveyed from what would primarily have been liberal arts traditional schools in 1971 to include many more communuity colleges and vocational-type “universities” who offer a whole range of new vocation-oriented majors. Nothing wrong with the new majors, but the universe of educational institutions in 2006 is different from 1971 and, unless they corrected for that, skews the results.

In any case, only one or two of the 15 are dying. The others are plenty healthy.

[The Great RJ]

I feel pretty old with my T-Rex undergraduate degree majoring in Chemistry and French.

[NeverForgetBataan]

“What is disgusting ARE the degrees that are replacing the dying ones include homosexual studies, womens studies, african studies, hispanic studies, transgender studies, and celebrating deviant lifestyles”
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yep. But, don’t forget about H1B Economics, Off-Shoring Management, Chinese Labor Studies, Undocumented Immigrant Social Work... aaaand last but not least.... Effective Gophering for Indian CEOs.

These are all VERY important degree plans for the future of our growing economy. /S

[BenKenobi]

History here, and French literature didn’t even make the list!

The only one that’s in any danger is archival studies, which is puzzling.

[NeverForgetBataan]

I’m sure that The Houston ISD will soon offer AP classes in “kidnap negotiating” and “Taqueria Managemnet”.

[Onelifetogive]

“Going extinct” is kind of a strong phrase.

Percent decrease would have made MUCH more sense that absolute decrease, but clearly the author was not a math major.

[dartuser]

That is how you know this data is bogus. Math? Chemistry?

Being replaced by gay and lesbian studies? Womans studies ...

... please