6 SHOCKING Reasons Why US Students Are Swapping Arts and Humanities for STEM Majors

Forget everything you know about MOST popular US college majors by state, as the situation is changing so FAST!  The recent report published by Bloomberg shows America’s college students have a more practical approach to choosing college majors. They choose money, that is! The Typical Student team took a closer look at the shocking statistic. 

Popular US College Majors: How Things Changed

• Over the past year, the share of bachelor’s degree holders majored in computers, math or statistics increaser to 4.7% which made about 1 million students over a decade (224,000 students in 2017). 
  
• The percentage of literature and languages majors decreased from 4.6% to 4.2%;
  
• The percentage of liberal arts and history majors decreased by 0.7%.
  

Reasons for a Shift in College Majors Choice

As the US labor market has shifted towards needing more STEM professionals, the number of science, technology, engineering and math students continues to grow.  Students are becoming more aware of the value of their college degree in the years following the recession of 2007-09.

• Tuition and fees increase in public ($9,970) and private nonprofit four-year colleges ($34,740) in the 2017-2018 school year. 
  
• STEM majors have the biggest salaries, meanwhile, arts and humanities majors are paid less as suggested by Bankrate.com report. 
  
• Business remains the most popular field of study attracting 20% of undergraduates on a regular basis. 
  
• The overall percentage of students pursuing higher education has dropped from 13.7% to 12.2% of the total.