Madeleine Coles

Life Editor

There is no doubt that some majors have much higher enrollment rates than others; this is true across the board. For example, more students will be majoring in business management than in 16th century French poetry at pretty much any college. ISU is no exception.

While it might sound simple enough, determining which majors at ISU are the “most popular” (or at least have the highest enrollments) is actually quite complicated.

What is definite is that nursing is the major with the highest enrollment with 657 students currently enrolled under the nursing major code.

Undeclared is second, with 560 students, and biology is third with 346 students.

Other majors that made the top ten are mechanical engineering, psychology, health science, physical education, computer science, comm sciences/disorders and management.

However, judging a major based purely on enrollment numbers can be misleading, as the numbers are determined only by the number of students enrolled under that major code.

As Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management Scott Scholes explained, those numbers can cause difficulty due to such things as teach-outs, which provides equitable treatment for students if the university ceases its degree program.

“You could have a program that sits in here and changes names, changes curriculum, whatever that is, and then that student flows through until they graduate,” Scholes said. “So that program still exists in the system, but it might not even be a program that’s bringing in any students.”

In addition to the possibility of teach-outs, the numbers can sometimes be misinterpreted due to the splitting of one program into multiple major codes, such as the auto body or nail technician programs.

But perhaps the most complex thing about determining enrollment numbers for specific majors is those programs which have a limited number of spots available.

For example, the massage therapy program currently has only 20 students enrolled, but that says nothing of the number of applications that might have been received.

Other competitive programs at ISU, such as nursing and physical therapy, have similar nuances in numbers due to the limited number of seats.

Because of this, it might be more enlightening to consider which majors and degrees have experienced the most and least growth at ISU over the last year.

By those numbers, an associate’s degree in administrative management is on the highest decline; 32 people were pursuing that degree as of Fall 2015, and 17 people are pursuing it as of Fall 2016.

Other majors and degrees on the decline are a bachelor’s degree in comm/rhetorical studies, a bachelor’s degree in computer information systems, an associate’s degree in criminal justice and law enforcement, and bachelor’s degrees in fire services administration, informatics and mass communication.

The degree with the most growth is a bachelor’s in theatre/film/video; the degree was being pursued by only nine students in the Fall of 2015 and is now being pursued by 15 students: a 66.7 percent growth.

However, even this can be misleading, as it is the number of students pursuing a degree within that major, rather than the major as a whole.

For example, an associate’s degree in automotive technology experienced a 15.6 percent decline in the last year, but the intermediate technical degree in the same major experienced an 1100 percent growth, jumping from just one student in Fall 2016 to 11 students in Fall 2016.

Ultimately, what is undisputable is that healthcare and science related fields continue to top the charts in terms of major enrollment at ISU.

However, other unexpected majors, such as theatre, film and communication are steadily gaining ground.