In the second week of Spring Term, the last of the undecided sophomores declared their majors. Though the Class of 2025 was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic during their first year, campus restrictions relaxed significantly the year after. 548 students in total declared their majors, reflecting an increase from the previous year’s numbers, which fell below 500 during the pandemic’s peak years.
For the third consecutive year, computer science was the most popular major by far, increasing from 79 declarations last year to 93 this term. Arthur Eugia ’25 was one of them, and he noted the continued popularity of his major. “Half of my friends wanted to do computer science as well. It’s a popular major for a reason,” said Eugia. He also mentioned automation: “Many jobs are at risk of automation today, and I think computer science jobs will be mostly safe,” he said.
The second most popular major was biology, with 58 declarations. This was 18 more declarations than the previous year. Alex Vue ’25 shared his thoughts on his new major. “I chose bio because I was interested in learning about epigenetics”, said Vue. But it was not an easy choice for him initially. “I almost considered majoring in SOAN because I love talking and meeting different kinds of people.”
Some students knew well in advance what they would major in. Mizuki Fujiwara ’25 decided in high school that she would major in environmental studies. “I was mostly motivated by studying climate change at my old [high] school and the fact that it will continue to be important,” she said.
Fujiwara did not consider the process of declaring a major to be different as a transfer student, but she said that it might have been different for someone less sure than her.
Monarch Kelly ’25 was among 41 other psychology majors. “I enjoyed the psych classes I took during my first year, which gave me access to fields that I enjoyed.” When asked about their favorite class in the major, Kelly said, “The lab element of the ‘learning and memory’ class gave me hands-on experience, and we got to talk about pigeons.”
Economics majors fell slightly from 37 to 34 declarations and from the third most popular major to the sixth . “I was originally a bio major, but I switched after I realized just how much I enjoyed economics,” said Jason Lin ’25. Lin also gave some advice to students considering the major, saying “[Economics] can be a bit challenging, but there are a lot of resources to take advantage of and the faculty are super nice.”
Although students have to declare a major by the second week of their sixth term, the deadline to declare a minor, which is optional, is not until their tenth term. For some students, that time is far in the future. “Choosing your minor is way more low-stakes than your major,” Eugia said. “I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.”
