As of April 6, members of the sophomore class have officially declared their majors. Students declared a total of 31 different majors, with the two most popular majors being biology, with 73 students, and computer science, with 62 students.
Many majors retained similar numbers to previous years, with some notable exceptions. The number of sophomores who declared computer science remained relatively similar to last year. Biology, which had the second highest number of majors in the class of 2026, gained 23 more sophomores than last year, thus overtaking computer science as the most popular major.
Despite moving to second place, Computer Science Department Chair Anna Rafferty shared in a statement to the Carletonian that the department is excited for the future with the class of 2027.
“Computer science is delighted by our new majors,” said Rafferty. “We hope that everyone chooses a major that excites them, spurs their curiosity, and helps them accomplish whatever goals they have for their time at Carleton and after Carleton.”
“We’re relatively similar to the number at this point in the year counting double major declarations in progress, although the numbers are down a bit,” continued Rafferty. “I was expecting a decrease from recent years based on what I’ve heard from other schools and tightening in the job market.”
The English department also saw a considerable increase in majors, with Department Chair George Shuffelton saying they have increased by 40% over the past few years. This year, 26 sophomores declared English.
After experiencing a declining number of majors during the pandemic, the religion department increased its numbers this year with eleven sophomores joining the department. It is the first time since 2019 that the number of majors has reached double digits.
“Back in the early 2010s, we had as many as sixteen majors in a given class year. Fourteen majors with the class of 2019 was the last time we saw double digits — and then numbers tanked during Covid, when the humanities in general took a big hit,” said Department Chair Kristin Bloomer.
Bloomer also said that, like many other humanities departments at Carleton, the religion department relies on building connections within the department and between professors and students. As a result, virtual classes could be to blame for a lack of majors in religion or other humanities during COVID-19.
“In any case, we are happy to see numbers climbing again,” said Bloomer.
Majors that maintained similar numbers of majors to last year in their number of sophomore major declarations expressed gratitude and excitement at welcoming more students into their department.
“We’re happy to see that a lot of Carleton students are interested in majoring in math and stats, and we’re delighted to welcome those who have declared into our majors,” said Math and Statistics Department Chair Rafe Jones in a statement to the Carletonian, “The bump in stat majors isn’t dramatic, and I think it would be hard to reject the null hypothesis for any theories about why.”
Philosophy Department Chair Daniel Groll also said his department is on track with their numbers, with seven majors in the class of 2027.
“We usually pick up a few more when double majors are declared,” he said. “[This is] totally in line with what’s normal for us after a couple years of non-standard numbers. [It was] very high two years ago then very low.”
Other departments also discussed how many of their majors come from double major declaration, meaning that the current numbers are likely to change over the next two years because students declare their second majors later than their first.
German Department Chair Juliane Schicker said they have not received any new majors but that they “are a small department that often gets their few majors from second-major declarations later.” She also said that she encourages students to declare the German major.
“When we get majors, we are thrilled and welcome them into our tight-knit community!” Schicker said. “Students write really interesting comps papers, and they are just generally a joy.”
While some historical changes in the number of majors in each department are associated with external events — increases in the tech industry, for example, coincided with more students declaring the computer science major — it isn’t always clear what leads to changes in major popularity.
“I hesitate to guess why,” said English Department Chair George Shuffelton about the increase in English majors. “We continually update our courses and diversify our curriculum, we offer 3 terrific OCS programs, our majors have a great community, and our alumni lead highly successful lives in a wide variety of careers — but that’s all been true for a long time. We did add a life-size cardboard cutout of Edgar Allen Poe to our lounge this year, so perhaps he gets the credit?”