Throughout the first week of Spring Term, students in the class of 2028 have been declaring their majors. Like many other liberal arts colleges,  Carleton students do not arrive with a  set major track;  instead, they have until their 6th term to select a major. According to data provided by the Registrar’s Office, the five most popular majors for the class of 2028 were biology, with 72 students, political science and international relations, with 45 students, chemistry, with 44 students, psychology, with 34 students and economics, with 34 students. Six students remained undeclared at the time of writing, and double major petitions have not yet been processed.

Carleton offers 33 majors across humanities and STEM disciplines. While students are able to petition to declare two majors, they may choose only one “primary” major, which is selected during the declaration period. After declaring, students are assigned a new academic advisor who is a member of their major’s faculty instead of the liberal arts advisor who supports them during their first five terms. 

In 2012, President Barack Obama’s President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology released an Engage to Excel report outlining an aim to reverse the nation’s trends away from STEM graduates. In the 13 years since, there has been an explosion of STEM majors, with upwards of 20% of graduates holding STEM degrees in 2022, according to a 2025 report. Within the class of 2028, approximately 67% of students declared a STEM-related major, while 33% declared a humanities major. Of the most popular five majors, all but one are in STEM-related fields, with the exception of the second most popular major, political science and international relations.

Notably, the class of 2028 is significantly smaller than the class of 2027. According to data provided by the registrar’s office, there are 471 students in the class of 2028, while the student directory shows over 500 students in the class of 2027. Based on this enrollment shift, numbers for nearly every major have dropped. 

Some of the most noticeable changes in major distribution are in the Computer Science department, where the class of 2028 has 29 majors, while the class of 2027 has 73 majors, approximately 33 of whom are double majors.

Professor and Chair of Computer Science Amy Csizmar Dalal said, “The field is and has always been cyclical: we get excited (sometimes overexcited!) when new things emerge, we get cautious as we figure out what new technologies enable and what their practical and ethical limits are, and we eventually reach a steady state.” 

She pointed to the dot-com boom and other technological advances over the past several decades as examples of this phenomenon, arguing that the spread of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) may be similar. Csizmar Dalal emphasized that this time of shrinking and caution is temporary. She said, “The field always rebounds, and I expect that to happen again.” 

In considering this rebound, Csizmar Dalal argued that rapid technological advances may make the study of computer science more important than ever. She explained, “We need people who understand historical, social and economic contexts,” and who can make educated judgments and considerations about the use of AI and technology across fields. 

The mathematics and statistics department has also experienced some fluctuations in the number of declared majors, but less so than in computer science. Chair of the Mathematics and Statistics Department Rafe Jones shared that there are currently 28 declared math majors in the class of 2028 and about seven to 10 more in the classes of 2027 and 2026. 

“We do get a fair number of double majors, and some of those won’t have declared yet,” He said

For statistics, the class of 2028 currently has seven declared majors, while the class of 2027 has 24 majors and the class of 2026 has 32 majors.

 Jones said that  “We have seen a fair amount of variability in the numbers of stat majors over the years” and noted that the number of statistics majors has been in the 20s for the past six years, with a significant jump into the 30s with the classes of 2025 and 2026. 

He said, “the best explanation I have for that is that statistics [is] increasingly perceived as useful for a large number of careers.” Perhaps the decrease in majors among the class of 2028 marks a reversal of this trend, though Jones said there was no specific evidence pointing to changing perceptions of the job market as a factor.

Thus far, there are several majors for which zero students in the class of 2028 have declared: Spanish, Russian, German and French. The classes of 2026 and 2027 have one and two Spanish majors, respectively. There are four French majors in 2026 and five in the class of 2027, as well as four Russian majors in the class of 2027, but zero in the class of 2026. There are three German majors in the class of 2026, and one in the class of 2027. Many students prefer to minor in a language rather than major in it, with Spanish and French having more than 10 minors in each year, while German has just under 10 minors in each year, and Russian has two minors in the class of 2026 and zero in the class of 2027. 

Although major declaration has officially ended for the class of 2028, students may request to change their major, petition to declare a second major or declare a minor at any time during their time at Carleton. The 6th term does not mark the end of students’ abilities to explore fields and try out different courses throughout their remaining six terms.