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First-Year students in the US abandon business as a major |
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January 22, 2010
The percentage of college freshmen planning to major in business fell to its lowest levels since the 1970’s, according to a recent national survey.
Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) at the University of California at Los Angeles released the 2009 version of its ’Freshman Survey.’ The percentage of first year students who plan on majoring in business fell from 16.8 percent to 14.4 percent. The only time it was lower was in 1974, with 14 percent. Also, the number of students who listed their ’probable career’ as business dropped to an all-time low from 14.1 percent to 12.1 percent.
Linda DeAngelo, co-author of the accompanying report and assistant director of research for the Cooperative Institutional Research Program at HERI said, "I think that a business career doesn’t look as appealing as it once did, nor does it come with a guarantee of being well-off financially as in the past... Some of that can definitely be attributed to the general sense that we spent a lot of time over the past year raking business executives and people in high finance over the coals. There’s certainly a trickle down, and I don’t think high school students are immune to that overall feeling about business."
DeAngelo found that interest in accounting, business administration and management in particular fell hard, while interest in finance and marketing remained about the same.
The recession not only affected choices of study among first years, but it also raised anxiety about their ability to pay for their way through. In 2009, about two-thirds of incoming students responded that they had ’some’ or ’major’ concerns about ’their ability to finance their college education.’
DeAngelo argues this particular recession has had a stronger impact on perceptions amongst first year students than any other recession in the past. For instance, in the latest survey, about 4.5 percent of freshmen reported having a father who was unemployed. This is the highest unemployment rate for fathers since the survey began in 1966. Also, 7.9 percent of freshmen reported that their mother was unemployed. This is the highest since 1979. Since the last recession, these figures have jumped significantly. In 2002, the unemployment rate for fathers was 2.4 percent, and for mothers 4.5 percent.
For more information and detail about this survey, visit http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/01/21/freshmen.
The percentage of college freshmen planning to major in business fell to its lowest levels since the 1970’s, according to a recent national survey.
Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) at the University of California at Los Angeles released the 2009 version of its ’Freshman Survey.’ The percentage of first year students who plan on majoring in business fell from 16.8 percent to 14.4 percent. The only time it was lower was in 1974, with 14 percent. Also, the number of students who listed their ’probable career’ as business dropped to an all-time low from 14.1 percent to 12.1 percent.
Linda DeAngelo, co-author of the accompanying report and assistant director of research for the Cooperative Institutional Research Program at HERI said, "I think that a business career doesn’t look as appealing as it once did, nor does it come with a guarantee of being well-off financially as in the past... Some of that can definitely be attributed to the general sense that we spent a lot of time over the past year raking business executives and people in high finance over the coals. There’s certainly a trickle down, and I don’t think high school students are immune to that overall feeling about business."
DeAngelo found that interest in accounting, business administration and management in particular fell hard, while interest in finance and marketing remained about the same.
The recession not only affected choices of study among first years, but it also raised anxiety about their ability to pay for their way through. In 2009, about two-thirds of incoming students responded that they had ’some’ or ’major’ concerns about ’their ability to finance their college education.’
DeAngelo argues this particular recession has had a stronger impact on perceptions amongst first year students than any other recession in the past. For instance, in the latest survey, about 4.5 percent of freshmen reported having a father who was unemployed. This is the highest unemployment rate for fathers since the survey began in 1966. Also, 7.9 percent of freshmen reported that their mother was unemployed. This is the highest since 1979. Since the last recession, these figures have jumped significantly. In 2002, the unemployment rate for fathers was 2.4 percent, and for mothers 4.5 percent.
For more information and detail about this survey, visit http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/01/21/freshmen.
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