Colleges offer many of the same majors.
There are hundreds of college majors available to undergraduate students. Within the broad spectrum of degrees, however, there are a number of majors that can be found at nearly any college or university. Which majors are actually offered at each school will sometimes vary according to the type of institution. For instance, liberal arts colleges--primarily undergraduate institutions that offer degrees in fields like English, literature, history, philosophy, psychology and math--will have a staple set of majors that differ from baccalaureate colleges, where less than half of the degrees offered are degrees in the liberal arts disciplines.
Liberal Arts Majors
A perusal of the top colleges listed by "U.S. News & World Report" for 2010 reveals a number of common majors in the liberal arts fields. The top liberal arts colleges (Amherst College and Swarthmore College); baccalaureate colleges (Elizabethtown College); and university (Harvard) all offer a wide variety of liberal arts majors. Some of these include art and art history; religion; social studies, a mixture of history, sociology, geography, political science and other related disciplines; anthropology, the study of humans and human culture; American studies, a study of American society through subjects like history, economics, sociology, gender studies and even art history; history; English; psychology; Spanish; political science; philosophy; and music.
The Sciences
Many of these same colleges offer a number of majors in the fields of science. This is especially true of baccalaureate colleges and larger universities like Harvard. Students can specialize among many of the basic science majors offered, including physics, chemistry, biology, math, astronomy, engineering, environmental science, statistics, neuroscience, geology, astrophysics, general science, science education, math education, engineering and computer science.
Interdisciplinary Majors and Other Miscellaneous Majors
Other majors are harder to classify because they cut across disciplinary lines. These interdisciplinary majors are usually offered by the top colleges and universities. In addition to these, there a number of miscellaneous majors that are not easily classified. Some of these include law; jurisprudence and social thought, the study of law as a discipline that evolves within specific historical contexts; business; women and gender studies; interdepartmental studies; environmental studies; environmental science and public policy; African-American studies; and education.
Tags: baccalaureate colleges, liberal arts, majors that, environmental science, gender studies, liberal arts, Majors Other