What’s in a major
“So, what’s your major?
Every USU student will be asked this question hundreds of times before they graduate. Some responses are more interesting than others.
For one student, senior Leigh “Beezer” Sheck, she answers, “Therapeutic recreation.”
Her actual degree will be in the parks and recreation department, but her emphasis is in therapeutic recreation. Students, such as Sheck, plan to work in a profession that helps treat sick or disabled people through recreation.
Other students might respond with more typical majors. According to USU’s Enrollment Summary Reports, the most popular major at USU is elementary education, with nearly 1,000 enrolled. Not too far behind it are the different majors in the College of Engineering. Of those students majoring in the department of elementary education, more than 90 percent are women. On the other hand, approximately 90 percent of engineering majors are men.
If USU has anything to say about it, the two majors could work out their unfavorable odds together.
Each year the two colleges hold a combined barbecue. It is a time for
engineering students to finally meet a girl on campus and for elementary
education students to finally meet a guy, said Cory Brink, a senior majoring in electrical engineering.
Including all continuing education courses offered by USU affiliates, the
university has more than 20,000 undergraduate and graduate students in
attendance. Each of them has dozens of choices as to what major they will
choose.
With so many choices, some students struggle to choose just one. More than 2,000 students have not chosen a specific major, according to university records. Some students choose more than one and earn a double major, or sometimes even more.
Each major is different. Some majors have hundreds of students. Others have just a few.
In therapeutic recreation, only six other students besides Sheck are
currently enrolled. With so few students, the university will soon get rid of the program. If by the end of spring semester 2007 students have not
graduated, they will have to transfer to another university to pursue that
emphasis.
“It stinks because in the real world our career is growing even more than occupational therapy,” Sheck said.
All the same, she is glad she chose a smaller major.
“My professors know who I am and are willing to go the extra mile for me,” Sheck said. “Since we are a smaller program, we get to do more interesting things.”
One of her classes went to the Utah State Fair this year. Another class dealt with the management of ropes courses. Every day for class, the group would head up the mountain to the course.
“It’s a field trip every day pretty much,” she said. “With a smaller class size, we can just pack up and go.”
But students in small majors still have to deal with their fair share of
inconveniences.
“One big disadvantage of being in a major with very few people is that class availability is lacking at times,” said Curtis Adams, a senior majoring in crop biotechnology. “Some of my classes are only offered every other year, and some are in jeopardy of not being offered at all because of low enrollment.”
Therapeutic recreation only has five professors in the whole program, Sheck said.
“I’ve had three classes in one semester taught by the same professor,” she said. “If you don’t like the professor, it’s a bad thing. If you do like him, you love life.”
But Adams, like Sheck, prefers the smaller major.
“Being in major with very few people allows you to become very familiar with your professors and adviser,” Adams said. “Since I am also very familiar with most the professors in my program, I feel comfortable going to them with questions and using them as a network for post-graduation possibilities.”
With the bigger majors comes bigger class sizes, but other advantages do exist.
“I really like the College of Business faculty,” said Dave Kennison, a senior majoring in operations management. “Because of their size, they are better able to get better faculty.”
His specific major is rather small for the College of Business. But other core classes required to graduate from the college, require much larger
courses from other departments.
Other students is larger majors agree with Kennison’s assessment.
“A degree from USU’s engineering program is worth a lot,” Brink said. “The engineering department gets more attention from big companies around the state because of their size,” Brink said.
Even within the College of Engineering, small majors do exist. Currently, approximately 20 graduate students are pursuing a degree in irrigation engineering.
“With smaller classes, you can simply do a better job of teaching,” said Wynn Walker, associate dean of the College of Engineering. “You learn about how the students learn.”
Walker currently teaches an irrigation engineering course. Of the first four graduates at USU back in 1896, two of them majored in irrigation engineering, Walker said.
“It’s one of our oldest disciplines. Problems with large class sizes are numerous, Walker said.
“You can’t adjust your teaching for specific students,” he said. “You’re overwhelmed with student concerns. The high numbers hurt the quality of the coursework.
All the same, many students in these big majors and sometimes, bigger classes would not change a thing.
“It’s nice having a lot of other engineers on campus because you can talk about the same nerdy things,” Brink said. “You’re on the same level.
“I can make jokes about frequencies and voltages and people get it.”
-jcox@cc.usu.edu