Source link : https://las-vegas-news.com/experts-say-students-are-now-rejecting-these-8-once-trendy-majors-a-surprising-shift-in-education/
Something noticeable is happening on college campuses across the United States. Fields that once drew long waitlists and enthusiastic freshmen are now quietly losing students, semester after semester. The reasons range from artificial intelligence upending job markets to ballooning student debt forcing families to do sharper math about return on investment.
Researchers studying public opinion on higher education have found that cost, flexibility, and career relevance now shape how people evaluate a college degree’s worth, with students getting “more precise about what kind of education they want” rather than simply following long-established paths. The result is a measurable reshuffling of which majors thrive and which ones quietly fade.
English Literature: A Decades-Long Retreat
The number of students majoring in English across the U.S. declined by roughly a third between 2011 and 2021, and at one point only about seven percent of Harvard freshmen planned to major in the humanities. That trend has continued. More recent data shows that English experienced the largest decrease in college enrollment per major, falling by more than ten percent.
Declines in traditional humanities majors point to skepticism about their return on investment, driven by economic pressures, uncertainties, and ballooning student loan debt, with students and their families increasingly hesitant to invest in fields with…
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Author : Matthias Binder
Publish date : 2026-04-28 06:28:00
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