Data from Grand Valley State University’s Division of Enrollment Development and Educational Outreach revealed the most popular majors on campus this semester are health driven. Despite the popularity of business-related fields, the division’s Winter 2024 Enrollment Report shows students are more interested in giving back to the community.
The report breaks down GVSU’s student body by class standing and focus of study. These numbers help guide GVSU in its growth and provide insight to student life. According to the report’s data, the top five studied undergraduate majors at GVSU are psychology, nursing, exercise science, education and marketing. The most popular of these majors is psychology, with over 1,000 students enrolled in the major this semester.
“The reason that people are so interested in psychology is because psychology is about understanding humans, human thought, human emotion, human behavior. All of us want to understand ourselves better and understand people that we care about in our life,” said Mary Bower Russa, Department Chair of Psychology at GVSU.
Bower Russa said a psychology major pairs well with other majors. Conceptually, psychology brings a new perspective to other fields. Curriculum-wise, it is easy to integrate, making it particularly attractive to students. Some students opt to double major in psychology or add it as a minor. Many students who pursue a degree in psychology often establish careers in various fields such as in social services, law, business, education or public policy. Those who study psychology as an undergraduate can apply to all types of graduate schools, not just those in psychology.
“You can do everything with a psychology major, it’s just that nobody is using the word psychology,” Bower Russa said. “One of the things we try to do with advising and career services is help students be more knowledgeable about the skill sets that they will have when they graduate and the types of jobs that they should be applying for.”
The data shows another category of majors with high enrollment is pre-professional prep. Pre-professional prep is not a major itself, but rather a title added to better organize students. Pre-professional prep encompasses students that aim to become doctors of medicine, dental surgery, veterinary science or other related fields of study. According to GVSU academic advisor Alexis Schewe, common majors for pre-professional students include many areas of science: biomedical sciences, microbiology, biology, cellular and molecular biology, chemistry, exercise science and more.
“Oftentimes we’ll see somebody who does biological science and then wants to go to med school, or biochemistry and wants to go to pharmacy school,” Schewe said.
This trend at GVSU matches schools across the United States. According to the National Center of Education Statistics (NCES), health related majors are the second most popular across all undergraduate institutions. Schewe said many students declare their major in the field because of their fascination with both science and the inclination to help others.
GVSU offers resources like the Office of Undergraduate Research and Scholarship (OURS) which supplement science programs through research opportunities. GVSU is large enough to have advanced tools, such as the anatomy lab, which prepares students for graduate level material, yet small classes sizes and closer relationships with academic advisors.
Active student organizations help establish communities on campus. Although there may not be as many students in certain concentrations of study, there are enough at GVSU to sustain clubs and provide regular professional development to those involved. Some of these organizations include pre-optometry or pre-chiropractic organizations. Schewe said extracurricular and supplemental aspects are attractive aspects that draw students to study pre-professional prep at GVSU.
More information on student enrollment can be found on the GVSU Division of Enrollment Development and Educational Outreach website.
