This is the 15th in a weekly series called Bobcats by the Numbers comparing Ohio University to the five other Mid-American Conference universities in Ohio.
Read the previous entry in the series about dining halls on campuses of Ohio MAC schools.
Of the six Mid-American Conferences universities in Ohio, Ohio University was the only school with biological sciences as the most popular undergraduate major for fall 2015.
The six MAC universities in Ohio include OU, Miami University, Bowling Green State University, the University of Toledo, Kent State University and the University of Akron. The information for fall 2016 was not available for all six universities. All data is for the universities' main campuses.
OU had 1,100 undergraduate students studying biological sciences at its main campus. Biology was the second most popular major at Akron and third most popular major at Miami. The College of Arts and Sciences at Bowling Green and the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at Toledo had the most students at the respective campuses. Both colleges house the biological sciences department.
Alexandra Sargent, a first-year graduate student studying environmental studies, said she was not surprised by OU's top five majors.
“I’m happy to hear there’s a lot of hard sciences in there,” Sargent said.
She said she was glad that biology was the most popular major.
“Having more (students studying) the hard sciences and journalism, I think, is very important,” Sargent said. “People are more and more interested in what kind of news and information is being put out there."
Nursing — the fifth most popular major at OU — had the highest number of students in that major at Kent State. The College of Nursing had the fifth highest undergraduate enrollment at Toledo, not including undecided students.
Maggie Stotts, a junior studying retail merchandising, thought business was going to be one of the top majors.
“Nursing doesn’t surprise me,” Stotts said. “I just have a lot of friends who are in nursing.”
Psychology was another popular major at the six universities. It was the second most popular major at Miami and the third most popular major at OU and at Kent State.
Quintin Rhoades, a freshman studying media arts and studies, said he was surprised his major ranked so high on the list. He also thought business was going to be one of the top five majors.
“I feel like I see more business students,” Rhodes said. “I knew journalism was really big here. I was kind of surprised that biology was the biggest.”
