Broad Fields Suffer Sharp Drop; More Concentrators Specialize

Less emphasis on broad fields, especially the Social Sciences and English, and more diffusion by concentrators among the specialized sciences and humanities, are indicated by the figures on concentration released by Reginald H. Phelps, Assistant Dean in Charge of Records.

The Division of History, Government, and Economics still tutors 35 percent of the upperclassmen, but the figures for the past three years show a steady move away from the Division as a whole. History has gained slightly since 1937.

Drop in Economics

Economics has dropped three percent during recent years from a high of 16 per cent of concentrators in 1937, but it still remains the largest field.

The number of English concentrators has suffered a sharp decline of over one hundred students since 1937. This fall only nine per cent are concentrating in English as compared with 12 per cent two years ago.

Biology, Chemistry, and Physics have all increased their concentration enrollment reversing the trend of the last decade from the pure sciences. These sciences and the two newly established fields of Architectural Sciences and Indic Philology have taken up some of the slack caused by the decrease in the Social Sciences.

Much of the diffusion into smaller fields has been in the form of an increase in compound fields with Government and Philosophy the most popular combination. A total of fifty-one compound fields were listed by the Records Office.

The figures show, however, that out of the thirty fields of concentration, fifteen have a total of less than twenty-five per cent of the 2,664 concentrators.