Enrollment in the Life Sciences is Increasing

To the editors:



We write to respond to some of the conclusions presented in “Students Defect from Sciences” (news article, Feb. 7). The article makes many important points about sources of student dissatisfaction in the sciences, including large course sizes and an overly competitive environment. We are well aware of these problems. The new (as of 2006-07) Life Sciences concentrations are, as the article notes, one way of addressing some of these issues. In the smaller concentrations, each with a dedicated advising staff and more access to faculty, our goal is to provide an intellectual and human environment that both stimulates and supports learning.

The article notes that there is a considerable discrepancy between the number of entering freshmen who declare the intention to enroll in the life sciences and the number of students who actually do so. This striking pattern of high-school-to-college-major science attrition is a well-documented educational phenomenon; it is certainly not specific to Harvard. A nationwide study of 115,300 Life Sciences undergraduates reported in the National Science Foundation’s Science and Engineering Indicators (2008) found that 51 percent of students entering university intending to major in the life sciences switched out of the life sciences over their college careers. Harvard, with a reduction of around 38 percent according to the Crimson’s figures, is therefore actually doing okay by national standards. There are many reasons for this pattern, including students finding that science courses in college are qualitatively different from high school, students making the most of newly discovered opportunities offered in a Liberal Arts environment, and students coming to a better understanding of how their concentration relates to their career aspirations.

The article implies that enrollments are tumbling across the life sciences. In fact, the opposite is true. Using data published in the Handbook for Students and the latest concentration declaration figures, we have calculated that the total number of students enrolled in the life sciences concentrations has been increasing over recent years. In 2001-02, for example, 658 students were enrolled in Biochemical Sciences, Biology, Chemistry, and Biological Anthropology; currently 850 students are enrolled in Biochemical Sciences, Biology, Chemistry, Biological Anthropology, Chemical & Physical Biology, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, and Human Evolutionary Biology. In addition, another 56 students have integrated Life Science coursework into their Psychology concentrations through the new Social and Cognitive Neurosciences track, for a total of 906 current Life Sciences concentrators. Note too that the trend is not entirely due to the introduction of the new concentrations: Numbers were increasing prior to their introduction as well, with a total enrollment in 2005-06 of 747.

Students seem to be embracing—not defecting from—the Life Sciences.


ANDREW BERRY

Cambridge, Mass.

February 8, 2008

The writer, an Undergraduate Concentration Advisor in Biology, is writing on behalf of the Life Sciences undergraduate advisors.