News

Thirty-five percent of freshman class declares Course 6

Enrollment in the Sloan School of Management’s revamped Course 15 soared while Course 6 predominated yet again as the Registrar’s Office tallied the selected majors of the Class of 2019. Of the class’s 1,108 members, 385 (35 percent) declared one of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science’s four subjects, Course 6-3 (Computer Science and Engineering) chief among them with 200 freshmen, nearly as many as the entire School of Science.

Second most popular was the Department of Mechanical Engineering, with 179 declarers, though for the Class of 2018 its numbers rose considerably between freshman spring and sophomore fall. Course 2A, which dominated its traditional counterpart Course 2 for the second year in a row, remains a popular choice for students wishing to study mechanical engineering while having the flexibility to explore other areas of interest.

The usual standbys, Course 8 (Physics), Course 20 (Biological Engineering), and Course 18 (Mathematics) received substantial fractions of freshmen as well. Course 18C (Mathematics with Computer Science), which historically has garnered fewer than half as many students as Course 18, acquired 41 first-years compared to the math department’s 48 this year, a significant increase.

Course 15, declared by 24 people, recovered somewhat from lagging numbers in recent years, receiving more than twice as many freshmen as it did from the Class of 2018 but not quite reaching levels it enjoyed before 2012. The department has worked with students over the past year to create a more robust, personalized program complete with three different majors (Management, Business Analytics, and Finance) as opposed to its previous solitary offering of Management Science.

Other departments fared less favorably. Not a single freshman chose to enroll in the humanities majors 21M (Music and Theater Arts), 21W (Writing), or 24-1 (Philosophy). Course 10C, the Department of Chemical Engineering’s flexible-path Course 10 alternative, also lacked a freshman as counting drew to a close.

Next fall, a few then-sophomores will find themselves the sole representatives of their class pursuing a degree in their respective majors. So far, Course 12 (Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences), Course 24-2 (Linguistics and Philosophy), and Course 2-OE (Mechanical and Ocean Engineering) are set to welcome only a single member of the current freshman class.

Overall, 70.2 percent of the Class of 2019 enrolled in the School of Engineering, 19.9 percent in the School of Science, 2.2 percent in the Sloan School of Management, 1 percent in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, 0.6 percent in the School of Architecture and Planning. A final 6.1 percent have yet to declare.