Why Most Students Ditch Math & Science Majors

Math and Science majors are pretty popular choices for incoming college students, but that popularity fades pretty quick. New research shows students quickly change majors when they realize they're gonna have to work really hard. And as Trace tells us, this attitude has serious consequences.

Read More:

Math, Science Popular Until Students Realize They're Hard
"Math and science majors are popular until students realize what they're getting themselves into, according to new research."

A Major in Science? Initial Beliefs and Final Outcomes for College Major and Dropout
"Taking advantage of unique longitudinal data, we provide the first characterization of what college students believe at the time of entrance about their final major, relate these beliefs to actual major outcomes, and, provide an understanding of why students hold the initial beliefs about majors that they do."

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[sasukesuite]

*Goes to college*
Professor: "Alright, so there's this thing called the epsilon-delta definition of a limit..."
*Becomes a sports journalism major*

[glittertechnic]

In high school, a science teacher once told me that most math teachers become math teachers because they are good at math. But because they're not bad at math, they don't know how to teach to people who are bad at math. He also said those teachers prefer the smart math-savvy students because they validate their careers.

[ZombieProdigyUS]

As a Biology and Business major, if you study for 2 hours in Business youll get an A and 20 hours in Biology will get you a C or B if lucky....

[mauricemcdonald]

I can't blame people for bailing. While taking the time and working through it sounds good, in college, time is money. Your money. Bad grades = wasted money, and that's math most kids understand. 

[kvnd]

people want to major in science because they like "pop science" like d news and cute science videos on the internet. Then they realize what actual hardcore science is like

[Chromedeguenther]

As a sophomore electrical engineering student, its not necessarily the difficulty part that has dwindled my interest. It's that there is SO MUCH WORK. I enjoy taking my time and working on a project like, say, developing and programming a mini cpu with a few basic functions. HOWEVER -- the downside arises when said project is assigned along with 3 other projects of similar difficulty, 10 homeworks a week, 2 lab reports a week, and STILL expected studying is required. Slaving is done (at the expense of health, both physical and mental) to finish everything on time. Then, the whole process starts over again, but there is less left in the tank from last weeks struggle, so quality of work goes down -- including the studying, which makes all the work even HARDER as ones understanding is less than required as a result. Then you have to play the catch up game, finish everything on time again, rinse and repeat...ect. On break, I usually casually learn physics, programming and/or circuitry, build lasers and other various tech with great interest as there aren't a million ridiculous assignments at once. I'll admit one thing--I love taking my time to understand things thoroughly--that is what makes the difference between me and those who get by easier in engineering (still, very few would say it is easy in itself, just maybe less stressful than someone who loves to take his time gaining a deep understanding of things before moving on such as myself).

[magneta]

From my own experience, many of my classmates left engineering or science because the classes were ridiculous. When you have professors that design the exams to the point where it's impossible to earn an A or even B on your own without a generous curve, then it becomes disheartening. You have to do so much work in these classes only to get poor results. My classmates knew the material, but they didn't know it at the level that a person with a PhD would, and that was the level that my professors expected. Standards should definitely be high, but they should be realistic. Most 19 year old kids can handle general chemistry, but if you require them to know as much as a chemistry professor, then don't expect any miracles to happen.

A lot of science and engineering professors have very strong accents, though this depends on the university I suppose. It's very difficult to understand complex material when you have a strong accent to contend with. I didn't see this problem as often in my humanities classes. Science and engineering classes require you to learn facts; you are right or you are wrong. There is no BSing. In humanities classes, however, you can conceal your ignorance about a subject if you can BS well.

[heisenberg]

I survived. I am on my last 15 hours on my applied math degree.

[ReveredDead]

Here's the problem with schools.
GPA and Letter Grades. If we can get rid of the massive anxiety and stress of grades. It would actually be fun and worth a lot more time. To be honest, the only thing we students care about is the grade we get whereas it should be about the content.

[Gandalf]

Math is like a language. Look how long it take a baby to speak or walk. Most of us never had that time to learn the real maths, the meaning of those equations. The Department of education need a real change. 

[Wangste]

Because math and science is damn hard in college.

[link]

Changed from non-science to science. I was too afraid that I wouldn't be able to get a job after school.

[mario]

I never liked school do to a lot of stress at home I barley passed highschool and didn't even know my times tables and thats emberassing once I started working in the real world scrubbing dishes and a couple of big bang theory episodes and hawking documentaries I bought algebra books and learned more math on my own than I ever did at school which I am thankful for now I am a year in at my college majoring in electrical engineering and hope to attain more knowledge every day

[nwoka]

They realize that there's more to a physics degree than discussing how cool Stephen Hawking is, and pretending to understand General relativity.

[violacrb]

As a (returning) engineering student, I find that math in college is taught pretty much in one of two ways:

1) "Mathematician" - This appears more often in pure math and physics courses. You spend ages pouring over the history of the topic, the derivation of formulae, and long-winded proofs. In the end, you may understand how formulae are derived, but are clueless the moment you are hit with a real-world scenario.

2) "Essentials only" - Very common in labs. You are shown a handful of equations and shortcuts that apply to the task at hand This is the purest form of "plug-and-chug, " where you are told neither what the numbers you are manipulating represent, nor why you are using the given equations. Unfortunately, you now know only how to solve that specific problem with that one method and the slightest change in the situation renders you helpless.

Which method appears depends on the class. The sad truth is that neither is effective, and as soon as real engineering problems appear, you realize just how poorly prepared you are.

As for not getting the grade you expect...that's more the result of a culture that teaches kids that failure is something to be ashamed of and that anything less than an A is a sign of failure.

[peppa_pig_]

because they're boring and hard im about to change my major to basket weaving

[BelleAmelie]

All my life, math was my weakest subject; however, I was always very into science. I generally good really good grades in the natural sciences, and got okay to good grades in the harder sciences. Going into college, I planned on an Environmental Science major, and found an EnvSci program without all the super difficult hard science and math courses for which high school never prepared me.

It turned out, the school I attended (a small, religious, all-female undergrad college) had THREE people in their EnvSci major when I began as a college freshman...and they were all seniors and graduating either in December or that following May. At the end of my first semester, I was told that the EnvSci major was being removed as a major and instead being brought into the Biology program as a concentration. This meant on top of taking the normal EnvSci courses, I now had to take the courses I was PROMISED I'd never have to take by an admissions counselor (hah!), including General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Biochemist, Calculus, Physics...etc.

I did my best to stick with it and chug through. I did okay, up until Pre-Calculus and General Chemistry I. I scraped by pre-calc with a C- (pretty sure the professor felt bad for me, as I did my damndest all semester long only to have the final exam kill me in the end). As for Gen Chem I...I dropped out at the last possible date to do so 3/4 of the way through the semester with a D+, and this was AFTER all the tutoring and help I could get. I broke down after that, thinking I was just too dumb. Of course, other problems in my personal life around this time were NOT helping matters, and this culminated in me withdrawing from the school altogether, and I took the following semester off to figure out what I wanted to do.

I almost decided to give up on college altogether, but decided to give it one more. I had taken Intro to Political Science at that school, and being a science major, the section on environmental law fascinated me. I decided to switch majors to Criminal Justice with the intent of going to law school to learn-and eventually practice-environmental law.

I did so much better in the CJ major, and was a ton happier. I graduated with a BA in Criminology in December 2014. However, I quickly gave up the idea of going to law school, as I did my research and learned that EVERYONE goes to law school, only to fail the bar and never pass it, or never land full-time employment after graduation. Luckily, my French minor lead me to getting a job at a national insurance company. While my work there is far from what I want to do, it's good pay and provides amazing benefits.

My company will pay for me to go back to school, and I decided I am going to go back and either finish my degree in environmental science, or pursue a degree a degree in civil/environmental engineering. I am working on filling the gaps in my foundational education with the help of Khan Academy, and soon I will be ready to go back.

Part of why so many science majors switch out, is like video said, they are not being taught the foundational skills they need to succeed in their programs. The way the courses are taught expects everyone to learn and progress at the same speed, which does NOT happen in real life. We need to revamp our educational system that prepares the individual for success, instead of setting them up for failure.

The problem is NOT lack of intelligence, but rather a flawed structure. It needs to change, and soon.

[JakeVoorhees]

Early college students don't realize how much work is truly required in math & science curriculums today. It's serious business. You have to not only be good at math / chemistry / physics but you need to be passionate for the topics. If there is no passion for things, it's just too hard, so you will quit. You will fail. And you will try out being a business major. Everyone wants to feel proud of their major, something that isn't psychology, and make a lot of $$$ when they graduate. The truth is, if you don't love the topics, you will quit. So choose something you love people!!!!

[oolong]

The reason there are so many drop outs is because most students don't know jack about real jobs/careers in the real world.  So when they are forced to pick major all they really know is Math, Science, English, & History that they got from high school...   So they end up picking "something" from one of these categories and they end up changing it once they are older and have a better understanding of things.

[nicholasfazzolari]

US k-12 needs to focus on getting everyone to get good at Algebra. Most college students struggle in calculus sequences because they lack the algebra skills required to solve and simplify.