Most popular majors at BC
Finance also leads among undegraduate minors
Finance, economics, and biology remain the three most popular majors for Boston College undergraduates, just as they have for the past decade, according to statistics compiled by the University’s Office of Institutional Research and Planning.
Finance, with 1,525 majors, is the top field of study at BC for the third year in a row, having supplanted economics (1,340), which had been ranked first from 2012-2022. Biology (840) has been the third most-enrolled major since 2014.
Rounding out the top 10 popular majors are political science (702), psychology (533), computer science (533), communication (519), nursing (418), neuroscience (406), and applied psychology and human development (392).
Among the most notable trends is the continued rise in popularity of computer science.
These and other data for the University’s undergraduate day students and graduate students were assembled during the fall 2024 semester by IR&P as part of its yearly compendium of facts and figures for administrators, faculty, staff, and students. [Data for economics and computer science majors reflect enrollments in both the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences and Carroll School of Management; as of 2023, the computer science major reflects enrollments in MCAS only.]
Among the most notable trends is the continued rise in popularity of computer science. Where in 2009 there were 68 computer science majors at BC, by 2018—the first year that comp-sci cracked the top 10—that number had increased by 518 percent to 420. Since 2014, computer science has experienced a 141 percent increase in enrollment, currently one of the largest such gains among disciplines with at least 10 students enrolled in a major.
Other disciplines experiencing impressive rises in enrollment during the past decade include business analytics (325 percent), Environmental Studies (277), studio art (76), and finance (50).
The University’s human-centered engineering program, which will graduate its first cohort next month, has grown from 29 to 174 majors. Other recently established majors include applied physics (from three in 2022 to the current 26) and global public health, which began in 2023-2024 with 22 and now totals 37.
Finance also once again topped the list of most popular undergraduate minors with 654 students enrolled, the seventh year in a row it has done so. Others were marketing (297), general business (225), Management and Leadership (217), Managing for Social Impact (182), philosophy (154), history (135), English (121), applied psychology and human development (118), and global public health (103).
Among the newest minors are general business, up from 83 enrollees from last year’s debut; data science, also in its second year, with 40 students enrolled; and dance, with 23 in its third year.