STEM fields drawing more students
The most popular major among UW-Madison freshmen may be undecided, but as they move toward graduation, growing numbers of students are pursuing degrees in academic disciplines known as STEM — science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
STEM majors, including those geared toward health professions, now account for about 40 percent of undergraduate degrees and make up half of the top-ten list of the most popular majors on campus. (Biology ranks number one.) And the UW is graduating about one thousand more students with such degrees each year than its peer universities, on average.
Jobs in these fields were projected to grow at nearly twice the rate of other fields between 2008 and 2018, and workers with STEM degrees earn 26 percent more than their counterparts, according to a 2011 report from the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Read more at the On Wisconsin Magazine site.