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Digest of Education Statistics
2004 Tables and Figures All Years of Tables and Figures Most Recent Full Issue of the Digest


Table 308. Mean number of semester credits completed by bachelor's degree recipients, by course area and major: 1976, 1984, and 1992-93

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
                             |                                              Course areas
Selected college             |_________________________________________________________________________________________
major                        |     |        |Computer|Educa-|Engineer-|Mathe-|Biological|Physical|Social sciences|
                             |Total|Business|science | tion |     ing |matics| sciences |sciences|and psychology |Other
_____________________________|_____|________|________|______|_________|______|__________|________|_______________|_____
1                            |   2 |      3 |      4 |    5 |       6 |    7 |        8 |      9 |            10 |   11
_____________________________|_____|________|________|______|_________|______|__________|________|_______________|______
1972 high school seniors     |     |        |        |      |         |      |          |        |               |
   who completed bachelor's  |     |        |        |      |         |      |          |        |               |
   degrees by 1976           |     |        |        |      |         |      |          |        |               |
                             |     |        |        |      |         |      |          |        |               |
   Mean, all majors .........|124.0|     7.8|     1.0|   9.7|      2.3|   7.4|       7.6|     9.0|           30.3|  48.8
                             |_____|________|________|______|_________|______|__________|________|_______________|______
                             |     |        |        |      |         |      |          |        |               |
Business and management .....|124.4|    41.2|     2.3|   0.5|      0.4|  10.2|       2.5|     4.8|           30.4|  32.0
Computer science ............|133.3|     6.6|    33.5|   0.4|      5.3|  22.4|       1.9|     7.8|           20.6|  34.8
Education ...................|126.4|     0.9|     0.3|  40.2|     --- |   5.0|       5.5|     4.3|           23.9|  46.4
Engineering .................|134.8|     1.6|     2.0|   0.1|     50.0|  18.2|       1.3|    20.5|           14.0|  27.1
English .....................|117.8|     0.5|     0.1|   7.8|      0.1|   3.2|       3.4|     3.4|           24.2|  75.2
Fine arts ...................|124.9|     0.3|     0.1|   6.6|     --- |   1.3|       2.5|     2.1|           13.6|  98.4
Life sciences ...............|122.2|     0.4|     0.8|   1.7|     --- |   8.4|      35.6|    26.2|           17.8|  31.3
Physical sciences ...........|122.7|     0.8|     1.4|   0.9|      1.9|  16.2|       9.6|    49.5|           13.1|  29.2
Psychology ..................|119.1|     2.0|     0.5|   5.9|      0.3|   5.5|       6.2|     5.9|           56.0|  36.9
Social sciences .............|120.6|     3.4|     0.4|   3.3|      0.4|   5.3|       3.2|     4.3|           60.3|  40.1
                             |=====|========|========|======|=========|======|==========|========|===============|======
1980 high school seniors     |     |        |        |      |         |      |          |        |               |
   who completed bachelor's  |     |        |        |      |         |      |          |        |               |
   degrees by 1984           |     |        |        |      |         |      |          |        |               |
                             |     |        |        |      |         |      |          |        |               |
   Mean, all majors .........|123.5|    12.8|     3.3|   6.2|      4.6|   8.4|       5.3|     8.1|           27.5|  47.2
                             |_____|________|________|______|_________|______|__________|________|_______________|______
                             |     |        |        |      |         |      |          |        |               |
Business and management .....|122.8|    41.2|     4.5|   0.6|      1.1|   8.9|       2.2|     3.9|           27.5|  32.7
Computer science ............|129.3|    11.8|    27.9|   0.3|      4.7|  21.3|       1.8|     8.5|           19.0|  33.9
Education ...................|127.4|     0.7|     0.3|  45.5|      0.1|   4.4|       4.4|     3.8|           20.8|  47.3
Engineering .................|132.3|     1.0|     2.3|   0.8|     52.5|  16.2|       1.1|    20.2|           12.3|  25.9
English .....................|114.8|     1.7|     1.5|   6.9|     --- |   2.2|       2.1|     4.7|           21.4|  74.4
Fine arts ...................|120.5|     1.7|     0.6|   5.1|     --- |   1.7|       2.7|     1.5|           14.1|  93.1
Life sciences ...............|121.9|     0.7|     1.5|   1.9|      0.2|  10.1|      33.5|    22.6|           18.1|  33.3
Physical sciences ...........|124.3|     0.2|     4.9|   0.1|      2.0|  14.1|      12.9|    48.7|           11.6|  30.0
Psychology ..................|120.7|     3.0|     2.7|   2.1|     --- |   6.5|       5.8|     4.2|           55.2|  41.2
Social sciences .............|119.2|     6.0|     1.4|   1.0|      0.5|   5.4|       4.4|     5.1|           52.0|  43.3
                             |=====|========|========|======|=========|======|==========|========|===============|======
1988-89 high school graduates|     |        |        |      |         |      |          |        |               |
   who completed bachelor's  |     |        |        |      |         |      |          |        |               |
   degrees by 1993           |     |        |        |      |         |      |          |        |               |
                             |     |        |        |      |         |      |          |        |               |
   Mean, all majors .........|126.5|    12.8|     3.0|   5.7|      3.2|   7.3|       6.0|     7.6|           29.5|  51.7
                             |_____|________|________|______|_________|______|__________|________|_______________|______
                             |     |        |        |      |         |      |          |        |               |
Business and management .....|123.9|    44.4|     3.9|   0.9|      0.1|   7.6|       2.6|     3.3|           23.1|  37.9
Computer science ............|127.6|    15.7|    34.3|   0.4|      2.4|  15.7|       1.7|     6.4|           17.6|  33.5
Education ...................|126.8|     1.6|     1.5|  32.6|     --- |   5.9|       4.7|     4.4|           24.5|  51.6
Engineering .................|136.9|     1.4|     7.0|   0.6|     57.9|  16.7|       1.4|    19.0|           12.2|  20.8
English .....................|127.5|     1.8|     1.0|   3.0|      0.1|   4.0|       3.5|     3.8|           22.7|  87.5
Fine arts ...................|129.6|     1.8|     1.3|   2.2|      0.8|   3.1|       2.4|     2.6|           19.8|  95.7
Life sciences ...............|128.9|     1.1|     1.4|   2.1|      1.0|   8.0|      33.8|    23.3|           20.7|  37.5
Physical sciences ...........|129.1|     1.1|     2.7|   1.1|      2.3|  15.0|       7.5|    49.3|           16.9|  33.2
Psychology ..................|125.3|     3.8|     1.2|   3.6|      0.1|   5.0|       4.9|     4.5|           53.6|  48.6
Social sciences .............|125.5|     6.2|     1.2|   1.8|      0.1|   4.8|       2.9|     5.1|           55.7|  47.6
                             |=====|========|========|======|=========|======|==========|========|===============|======
All bachelor's degree        |     |        |        |      |         |      |          |        |               |
   recipients of 1992-93     |     |        |        |      |         |      |          |        |               |
                             |     |        |        |      |         |      |          |        |               |
   Mean, all majors .........|132.2|    14.6|     3.7|   7.2|      5.4|   8.3|       6.0|     7.8|           27.3|  52.0
                             |_____|________|________|______|_________|______|__________|________|_______________|______
                             |     |        |        |      |         |      |          |        |               |
Business and management .....|129.5|    46.8|     4.7|   0.9|      0.7|   8.8|       2.8|     3.6|           23.6|  37.6
Computer science ............|137.0|    17.4|    37.1|   0.4|      5.0|  16.7|       2.5|     7.5|           17.3|  33.0
Education ...................|135.9|     2.2|     1.5|  40.1|      0.3|   6.3|       5.4|     5.0|           24.7|  50.5
Engineering .................|142.1|     2.1|     7.1|   0.3|     61.3|  17.8|       1.3|    18.1|           11.4|  22.8
English .....................|128.8|     2.9|     1.4|   4.6|      0.1|   4.3|       3.5|     4.2|           23.2|  84.5
Fine arts ...................|133.4|     2.7|     2.0|   3.2|      0.9|   3.7|       2.5|     4.2|           19.3|  94.7
Life sciences ...............|132.5|     1.7|     1.6|   2.9|      0.9|   8.7|      34.8|    22.3|           21.3|  38.2
Physical sciences ...........|137.8|     2.6|     2.9|   1.9|      4.0|  15.5|       8.2|    50.6|           18.2|  33.9
Psychology ..................|129.0|     4.0|     1.4|   4.2|      0.3|   5.5|       5.1|     4.2|           52.4|  52.0
Social sciences .............|127.9|     6.2|     1.4|   2.3|      0.3|   5.6|       3.3|     5.4|           54.8|  48.6
_____________________________|_____|________|________|______|_________|______|__________|________|_______________|______

---Not available.

NOTE: All majors total includes fields not shown separately. Detail may not add to totals because of rounding.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, National Longitudinal Study of 1972, "Third Follow-up" (NLS:72/76); High School and Beyond, (HS&B-Sr:80/84) and Baccalaureate and Beyond survey, (B&B:93). (This table was prepared January 1999.)