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Digest of Education Statistics: 2004
Digest of Education Statistics: 2004

NCES 2006-005
October 2005


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.)