<p>I’ve been looking for a school based on how many majors it offers because I have a lot of interests in a lot of areas. </p>
<p>So how many majors does a college offer? Is 30 the norm for a small number of majors? Or is 20 a large number of majors?</p>
<p>It honestly varies wildly on the college. Some have 10 majors, some have 100. Pretty much any major university will have tons of majors.</p>
<p>Virtually all schools have a list of majors/minors on their website and many schools have a course catalog online. Use these tools to be sure that the schools you consider offer courses in your areas of interest.</p>
<p>But if we’re speaking very generally, large state flagships tend to have the largest amount of majors. When I started looking at colleges nearby, my mind was blown when the UNH pamphlet listed just over 100 majors. I later received a lookbook from OSU that listed 167 - 167! - majors. </p>
<p>However, smaller schools will probably have 35-50 majors, unless they are very specialized.</p>
<p>But here is the thing – you will probably only major in at most 3, and more likely 2 of those majors. And realistically you can probably only explore classes in maybe 8 or so before you have to declare a major if you want to graduate on time. Why not spend some time before applying trying to narrow down your interests? While you don’t have to know your major right when you get there, the students who at least have an idea and are just finalizing it will be more likely to graduate on time, and also can focus in on getting internship and/or research opportunities in their chosen area so they are more likely to get a job upon graduation.</p>
<p>I would suggest you get a copy of the Book of Majors from the College Board (library or guidance counselor might have one). Get post-its (maybe in green for “sounds great!” and yellow for “maybe”) and go through the book, marking the majors that truly interest you. See if there are any clusters or areas that clearly attract you more than others. Try to narrow the list down to three top choices.</p>
<p>Then apply to schools that you know offer those majors. When you get there try to take a couple of classes in each of those 3 areas in your first 3 semesters. Also spend some time in the career office to see what kind of internships and jobs are available for those majors. Then you can narrow down to your actual major(s), and stay on track to graduate.</p>
<p>Thanks @intparent! I already got the book, but was overwhelmed by the amount of information. I’m looking at majors like Economics and Environmental Sciences.</p>
<p>My D thought the book was overwhelming, too, until she did the flagging with the post-its. That really helped her see some patterns and distinguish “passing fancies” (architecture) from her more serious interested (biological science and physics). Once you narrow it down to a few majors, it is much easier to look at colleges. LOTS of colleges offer Econ and Environmental Science. 
Not sure what your stats are, where you are from, financial situation, or size preference – but Whitman is a college with very strong environmental science and a lot of programs that help combine it with other majors. Just one suggestion, of course.</p>
<p>Large state Us often have well over 100. Wisconsin has 157 UG majors. I think MSU has among the most.</p>
<p>The size of the school and the number of majors offered are highly correlated. The largest universities, which are typically the state flagships, offer the most majors. </p>
<p>Econ will be offered as a major at probably every college in the country (or at least 99.9% of them). Environmental science is also reasonably popular, but won’t be offered at every LAC. </p>
<p>In addition to checking if a major is offered at a particular school, it is also useful to check how many students actually get degrees in that major. (Available at [College</a> Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics](<a href=“http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/]College”>College Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics) ) And how frequently courses are actually typically offered, rather than just listed in the catalog but rarely offered. Not a concern for a very popular major like econ, but may be for some less popular majors.</p>
<p>Penn States got over 160 of them. Although when a school boasts a large number like that some are probably repeats like they count Psychology as 2 (BS and a BA)</p>
University of Washington has 227
This seems to be a misguided way to choose a school. Who cares if a school has a zillion majors if you’re not going to do anything with 4/5ths of them? You could be eliminating a lot of attractive candidates.
Econ comes in two flavors at most schools as well. Quantitative economics is usually under business school, or occassionally math department. Economics is also a common major under College of Arts and Science and is more theoretical than quantitative.
Please use old threads only for research.