Business Is By Far the Most Popular Major for African-American College Graduates

Last week JBHE reported that the number of blacks earning bachelor’s degrees in the United States reached an all-time high. More than 131,000 African Americans earned a four-year college degree in 2004.

When we break down the statistics on bachelor’s degrees, we find that there is very little difference in the fields of study chosen by black and white college students. For blacks, as well as whites, business management was the most popular major by a large margin. Blacks earned 33,404 bachelor’s degrees in the field of business management and administration in the 2003-04 academic year. This was 25.5 percent of all bachelor’s degrees earned by blacks.

The next most popular field of study for blacks who earned bachelor’s degrees was the social sciences. This includes sociology, economics, and political science. Education was the second most popular major among whites. The fields of psychology, communications, and health sciences were popular majors among both racial groups. It is noteworthy to point out that computer science was the fifth most popular major among blacks but was not among the 10 most popular majors for whites.

Copyright © 2006. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.