Federal Survey Finds Nearly Half of Those Who Chose These College Majors Regret

(NEXSTAR) – Many Americans want to finish college and start over, a national survey reveals.

It’s not just game-day binge drinking or all-night study sessions that people regret, according to a Federal Reserve survey of household economics and decision-making. Many people end up regretting their college majors.

of Washington Post Data Division An analysis of Federal Reserve survey results found that about 50% of those who studied the humanities or the arts ultimately regretted their choice. About 45% of those surveyed, studying social and behavioral sciences, would have kept up so much and wished they had chosen something else.

More than a third of those who studied education, business, law or life sciences also regretted their choices. More than 40% of those who went to vocational school also reported regret.

According to the paper’s analysis, the amount of student loan debt did not seem to influence whether or not students had regrets.

Perhaps hoping to avoid such regrets (or huge student loans), fewer people are entering college in 2020 than they were a decade ago. In 2020, he had 19.4 million students enrolled in courses at the university, according to. National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). That figure is down 10% from 2010. The COVID-19 pandemic may also have played a role in the decline in enrollment that year, as many college campuses were closed and temporarily switched to distance learning.

According to a Federal Reserve study, the least likely regrets were primarily engineering. Despite its popularity, engineering is far less common than other majors, he said, NCES. three times as many people graduate with a business degree than getting an engineering degree. However, the data show that it is an area of ​​research that is growing year by year.

And while it ranked last for regrets, about a quarter of engineering students say they wish they’d done things differently, reports The Washington Post.