Sophomore enrollment in EEB, other sciences declines

The ecology and evolutionary biology department experienced a large drop in the number of declared concentrators between last year and this year. Of the Class of 2015, 42 signed in to the department, down from the 74 members of the Class of 2014 who declared last April.

“This year we have fewer majors, which is a great relief to us, because we've had about two or three times the load of any department for the past several years,” EEB departmental representative James Gould said. “It's a relief to have it in the mid-40s, instead of the lower 70s.”

This decline comes after a steady increase in numbers seen by the department over the past few years. In the 2012 academic year, there were 65 juniors and 55 seniors in the department. Last year, EEB had the fifth-largest number of declared majors.

Gould said that despite this year’s variation, there is a clear long-term trend of more students going into EEB. He said this is due to increased interest in ecology and environmental issues, which he said most EEB students have, and explained that variance in the trend is likely due to small sample sizes rather than any dramatic changes in the opposite direction.

“I think the number of people who anticipate careers helping to save the world has gone up, and that’s excellent news for everybody,” Gould said.

The department’s introductory course, EEB 211: Life on Earth: Chaos and Clockwork of Biological Design, which is offered in the fall, was restructured in fall 2012. Gould said that the changes in the course — replacing a focus on theory with a focus on problem-solving — could have impacted the number of students in their decision to join the department.

“The people teaching the course nowadays think it [the change in course content] is a good thing,” Gould said. “But if … that somehow is attracting fewer students to the department, I suppose that I expect that we will figure that out in a couple of years.”

EEB generally shares the largest overlap with the molecular biology department and the psychology department for students interested in animal behavior, but Gould added that changes in the Wilson School admission process may have affected the sophomore numbers. EEB has three faculty members in the Wilson School, suggesting a shift in the department towards disease dynamics and policy.

The remaining AB science programs had varying shifts in department declaration numbers. AB computer science was the only department to see an increase, with 32 compared to last year’s 26. Astrophysical sciences has five sophomores officially signed up, the same as the previous year. Geosciences has 10, one less than last year’s 11. Mathematics also fell by one to 33; physics has 22, slightly fewer than last year’s 25. Molecular biology has 57, fewer than last year’s 65, and chemistry experienced no change, with 38 sign-ins.