<p>My daughter is a sophomore in high school and considering different majors. We would first like to know what the top 50 general ed courses are by enrollment. Or where to find this info.</p>
<p>Can I ask what you plan on doing with that information? Knowing the most popular gen ed courses isn’t going to be very helpful in choosing a major. For one thing, many students choose courses that are easy or fun or that take a minimum amount of work. Many schools also offer “lower” classes that can fulfill gen ed requirements. For instance, a student who takes a physics class to fulfill a gen ed requirement likely won’t be taking the same physics course as someone who intends to major in the subject. Even if your daughter finds a class that she’s interested in is one of the “top 50 general ed courses” doesn’t mean that that course is representative of what the major will be like or that it’s a good career path for her to choose. For instance, at my school, a popular music class on the Beatles was pretty popular, but that doesn’t mean I would recommend someone choose music as their major just because they enjoyed that class.</p>
<p>But about your actual question–I doubt a definitive list exists. You could probably find something about “popular college classes” or something like that, but colleges can vary widely in gen ed requirements and in what courses fulfill those requirements. A course that’s extremely popular at one school may not even be available at another school. Also, if you’re just looking at enrollment, there may be classes that fulfill gen ed requirements and/or major requirements, in which case they will likely be very “popular” classes because many students are required to take them. They may not be taking them just because they enjoy them.</p>
<p>The usual popular introductory courses are:</p>
<p>biology
business
chemistry
computer science
economics
English composition
math (calculus)
psychology</p>
<p>You can go to a college web site and see if its on-line class schedule lists class sizes and enrollment.</p>