Popularity of majors at various levels of university admissions selectivity

<p>There is a “caste” system in public higher education in California with the Master Plan, with the strong support of UC, placing far more restrictions on what CSU is allowed to do and offer than limitations placed on the UC schools. CSU is alloted for less resources per student than UC is and receives no funding for research which UC has a monopoly on.</p>

<p>Traditionally, UC has not been interested in offering majors in Business since they saw the job of training accountants and office managers as not really a scholarly undertaking. The UC put much greater emphasis on the Social Sciences and Humanities since they were perceived as offering greater opportunities for research. Thus it is no surprise that the Social Sciences have been the most popular majors at UC campuses while Business majors predominated at CSUs. UC students are expected to continue their educations in graduate or professional schools while CSU students were considered to be in terminal degree programs from which they would enter the labor force.</p>

<p>The change that has taken place is that while degrees in the Social Sciences and Humanities were seen as excellent preparation for law school and good careers only the fortunate few who get into top 14 law schools have been able to count on a reasonable chance for employment in recent years. In addition, many companies that would hire liberal arts majors from prestigious schools for management trainee positions in the past are now focusing more on hiring people that have been trained to be immediately productive in areas requiring specific business skills.</p>

<p>I think the Master Plan has outlived its usefulness and UCs should be able to offer BS degrees in Accounting if they want and CSUs can engage in research and offer PhDs in Physics and Astronomy if they choose.</p>