COLLEGE MAJORS OF BOISE DISTRICT GRADUATES

BOISE STATE AND THE UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO

In studying the college majors of Boise District college grads for the high school classes of 2008-11, we came across some interesting information about patterns of majors at the institutions a majority of District students attend - Boise State University and the University of Idaho.

About 46% of 2008-11 District grads in those classes graduated with BA/BS degrees from the two institutions - 27 percent from BSU and 18% from the University of Idaho.

Boise State University

It's not surprising that so many BSU graduates major in the Health and Wellness field, what with two large hospital systems within the city limits. In fact, one can see that focus in the list of top majors from BSU.

Health Science was the single most popular major among Boise grads from BSU, with Biology the second most popular choice. Though Nursing did not make the top ten list, it wasn't far off - 14 bachelor degrees in Nursing were earned by District students.

University of Idaho

For the University of Idaho, we see a considerably different picture:

Over a third of Idaho's grads major in STEM fields, a percentage far higher than that of the graduated population as a whole (27%).  Very few Idaho grads have majored in a Communications area, especially as compared with BSU.

Here's the list of top majors among Boise District grads of the University of Idaho.

Note that Mechanical Engineering was the second most popular major among the UI grads. That was a bit of a shocker to us, but considering that Idaho's Engineering program is well-established and that the STEM promotion programs have been in place for some years now, perhaps it should not be so surprising.