Abstract
TUDENT interest in the social sciences has grown phenomenally in the United States since World War II, and an increasingly large share of those who enter college choose to concentrate in one of the social science disciplines. This popularity is reflected in the relative importance of social science graduates among the total number who receive degrees throughout the nation. Between 1948 and 1975 the proportion of bachelor's degrees awarded in this broad area of higher education expanded from 14.7 percent of the national total to 23.6 percent. The principal reason for the rise in popularity of the social sciences was the wide range of new jobs created after World War II for which social scientists were among the best qualified. We cannot determine which fields absorbed the greatest number of social science graduates, but we do know that many entered primary and secondary education, local, state and federal government, and private industry. Not all who have received degrees in one of the social sciences chose their discipline from a desire to find employment in which they could utilize their education. Some chose it for personal intellectual growth or because they found the content entertaining, or even easy.' The majority, however, chose to major in one of the social sciences because they believed that their studies would lead to interesting employment. Valuable evidence concerning changes in students' perception of disciplines that offer the greatest opportunities for employment and/or intellectual growth can be obtained by studying the variation over time in the nation's output of bachelor's degrees in the social sciences. In addition, it is widely believed that certain disciplines enjoy greater popularity in some parts of the nation than in others. For example, anthropology is said to have greatest student appeal in the Southwest, whereas interest in geography is supposedly highest among students in the Midwest. Analysis of data by state will test these beliefs.
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