Which college majors have exploded in popularity over the past decade and which have shrunk? Over the past two posts (#1, #2) I’ve discussed my analyses of the number of degrees awarded in various fields at US “R1” universities (“very high research activity”) between 2011 and 2021. I’ve wondered how I could convey the overall … Continue reading College Major Trends: The Movie
In my last post, I plotted trends in various college majors, comparing how the numbers of degrees awarded in a range of subjects have grown or shrunk over the decade 2011-2021. I compared my university, the University of Oregon, and other R1 (“Very high research activity”) universities. This post focuses on computer science and closely … Continue reading 10 Double the number of Computer Science majors / 20 GOTO 10
About four years ago, I looked into data on how US college students’ choice of majors had changed since 2011 and whether the University of Oregon (UO) differs notably from other R1 (Carnegie “Very High Research Activity”) universities. The old post is here, but there’s no need to look at it. I’m now revisiting this … Continue reading Majors at [Your Ad Here] U. of Oregon, 2011-2021
When I graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1997, non-California-residents made up about 10% of the undergraduate population [1]; the fraction now is 25% [2]. Here at the University of Oregon (UO), also a public university, out-of-state undergraduates are 44% of the student body. Why have these numbers increased so much at … Continue reading Graphs about out-of-state college students and money
[Update, Feb. 4, 2023: See the new & improved version of this post, here!] A remarkable graph I came across a few weeks ago, copied below, shows the changes in the numbers of students majoring in various topics between 2011 and 2017. Part of an insightful article by Benjamin Schmidt titled “The History BA Since … Continue reading Local trends in college majors (Or: Do Oregon students choose offbeat degrees?)
Assessing exams I’m fond of analyzing the outcomes of exams I give. My favorite assessment is to look at how the score on each exam question correlates with the overall total score, and to plot this correlation coefficient versus the fraction of students who got that question correct. Roughly, I’d like the plot to turn … Continue reading Graphs and Grading: Winter 2016
What makes a good exam question? Not surprisingly, I try to write exams that most students who are keeping up with the course should do well on — almost by definition, the exam should be evaluating what I’m teaching. But I also want the exam to reveal and assess different levels of understanding; it would … Continue reading What have I got in my pocket?
This post is really just an update to the last one, on our recent paper on watching the growth of gut bacterial communities, but I thought I’d post separately that I just learned that we made the cover of mBio. (Or more accurately, the illustration I submitted is the “featured image” for this issue — … Continue reading A bacterial clock
Occasionally, things go exactly as I’d hoped. We’re discussing scaling in my Physics of Life class, starting with things like the scaling of volume and area with size. I mentioned in passing that this issue comes up in advertising, and since students seemed interested, I brought the following to the next class — an interactive … Continue reading How to lie with scaling
This week’s Economist has a fascinating map of the number of UFO sightings per capita, by state: When I saw this last Friday, it raised a few questions: What’s up with Washington? How well do UFO reports correlate with population density? (Do aliens have a fondness for sparsely settled, wide-open spaces?) Could I use any … Continue reading Sasquatch is an alien! (A proof in three graphs)
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The Eighteenth Elephant 