We’ve now progressed through three Summer Orientation And Registration sessions for freshmen, with over 300 new freshmen signed up for their fall classes at McMurry.  I thought it would be interesting to see how these freshmen impact the programs and courses of the School of Natural & Computational Sciences (SNCS).

Here are the enrollments in the freshman courses for each of the SNCS departments:

• Biology:  198 (Intro to Scientific Research, Unicellular Organisms, Botany, Human Anatomy & Physiology I, and the non-majors Principles of Biology)
• Chemistry:  88 (Foundations of Chemistry I and General Chemistry I)
• Computer Science:  51 (Computers in Education, Fundamentals of Computer Science for Majors/Non-majors)
• Geoscience: 28 (Environmental Geology, Physical Geology)
• Math:  236 (College Algebra, Contemporary Math, Pre-Calculus, Calculus, Linear Algebra)
• Physics:  51 (College Physics I and University Physics I)

In addition, the Pre-Health Professions Seminar has over 30 students enrolled, with more expected once the limit is raised to accommodate them.

These numbers from majors courses suggest that a third of the incoming freshmen have a strong interest in pursuing a degree in math or science.  Their interest is well placed, as numerous news reports recently have pointed to science and math related majors as the highest paying college degrees in greatest demand for the foreseeable future.