Student Choice’s 2026 new report tracks where students are applying their tuition dollars by ranking majors by popularity. This data tells us a lot about what students are thinking and seeing about the current job market.
Healthcare and engineering majors have seen some surges. Health sciences hit second place at 9.81% and engineering climbed to 7.37%, both relating to a demand in the workforce. Nursing took a tremendous nosedive despite a shortage in the field, but the team points out that health sciences is often used as a replacement for a nursing degree.
Aviation had a dramatic jump up to fourth place at 5.88%, driven by ongoing pilot shortages projected to grow even more as pilots retire. This is a lucrative job and the openings are everywhere.
Categories are merged and reshuffled, as we can see in computer science’s fall. The team points to some reporting changes as possibly affecting rankings, which means that we can glean the most information by looking for multi-year trends and not a single snapshot. The report ties the decline of education majors to stagnant teaching wages. Passion matters to students but so does their investment in their degree.
infographic by: www.studentchoice.org
