Rick Scott may think the state of Florida doesn’t need any more anthropology majors, but that’s not stopping the nation’s college students from majoring in philosophy. The poor economy has spurred on a national debate in the last year or so about the value of liberal arts degrees — but philosophy majors are actually up in the last decade:
Though the overall figures remain small, the number of four-year graduates has grown 46 percent in a decade, surpassing the growth rates of much bigger programs such as psychology and history.
[…] Nationally, 12,444 students received degrees in philosophy or religious studies in 2008-09, the latest year for which federal figures are available, up from 8,506 in 1998-99. That 46 percent increase occurred during a period when the total number of four-year college graduates grew at a slower 33 percent.
During that span, the number of students earning social-science and history degrees went up 35 percent, psychology was up 28 percent, and education actually went down, falling 5 percent.
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