As the second semester of the school year takes shape and the notorious symptoms of senioritis begin to plague the class of 2020, this Lions’ Den is ready to make their mark on the world outside of the bubble. 

The college experience is sometimes an instigator for leaving their mark. 

While many students, freshmen to seniors, search for the schools and fields of study perfect for them, an estimated 20-50 percent of applying students enter as “undecided,” according to an article published in The Mentor: An Academic Advising Journal by Liz Freedman of Butler University.

In addition, the U.S. Department of Education found that “about 30 percent of undergraduates in associate’s and bachelor’s degree programs who had declared a major had changed their major at least once” in their first three years at the university or college. 

Though uncertainty may fill the minds of many students, undergraduate degrees have never been more ubiquitous. According to Forbes, the number of overall graduates has been increasing; they reported that ten fields of study had a minimum of 50 percent growth as of this time last year. 

STEM majors are part of this mass growth: after extensive research on job prospects, alumni salaries, and major popularity, The Princeton Review found that computer science is now the “best college major.”

So, is this what everyone is choosing as their degree?

Go to http://bit.ly/majordecisions to help us find out. 

Data journalism is the fastest-growing field in journalism. It is comprised of data collection, analysis, data visualization and good old fashioned journalism. Please help us in our pursuit to learn about this exciting field. Here is our topic: In an attempt to inform the public about college majors and to help students find a sense of intellectual belonging, the Talon is attempting to gather data from students and teachers regarding the ‘major’ decisions that they have made and/or hope to make. We will compare this school’s data to that outside of Oak Park.