Bressoud starts with the encouraging news in the STEM
fields–Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. In the
past fifteen years, colleges have seen a 33% increase in
students in these majors. However, those numbers may be
dominated by particularly large increases in Biology and
Psychology. As a mathematician, Bressoud is interested in math-
intensive majors, and so he looks more closely at mathematics,
engineering, and physical sciences. As total college enrollments
and STEM majors have increased, these math-intensive majors
attract a consistent percentage of students. In fact, Bressoud
notes that this percentage has been stable for the past 30
years, as math-intensive degrees have shown no growth as a
percentage of overall college degrees. This is curious, given
the increasingly quantitative nature of modern society,
industry, and academia. Are greater percentages of students in
other countries pursuing such degrees? Or do we only need 0.5%
of our college students studying math-intensive fields?