While U.S. Department of Education data provide a detailed picture of the number of undergraduate students majoring in various humanities fields (see Indicators II-1, II-2, II-3, II-4, and II-5), the actual number of humanities courses taken by nonhumanities majors is more elusive. Available data on college course-taking are not as recent as those on degrees; nor are they compiled as frequently. Nonetheless, data collected by NCES as part of its longitudinal studies of academic and employment outcomes do reveal the general trends in college course-taking over the last part of the 20th century. These data shed some light on the extent to which young Americans are bringing humanistic knowledge and skills with them into civic and occupational arenas after college.

Two humanities courses, freshman composition and U.S. history, were among the ten college courses most commonly taken by students who graduated from high school in the years 1972, 1982, and 1992 (Figure II-6). A greater percentage of students graduating from U.S. colleges and universities took a freshman composition course than any other course, and the proportion increased over time. In 1992, 85% of high school graduates who went on to obtain their bachelor’s degrees took such a course, up from 75% in the 1970s. Although students’ U.S. history course-taking waned in the 1980s, by the 1990s it had risen again, with 44% of the 1992 cohort taking a U.S. history survey course.

As for other introductory humanities courses that provide nonmajors with instruction in major branches of humanistic thought, the most widely taken courses over the three cohorts were introductory literature and Western civilization/culture, although both experienced a decline in share during the two decades between 1972 and 1992. Over this time period literature and art history classes also experienced net decreases in the percentage of students enrolled. On the other hand, courses in introductory philosophy, general and comparative religion, music history/appreciation, and Spanish saw increases. In fact, Spanish gained more than any course except freshman composition, with the percentage of students taking this language increasing by 10 points over the three cohorts (since the initial rate of Spanish coursetaking was lower than that for freshman composition, this 10 point gain for Spanish represents a much larger percentage increase than that experienced by composition). The increase is not surprising in light of the growth in high school Spanish course-taking described under Indicator I-7, Language Course Enrollment in Public High Schools. These gains must be kept in perspective, however: other than freshman composition and U.S. history, no humanities course attracted more than 32% of any of the three cohorts, with most drawing a considerably smaller proportion.

Figure II-6, Full Size Supporting Data

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