According to UConn’s Office of Institutional Research, the university’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences had a Fall 2013 enrollment of 10,346 undergraduates. This number is nearly five times that of the Engineering School, which had an enrollment of 2,430.
To find out why CLAS was so popular among UConn students, I spoke with the school’s Communications Manager, Brianna Diaz.
“We have the most options for majors with 24 different departments,” said Diaz. “Each of those departments have different majors to offer so there’s no comparison to other schools or colleges.”
According to the CLAS webpage, the college alone offers over 50% of all classes taught at the university, approximately 4,000 classes per semester. Its home to more than 700 staff members and spends over $29 million per year on research.
Another reason why the school is so attractive is because it provides students with a well-rounded education. Diaz says that they value interdisciplinary studies and require students to engage in classes involving humanities and social sciences. Junior student Maggie Wiatr said that this is exactly the reason why she decided to enroll in the first place, before she knew what exactly she wanted to study.
“I really felt like they offered me the most options and would help me decide what I wanted to major in,” said Wiatr. “I wanted to get a little bit of everything to get a better idea of what was right for me.”
Diaz says that in terms of enrollment, CLAS will be home to a larger number of undergraduates every year.
“It’s consistently greater than the other schools and colleges, so as the general enrollment at UConn increases, so does our enrollment at CLAS.