English Overtakes Government for Most Popular Concentration Field

English has replaced Government, the traditional leader, as the most popular field of concentration among freshmen, Sargent Kennedy '28, Registrar of the College, announced yesterday.

The figures for concentration choices since the Class of '51 show that there is an increasing tendency among freshmen to choose English. The 11.7 percent who selected the field this year represent an increase of one percent over the number of concentrators last year. More significant, however, is the jump from 6.8 in the Class of '56 to 10.7 percent last year, Kennedy said.

Government, the leading field for every freshman class from '51 through '56, dropped to 11.1 percent from its previous high of 16.5 for the classes of '55 and '56. The most popular field last year, History, dropped only .9 percent, but placed third behind Government with 10.6 percent.

A gain of 1.5 percent pushed Social Relations past Economics into fourth place with a figure of 7.9. Economics, in fifth place, dropped from 9.2 of the class of '57 to 7.4 of '58. Engineering and Applied Physics, termed Applied Science last year, climbed from 5.9 percent to 6.4 to hold sixth place.

Biochemical Sciences, Biology, and Chemistry dropped slightly from their percentages for '57, but 13.3 of the class still chose one of these.

Social Relations, second only to Government in the Class of '51, with 13.3, had declined rapidly to 6.5 of '55 before its present rise to 7.9. Psychology majors this year exactly doubled the .9 percent of last year's freshman class.

The areas of concentration remained relatively stable, despite shiftings in the individual fields, Kennedy noted. The Social Sciences lost only 1.3 this year to lead with 39 percent of the class. Natural Sciences continued in second place with 33.3, and Humanities gained slightly to 21.6 percent.