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HOW MANY STUDENTS TAKE GENERAL CHEMISTRY? OTTO M. SMITH and CARL E. MARSHALL Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College, Stillwater, Oklahoma
INTHE work of the Committee on Teaching of
College Chemistry of the Division of Chemical Education, it became desirable to have a reliable estimate of the number of students enrolled in general chemistry in the four-year and junior colleges (two-year institutions). Neither the U. S. Office of Education nor the American Chemical Society, nor any other agency, has collected this information nor are they planning to do so. The attention of the Society has been devoted almost wholly t o those students who have indicated a major in chemistry and who, on graduating, will probably become engaged as professional chemists, biochemists, or chemical engineers. In an excellent and comprehensive study Dr. B. R. Staners~n'.~ has studied the numbers and trend of the chemistry and biochemistry bachelors, masters, and doctors of philosophy and has predicted the production of future professional chemists. Since the high-school chemistry and the generalchemistry classes in college are the sources from which chemistry majors evolve, it seems most desirable to obtain some factual knowledge as to their population. General chemistry is taught in all schools offering collegiate work in the sciences; hence the number of teachers required and the cost of this instruction should ''Production of chemists," Chem. Eng. News, 30, 3816-18 (1952). "Downward trend continues but upturn expected," ibid., 31, 2376-79 (1953).
be of great interest to the Society and chemistry department heads. To ascertain the number of students enrolled in general chemistry, a sampling procedure was set up t o obtain the total number of students enrolled in general chemistry in the fall of 1.951 in the 1750 institutions offering this course. SELECTING SAMPLE OF INSTITUTIONS
A stratified random sample3 of institutions was obtained from the list of institutions of higher learning wherein the predominant race of students was white, in the 1950 edition of the "College Blue Book." The list was stratified by total enrollment into fifteen strata. An over-all sampling rate of '/6 was applied in an attempt t o control the size of the sample within each stratum so that not less than 10 per cent nor more than 50 per cent of the institutions listed in each stratum would be selected. It was hoped that the response t o the inquiry would result in approximately equal numbers of samples from each stratum, but for various reasons the within-stratum rate varied and the over-all sampling rate was approximately Table 1 gives the stratification and the result of the analysis. The size of each stratum was made to conform with the 1951 census data as reported in Circular No. 36, "Student 3 D E ~ N G W., E., "Some Theory of Sampling," John Wiley & Son, New York, 1950, pp. 214-15.
DECEMBER, 1954
659
TABLE 1 Data for Determining Total Number of General Chemistw Students in the United States in Fall of 1951 Size of institution by total enrollment
Total
No. of institutions
No. of institutions wsponding to ouestionnoire
-
Estimated from samde Au. Av. stilde?t~bodg enrollment in Standa~d szze nene~nlchem. deviation
% o f total ii&htional e n d m e n t in oeneral rhem.
1750
Body Size in Institutions of Higher Education for 1951," U. S. Office of Education. The total number of students in general chemistry for the fall term of 1951 was obtained by a questionnaire sent to these randomly selected institutions. ANALYSIS OF RESULTS
From the data given in Table 1 and the application of the usual formulas it is estimated that about 186,810 students were enrolled in general chemistry in these 1750 institutions in the fall of 1951. The standard error of this estimate is 7650, which is 4.1 per cent of the total estimate. Using the twosigmaintervals the estimated total is between the limits of 171,510 and 202,110. It is interesting t o note from Table 1 that as total enrollment increases the percentage of students in general chemistry decreases, probably indicating that the relative drawing power of general chemistry decreases or that the number is being diluted because of the interest and offerings in nonscience fields. It should also he pointed out that the number of students varies considerably in each class although the coefficient of variation is fairly constant. In order to check the
representativeness of sample institutions, the total student enrollment in the 1750 institutions was estimated t o be 2,002,740, which compares quite favorably to the Office of Education estimate of 2,035,672 (exclusive of nonwhite institutions). An estimate of the general chemistry enrollment for junior colleges was made in the same way as for all colleges, hut using only seven strata (Table 2). The point estimate was 31,479 with a standard error of 1654. Using twosigma intervals, the enrollment in general chemistry is between 28,171 and 34,787. This estimate represents approximately 21 per cent of the total number of general chemistry students in all institutions in the United States; however, the ratio of students in junior colleges to students in all colleges is approximately 10 per cent. If the ratio of the number of students reported taking general chemistry in the fall enrollment t o the number of first-time students as given by the Office of Education is valid for 1951 and can be used to estimate the numbers of students in general chemistry in the years prior and subsequent t o 1951, then the estimated numbers of students in general chemistry are as shown in the fourth column of Table 3 for the years 1947 t o
TABLE 2 Data for Determining Total Number of General Chemistry Students in Junior Collegas in the United States in Fall of 1951 Size of institution by total enrollment
No. of institutions
2500 13 Total 55 " Estimted from Table 1.
No. of institutions responding to ouestionnaim 13 20 7 6 7 6 1 60
---Estimated Au. ardlment i n oeneral c h .
jmm sample------. Standard deviation
% of total institutional e n d m e n t in omem1 ehem.
660
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
TABLE 3 Number and Relative Percentage of First-time Students in General Chemistry as Determined by Ratio Obtained for Fall, 1951.
U.S. Officeof Education, fall enrollments in higher educational institutions, Negro institutions excepted. Table 3, Chem. Eng. News, 31, 2377 (1953). U. S.Office of Education. * Estimate. 1953, inclusive. The percentage of students in general chemistry compared t o the fall enrollment of first-time students (freshmen plus transfers) ranges from about 36.1 to 41.6 per cent. Using the number of bachelor'edegree graduates in chemistry and biochemistry as obtained from the Office of Education and estimated by Stanerson (see the last column, Table 3) the ratio of these graduates to the number of students in general chemistry in the same year ranges from 0.8 per cent (1953) to 2.0 (1949). These are quite questionable values. A better technique is to compare the number of graduates to the number of students in the general chemistry class of four years prior to graduation as set forth in Table 4. The percentage of graduates of 8356 in 1951 may be high on the base of entering freshmen because of the TABLE 4 Bachelor's Degree Graduates Gene~al chem.
Chem. and bioehem.
0/,
" U. S. Officeof Education. Estimate.
fact that for a number of years just after the war there were many students returning to college who had taken one or two years of college previously. This drop from 4.5 to about 2.2 per cent is quite significant, considering that the total fall enrollments and first-time students in the past seven years only show
a variation of about 15 per cent between the high and low numbers of students. What are the factors responsible for this drop in bachelor's-degree chemistry graduates-poor quality or lack of inspirational teaching in general chemistry? Are our professors today selling chemistry as effectively as in the past years? Has the decrease in chemistry courses and laboratory sciences in high school reduced the number of college students desiring t o major in chemistry? What are the effects of the draft, World War 11, the Korean War, and good wages in the trades and industry? Have we passed the peak and are we now approaching the normal flow of chemistry majors as judged from prewar data? With about 36 to 42 per cent of the first-time students in general chemistry classes, should not emphasis in these classes he directed toward the cultural aspects of general chemistry and the desirability of today's educated man's knowing something about chemistry, as well as toward prerequisites to other chemistry courses? I n the interest of maintaining a sufficient number of college graduates with majors in chemistry or related sciences to supply the demand of industry and teaching, our Society of 60,000 members should know more about these freshman students and their interests, their high-school preparation, and the influence of the guidance programs in high school and college. We should he aware of the major factors that influence the choices that college students make in selecting their college program. With this information a t hand the Society will be in a position to increase interest in science and chemistry and influence the students t o study in these fields.
