Psychology Tops the List as Most Popular Major at UCF

UCF’s Top Two Majors are Health Related

While the University of Central Florida is historically known as a technological school, it turns out that its top two undergraduate majors are health-related professions. Nursing is the second most popular major at UCF, but psychology tops the list.

Psychology Department Chair Jeffery Cassisi says it’s no surprise to him that psychology is the most popular undergraduate major at the university. In fact, he says that’s the case at most schools, but it’s not because everyone wants to be a therapist.

“Certainly that’s the reason for many people to come into the major, but psychology at UCF is in the College of Sciences, and we’re a very versatile major within the College of Sciences,” he says.

He says about half of UCF’s psychology students are interested in counseling. But he says psychology is used in business and technology industries. For instance, the massive data gathering done by companies like Google or Blue Cross Blue Shield creates a need for people who can analyze trends and usage- and that’s what psych majors do. He says psychology is also becoming attractive as a pre-med major, because the new version of the medical school entrance exam will have heavy emphasis on social and behavioral sciences.

Mustapha Mouloua, director of the Ph.D program in applied experimental and human factors psychology, said there are 3,731 students majoring in psychology, 879 with psychology minors and 35 faculty members.

For the story and audio from WMFE, please click here.

For the story, “Psychology Makes a Major Impact at UCF” from the Central Florida Future, please click here.