A Comprehensive Analysis of Trends in YU Undergraduate Course Offerings

This article, following in the footsteps of previous Commentator data-driven articles, tracks changes in course offerings over the past several years. The scope, which covers Yeshiva University’s undergraduate colleges — Stern College for Women (SCW), Sy Syms School of Business (Syms-Men and Syms-Women) and Yeshiva College (YC) — is broad. The data begins with the Fall 2013 semester and uses only fall offerings.

 

Yeshiva College

The steepest drops in course offerings were in the Bible (17 to 13 courses), First Year Writing (23 to 13 courses), Music (7 to 3 courses), Physics (15 to 9 courses), and Spanish (5 to 2 courses) departments. Other departments mostly remained constant over the past several years, with possible slight exceptions in the Art, Computer Science, Economics, Human Behavior and Social Institutions, Hebrew, Mathematics, Political Science, Psychology and Sociology departments, each of which is offering either one or two more courses in 2018 compared to 2013.

The charts indicate that since the 2016-17 academic year, Yeshiva College no longer offers courses in the French, First Year Seminar, Greek, Latin, Semitic Languages or Yiddish departments. The First Year Seminar (and one-time Freshman Honors Experience) requirements, which were discontinued after Spring 2016, were replaced by alternate requirements among CORE curriculum courses.

The chart below illustrates overall changes, displaying the total course offerings of each academic year. Note that the chart includes one line that counts cross-listed courses as two courses and another line that counts cross-listed courses as only one course. The third line indicates the number of Honors courses offered each semester (with cross-listed Honors courses counted only once).

The data indicates an overall decrease in courses and a slight increase in cross-listings (2013=6, 2014=5, 2015=7, 2016=10, 2017=12, 2018=8). The data also shows a significant drop in Yeshiva College Honors courses, which can most likely be attributed to the consolidation of Honors courses to the CORE departments in recent years.

The next chart illustrates average class sizes, with one line for all courses and the other line for Honors courses alone.

The data indicates a mostly steady average class size, for both all courses and for Honors courses, over the past six years.

 

Syms-Men

Syms-Men saw either steadiness or an increase in offerings in each of its departments. The First Year Writing department, which existed in Syms-Men for a few years, was discontinued this semester as Syms students now take First Year Writing with YC classmates. The greatest increase was in the relatively new Jewish Values in the Contemporary World department, from two courses in its inaugural Fall 2015 semester to seven courses this Fall 2018 semester.

The chart below illustrates overall changes, displaying the total course offerings of each academic year (the same methodological notes as for the analogous YC chart apply here).

The data indicates an overall increase in courses and general steadiness in cross-listings (2013=4, 2014=7, 2015=6, 2016=3, 2017=4, 2018=3). Honors course offerings also remained mostly steady.

The next chart illustrates average class sizes (due to the small number of Syms-Men Honors courses, the average class sizes for Honors-specific courses are not indicated).

The data indicates a significant increase in Syms-Men average class size, from 23.3 in Fall 2013 to 28.6 in Fall 2018. This is likely due to the fact that Syms-Men course offerings, which have increased by a moderate amount in the past few years (18.8% increase), have increased at a proportionally lesser rate than the size of the Syms-Men student body, which has risen dramatically in the past few years, from 397 full-time students in Fall 2013 to 524 full-time students in Fall 2018 (32.0% increase).

 

Stern College for Women

Stern College experienced declines in offerings in 16 out of 28 departments. The steepest drops in course offerings were in the Art (24 to 18 courses), Biology (21 to 15 courses), Economics (7 to 3 courses), Hebrew (26 to 21 courses), Jewish History (11 to 7 courses), Jewish Philosophy (7 to 4 courses) and Psychology (23 to 18 courses) departments. Other departments mostly remained constant over the past several years. The only major increase in course offerings was in the Computer Science department, from three courses in Fall 2013 to eight courses in Fall 2018.

The charts also indicate the introduction of the Public Health department in the 2016-17 academic year.

The chart below illustrates overall changes, displaying the total course offerings of each academic year (the same methodological notes as for the analogous YC chart apply here).

The data indicates an overall decrease in courses and general steadiness in cross-listings (2013=1, 2014=3, 2015=1, 2016=4, 2017=4, 2018=4). The data also shows a significant drop in Stern College Honors courses.

The next chart illustrates average class sizes, with one line for all courses and the other line for Honors courses alone.

The data indicates a mostly steady average class size, for both all courses and for Honors courses, over the past six years.

 

Syms-Women

Syms-Women saw relative steadiness in offerings in each of its departments.

The chart below illustrates overall changes, displaying the total course offerings of each academic year (the same methodological notes as for the analogous YC chart apply here).

The data indicates an overall slight increase in courses and a slight decrease in cross-listings (2013=4, 2014=4, 2015=4, 2016=3, 2017=5, 2018=2). Honors course offerings remained mostly steady.

The next chart illustrates average class sizes (due to the small number of Syms-Women Honors courses, the average class sizes for Honors-specific courses are not indicated).

The data indicates a moderate increase in Syms-Women average class size, from 16.2 in Fall 2013 to 18.3 in Fall 2018. This corresponds to a similarly moderate increase in the size of the Syms-Women student body, from 137 full-time students in Fall 2013 to 164 full-time students in Fall 2018.

 

Summary

Over the last six years, Yeshiva College and Stern College for Women have seen dramatic drops in total courses, with the steepest drop being among Yeshiva College Honors courses. Sy Syms School of Business, meanwhile, has seen a moderate increase in total courses for both its uptown and downtown divisions. Average class sizes have mostly remained constant, with the notable exception of Syms-Men, which has seen a sharp increase in average class size.

Explanations for course offering and class size changes are beyond the scope of this article. Readers will perhaps invoke the relevant mobilizing words of former Commentator staff writer Shlomo Friedman (YC ‘17): “I invite my fellow students to join the hunt, to explain what in the world is going on here. I only ask that you back it up with the glacial, dispassionate and austere beauty of data.”

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Some notes on methodology:

• Course offering schedules from yu.edu/myyu (MYYU) were copied into Excel and separated by college, subject and year.
• Research offerings, directed studies and internships were not included in the analysis.
• Recitations and other course sections which counted as zero credits (such as problem seminars in mathematics) were similarly discounted.
• Listed courses for which zero students were registered were discounted.
• No colloquia in any department were counted.
• In the YC and SCW Music departments, 1-credit courses were discounted.
• In the YC English department, English as a Second Language (ESL) courses were discounted.
• YC and SCW courses connected to the Honors Thesis were discounted.
• SCW senior project courses in the Art and English departments were discounted.
• All courses in the YC and SCW Physical Education departments were discounted.
• The YC Theater Arts department was not included in the analysis.
• The SCW Semitic Languages and Women’s Studies departments, which stopped offering courses after the 2013-14 and 2014-15 academic years, respectively, were not included in the analysis.
• The Syms-Women Entrepreneurship department, which stopped offering courses after the 2013-14 academic year, was not included in the analysis.
• The Syms-Men course Business Algebra was counted, despite sometimes being listed as zero credits.
• Online courses, of which there were very few, were counted as normal courses.
• Individual lab sections (besides for zero-credit labs which were discounted) were all counted as individual courses.
• All cross-listed courses were counted for both departments.
• Enrollment data was provided by the YU Office of Institutional Research.