“Math is not my friend, nor is science,” said second-year journalism student Maddy Henson.
Henson is not alone. Journalism is the only department that awards more Bachelor of Arts degrees than Bachelors of Science. In the SOJC, 282 journalism students received B.A.’s while 248 got B.S.’s in the 2016-2017 school year.
In the SOJC, advertising students are the exception: eight more students got B.S.’s than B.A.’s.
Henson said she felt the language requirement of a B.A. degree was more useful for her career.
“It’s about talking to people and not everyone speaks English,” Henson said.
In 2016-17, the University of Oregon gave out 3,061 B.S. degrees and just 1,553 B.A. degrees. Ten years ago the margin was much smaller, with 1,895 getting B.S.’s and 1,565 students receiving B.A.’s. 
In 2007-08, Architecture and Allied Arts was alongside journalism with the majority of students choosing arts over sciences. Since then, AAA has joined all other department categories in awarding more B.S.’s.
Business Administration students overwhelmingly favor B.S. degrees — 611 students graduated with a B.S. in Business Administration last year while just 111 opted for a B.A.
Sophomore Tamlyn Padilla-Grafilo is a part of the majority in her field. She is a business student working toward a B.S.
“I love language, but I don’t have the patience,” said Padilla-Grafilo.
While most mathematics majors pursue a B.S., three students received a B.A. last year.
Madeline LuBien is keeping with this trend and working toward a B.S. in math; however, she said she’s not surprised by those who worked through the language requirement of a B.A.
“It depends on the application,” LuBien said. “If you want to teach math, another language might help, especially if you want to teach in a place like San Diego or Texas where there are a lot of Spanish-speaking students.”
LuBien, who is in her second year, said the science requirement of the B.S. isn’t a problem for her because “I can do science because I’m good at math.”
Economics is another major where students predominantly receive B.S. degrees. The department awarded 343 B.S.’s and 34 B.A.’s.
A junior Economics major, Shilpa Vinod is one of those few students opting out of the extra math and science classes. She said she is hoping to go into international finance and the foreign language would benefit her.
“Economics is worldwide and has ties in politics,” said Vinod.
Vinod is also minoring in political science, business administration and potentially French. She said she finds the B.A. path easier because she has been speaking French since she was 11 years-old, and she doesn’t have to take additional math and science classes already covered in her major.
One major that’s split is Political Science — 93 students received a B.S. and 90 received a B.A..
Bill Braker, a freshman in the major, said he got into political science because he considers himself a social science person, so he decided to take Spanish toward a B.A. degree. He said “language is a pain in the butt,” but it’s more worth it to him than math or computer science classes.
Follow Becca Robbins on Twitter: @brobbinsuo