What Are the Most Popular College Majors of 2026?

Editorial Staff

Credit union student lending network Student Choice has released its annual report citing the top college majors for 2026, as well as changes over the past decade.

Analyzing roughly 145,456 private student loan applications submitted between January 2016 and May 2026, the dataset skews toward students who need private loan borrowing beyond federal aid limits. The report shows that those students are moving toward career-specific fields and away from general-purpose degrees that dominated the 2010s.

Top 10 Most Popular Majors for 2026

Business/Accounting
Health Sciences
Engineering
Aviation
Psychology
Math/Science
Education
Allied Health Sciences
Fine Arts
Law

Source: Student Choice

Top Trends For 2026: What’s Changed for Students?

Business Remains on Top For Now: Business has held the #1 spot for most of the period, commanding 11.45%–12.81% of applications from 2017–2023. It dipped to just 5.27% in 2025 but returned to first place in 2026 (11.94%), likely because accounting and business were merged in this year’s report.
Healthcare Has Expanded Beyond Nursing: Nursing peaked at 10.87% of applications in 2023 but fell to just 1.71% by 2026. Health sciences now ranks second overall (9.81%), with allied health, public health, physical therapy, physician assistant studies, dentistry, and pharmacy all landing in the top 25.
Engineering and Aviation Are Some of the Fastest Growing Majors: Engineering nearly doubled its share, from 3.91% (2017) to 7.37% (2026), though much of that jump followed the 2024 merger of engineering fields. Aviation went from unranked to #1 in 2025 (a spiky 19.57%), settling at #4 (5.88%) in 2026, with aviation maintenance now in the rankings too—tracking the ongoing pilot shortage.
Psychology Holds Its Ground: Despite ongoing debate about its job-market value, psychology posted a net gain from 4.99% (2017) to 5.59% (2026)—one of the few non-vocational fields to end the period ahead, even after a dip to 2.26% in 2025.
Computer Science Took an Unexpected Turn: Computer science climbed from 2.95% (2017) to 3.61% (2022), then collapsed to 0.24% by 2026, ranking dead last at #25. Reporting-category changes since 2024 play a role, but tech job-market volatility may be scaring students off too.
Liberal Arts and Education Lost Ground, While Fine Arts Grew: Education fell from 5.99% (2017) to 3.70% (2026) as teacher wages lagged other fields, and English and history dropped out of the top programs entirely. Fine arts moved the opposite way, growing from 1.35% to 2.52% and cracking the top ten.

To view the full report, which shows how the most popular majors have changed over time, click here.