New figures show the University of California San Diego successfully managed to reduce the number of undergraduates majoring in biology, a field that was so over-subscribed that many students struggled to get all of the classes they needed.

The campus says that 3,781 undergraduates were majoring in biology in October 2012, down from 5,294 in October 2008.

In 2009, Bio was declared a so-called impacted major, which means we can limit the number of Bio majors upon entry as freshman, as well as upon transfer from community colleges, said William McGinnis, interim dean of UCSDs Division of Biological Sciences. He said the campus also can limit the number that wish to switch to Bio from other majors after they arrive here declaring as undecided or as other majors.

We did it because we literally didnt have enough space to teach all the labs that we require of Bio majors. We anticipate the numbers of majors will go up in the next few years as we relax the impacted status, but that is assuming we get more lab space to train majors. And we also have plans to teach labs on weekends so that our undergrads can get all their labs and graduate in 4 years."

Biology is among the universitys most popular programs, partly because it can be a gateway to careers in medicine. The program also is attractive because of the reputation of graduate programs in the Division of Biological Sciences. Two years ago, US News and World Report said that UCSDs biosci program was the 15th best of its kind nationally.

The universitys bioengineering program also is highly-ranked, and had to be whittled in size in recent years because of runaway growth. The new enrollment census says the number of bioengineering majors fell from 851 in 2008 and 675 this year.

We had a pre-med major that just grew all out of proportion," said David Gough, a bioengineering professor. "That was eliminated. We would like to get the number down to 400. Our goal is to do a good job in teaching, not to just teach everyone who could make it through the door."

Over the same period, the number of physics majors fell from 509 to 211, and the number of chemistry majors went up, from 1,079 to 1,464. Psychology experienced a small increase, from 1,395 majors to 1,472, while Cognitive Science grew from 360 to 676.

UCSD had 22,676 undergraduates in Fall 2012, or 158 higher than four years ago.

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UCSD cuts science majors to manage growth