If you have the mind for it, chemistry can lead to a very lucrative career path.

Melissa Korn of the Wall Street Journal reports.

Chemistry Departments Try to Attract More Students by Retooling the Major

Forget economics. Chemistry might be the real dismal science.

Undergraduate programs have been characterized for decades by rigid, yearlong sequences of organic, physical and biochemistry classes that emphasized rote memorization and taught about reactions in isolation. They left little room to pursue side passions—and attracted worrisomely few students, policy makers say.

As business and biology majors get a reboot, chemistry professors find themselves waging a fierce battle to appeal to undergraduates who might want a scientific grounding to pursue careers in forensics, molecular gastronomy or politics, but who are turned off by the degree’s onerous demands.

In what some faculty call the most radical shift in half a century, schools including Emory University in Atlanta and Davidson College in North Carolina are ditching their traditional chemistry programs in favor of interdisciplinary foundational courses and an array of electives that might woo students with broader interests.

“Chemists, we’re not known as the most flexible people,” said Erland Stevens, a professor of chemistry at Davidson. “But we’ve really got to change, because academia’s changing.”

About a third of new college students indicate interest in pursuing a major in the hard sciences, technology, engineering or mathematics. Chemists comprise a tiny sliver of that—1.2% of all freshmen, according to the University of California, Los Angeles Higher Education Research Institute. Other studies show that about half of students who set out to major in STEM fields actually get degrees in those disciplines.

Government and academic policy makers are concerned that the small number of students sticking with chemistry could leave the country short of talent in high-growth fields such as medicine and biochemistry.