Major Trends ; Criminal Justice, Religion, and Even Accounting Are among the Subjects Gaining Popularity on College Campuses, as Students Eye How Society's Needs Converge with Their Own Aspirations

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For Amanda Soland, a junior at Baylor University, there really was no question about what to declare as her major - she fell in love with forensic science last spring when she took a course on crime-scene investigation.

She had been pre-med. Now her focus is on catching criminals and helping victims' families.

Forensic science has become so popular at Baylor that the school in Waco, Texas, has had to set up a grade-point-average minimum and cap the number of students who major in it.

Other fields of study that have seen a new surge of life are criminal justice, nursing, religious studies, and, at several schools, even accounting.

Driven by corporate …