Parents hoping their children remain religious in college may want to nudge them toward an education major or, failing that, a business degree.

If, instead, the students major in biology, engineering, physical science or math, they may attend religious services more but value religion less.

And if they pick humanities or social-science degrees, then, parents, beware: The importance of religion to your students may plummet even if their attendance at services merely dips.

Those are the findings of a new study by the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research.

Economics professor Miles Kimball and other researchers gleaned data from more than 26,000 people who graduated from high school between 1976 and 1996 and who were interviewed several times through the years.

Kimball said college is an appropriate setting for measuring religious trends because a campus acts like a microcosm, with each academic major representing a real-world profession.

"College is one of the few times you have a neat little label about the sorts of ideas a person has come in contact with," Kimball said. "Professions can have a profound effect on people's attitudes."

Their research was motivated, in part, by trying to understand how the level of religiosity in culture remains fairly steady while there is pressure toward greater religiosity.

They theorized that streams of thought on college campuses -- scientism, developmentalism and postmodernism -- might influence young adults.

The results showed that postmodernism, the belief that everything is relative, seems to affect students' religiosity more than does science.

Postmodern thought imbues the humanities and social sciences, which may be the reason, researchers noted, that religion holds less importance for students who major in, say, psychology, literature or anthropology.

Kimball pointed out that the social sciences and humanities -- which generally employ the scientific method, are committed to truth, freedom and progress, and probe questions of truth and morality -- are more likely to prompt students to question their religious upbringings and, ultimately, become less religious than other majors.

Sagan Harlin, 21, says her study of history and the sometimes sordid role played by religion in world events have only made religion less appealing.

"It seems so political," said the University of Utah senior, who will graduate next spring with a degree in international studies and a business minor.

Harlin, of St. George, says she grew up without a religion. Her parents had been reared Mormon and Catholic, but did not practice either.

"They let us do our own thing," Harlin said.

Consistent with the Michigan study, a 2004 UCLA study showed education majors led the way in religious and spiritual growth during the first three years of college. But unlike Kimball's study -- in which social-science and humanities majors show decreased religiosity -- the UCLA study found fine-arts and humanities majors experienced the second- and third-highest rates of religious and spiritual growth.

Why the different outcomes between studies? Sam Speers, director of religious and spiritual life at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., said studies often assume that students' religious identity should be static. Looking at students five years after college, he said, would paint a more accurate picture of their religious identities.

"Just as students are questioning lots of things about who they are, they are also asking questions about religious identity," Speers said. "Religious faith and practice is also something that's evolving and changing."

The Rev. Joe Carey, a campus minister at the University of Notre Dame, agrees that college is a time when students' faith can be challenged, but he doesn't see anything wrong with that. Religious exploration, he said, also can bring students closer to a higher power.

Carey, who directs a program for Catholic converts at Notre Dame, sees students from all academic areas joining the church -- even former atheists and agnostics -- during their college years.

"We have law students that come in, physics majors," Carey said of would-be converts. "You name the major and there's someone."