The Secretary may give an absolute preference to any of the academic areas listed as disciplines or subdisciplines below, or the resulting inter-disciplines. The list was derived from the Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) developed by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement of the U.S. Department of Education and includes the instructional programs that may constitute courses of studies toward graduate degrees. The code number to the left of each discipline and subdiscipline is the Department's identification code for that particular type of instructional program.

05. Area, Ethnic, and Cultural Studies 05.01 Area Studies 05.02 Ethnic and Cultural Studies 11. Computer and Information Sciences 11.01 Computer and Information Sciences, General 11.02 Computer Programming 11.04 Information Sciences and Systems 11.05 Computer Systems Analysis 11.07 Computer Science 13. Education 13.01 Education, General 13.02 Bilingual/Bicultural Education 13.03 Curriculum and Instruction 13.04 Education Administration and Supervision 13.05 Educational/Instructional Media Design 13.06 Educational Evaluation, Research, and Statistics 13.07 International and Comparative Education 13.08 Educational Psychology 13.09 Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education 13.10 Special Education 13.11 Student Counseling and Personnel Services 13.12 General Teacher Education 13.13 Teacher Education, Specific Academic, and Vocational Programs 13.14 Teaching English as a Second Language/Foreign Language 14. Engineering 14.01 Engineering, General 14.02 Aerospace, Aeronautical, and Astronautical Engineering 14.03 Agricultural Engineering 14.04 Architectural Engineering 14.05 Bioengineering and Biomedical Engineering 14.06 Ceramic Sciences and Engineering 14.07 Chemical Engineering 14.08 Civil Engineering 14.09 Computer Engineering 14.10 Electrical, Electronic, and Communications Engineering 14.11 Engineering Mechanics 14.12 Engineering Physics 14.13 Engineering Science 14.14 Environmental/Environmental Health Engineering 14.15 Geological Engineering 14.16 Geophysical Engineering 14.17 Industrial/Manufacturing Engineering 14.18 Materials Engineering 14.19 Mechanical Engineering 14.20 Metallurgical Engineering 14.21 Mining and Mineral Engineering 14.22 Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering 14.23 Nuclear Engineering 14.24 Ocean Engineering 14.25 Petroleum Engineering 14.27 Systems Engineering 14.28 Textile Sciences and Engineering 14.29 Engineering Design 14.30 Engineering/Industrial Management 14.31 Materials Science 14.32 Polymer/Plastics Engineering 16. Foreign Languages 16.01 Foreign Languages and Literatures 16.03 East and Southeast Asian Languages and Literatures 16.04 East European Languages and Literatures 16.05 Germanic Languages and Literatures 16.06 Greek Languages and Literatures 16.07 South Asian Languages and Literatures 16.09 Romance Languages and Literatures 16.11 Middle Eastern Languages and Literatures 16.12 Classical and Ancient Near Eastern Languages and Literatures 22. Law and Legal Studies 22.01 Law and Legal Studies 25. Library Science 25.01 Library Science/Librarianship 25.03 Library Assistant 26. Biological Sciences/Life Sciences 26.01 Biology, General 26.02 Biochemistry and Biophysics 26.03 Botany 26.04 Cell and Molecular Biology 26.05 Microbiology/Bacteriology 26.06 Miscellaneous Biological Specializations 26.07 Zoology 27. Mathematics 27.01 Mathematics 27.03 Applied Mathematics 27.05 Mathematic Statistics 40. Physical Sciences 40.01 Physical Sciences, General 40.02 Astronomy 40.03 Astrophysics 40.04 Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology 40.05 Chemistry 40.06 Geological and Related Sciences 40.07 Miscellaneous Physical Sciences 40.08 Physics 42. Psychology 42.01 Psychology 42.02 Clinical Psychology 42.03 Cognitive Psychology and Psycholinguistics 42.04 Community Psychology 42.06 Counseling Psychology 42.07 Developmental and Child Psychology 42.08 Experimental Psychology 42.09 Industrial and Organizational Psychology 42.11 Physiological Psychology/Psychobiology 42.16 Social Psychology 42.17 School Psychology 50. Visual and Performing Arts 50.01 Visual and Performing Arts 50.02 Crafts, Folk Art, and Artisanry 50.03 Dance 50.04 Design and Applied Arts 50.05 Dramatic/Theater Arts and Stagecraft 50.06 Film/Video and Photographic Arts 50.07 Fine Arts and Art Studies 50.09 Music 51. Health Professions and Related Sciences 51.01 Chiropractic (D.C., D.C.M.) 51.02 Communication Disorders Sciences and Services 51.03 Community Health Services 51.04 Dentistry (D.D.S., D.M.D.) 51.05 Dental Clinical Sciences/Graduate Dentistry (M.S., Ph.D.) 51.06 Dental Services 51.07 Health and Medical Administrative Services 51.08 Health and Medical Assistants 51.09 Health and Medical Diagnostic and Treatment Services 51.10 Health and Medical Laboratory Technologies/Technicians 51.11 Health and Medical Preparatory Programs 51.12 Medicine (M.D.) 51.13 Medical Basic Science 51.14 Medical Clinical Services (M.S., Ph.D) 51.15 Mental Health Services 51.16 Nursing 51.17 Optometry (O.D.) 51.18 Ophthalmic/Optometric Services 51.19 Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.) 51.20 Pharmacy 51.21 Podiatry (D.P.M., D.P., Pod.D.) 51.22 Public Health 51.23 Rehabilitation/Therapeutic Services 51.24 Veterinary Medicine (D.V.M.) 51.25 Veterinary Clinical Services 51.27 Miscellaneous Health Professions