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Title: Are Changes of Major Major Changes? The Roles of Grades, Gender, and Preferences in College Major Switching
Resulting in 1 citation.
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Astorne-Figari, Carmen Speer, Jamin D. |
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Are Changes of Major Major Changes? The Roles of Grades, Gender, and Preferences in College Major Switching Economics of Education Review 70 (June 2019): 75-93. Also: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272775718304680 Cohort(s): NLSY97 Publisher: Elsevier Keyword(s): College Major/Field of Study/Courses; Gender Differences; Grade Point Average (GPA)/Grades; STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) The choice of college major is a key stage in the career search, and over a third of college students switch majors at least once. We provide the first comprehensive analysis of major switching, looking at the patterns of switching in both academic and non-academic dimensions. Low grades signal academic mismatch and predict switching majors - and the lower the grades, the larger the switch in terms of course content. Surprisingly, these switches do not improve students' grades. When students switch majors, they switch to majors that "look like them": females to female-heavy majors, and so on. Lower-ability women flee competitive majors at high rates, while men and higher-ability women are undeterred. Women are far more likely to leave STEM fields for majors that are less competitive -- but still somewhat science-intensive -- suggesting that leaving STEM may be more about fleeing the "culture" of STEM majors than fleeing science and math. |
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Bibliography Citation
Astorne-Figari, Carmen and Jamin D. Speer. "Are Changes of Major Major Changes? The Roles of Grades, Gender, and Preferences in College Major Switching." Economics of Education Review 70 (June 2019): 75-93.
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