Race and Gender Differences in College Major Choice

Lisa Dickson
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Lisa Dickson: University of Maryland Baltimore County

The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 2010, vol. 627, issue 1, 108-124

Abstract: College major choice varies substantially by gender, race, and ethnicity among college graduates. This study investigates whether these differences are present at the start of the college career and whether they can be explained by variation in academic preparation. It estimates a multinomial logit to evaluate whether students of similar academic backgrounds make similar college major choices at the start of their college career. The results demonstrate that significant differences by gender, race, and ethnicity persist in initial college major choice even after controlling for the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) score of the student and the high school class rank of the student. Gender differences in major choice are much larger than racial and ethnic disparities. Furthermore, women are significantly more likely to switch away from an initial major in engineering than are white men.

Keywords: higher education; college majors; gender differences; minority students (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:anname:v:627:y:2010:i:1:p:108-124

DOI: 10.1177/0002716209348747

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