Early Exposure to Technology and College Major Choice

Edoardo Bella (), Garrett Anstreicher and Joanna Venator
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Edoardo Bella: Boston College

No 1112, Boston College Working Papers in Economics from Boston College Department of Economics

Abstract: We leverage the national rollout of FIRST robotics teams across high schools and document that attending a high school with a robotics club substantially increases the likelihood that a student will go on to major in computer science or engineering in college. These effects vary significantly by gender: while these programs increase the likelihood that male students go on to major in engineering/computer science (+3.1 pp), effects for female students are substantially smaller and are at times negative, with worse effects for teams with lower gender ratios. We confirm these findings in restricted-use Census survey data and find that positive impacts extend past college, with robotics teams increasing the likelihood that men work in STEM-related occupations. These results suggest that exposure to STEM-related high school extracurricular activities may increase interest in engineering and computer science but can also widen existing gender gaps in take-up of these fields.

Keywords: College Major Choice; Robotics; High School Curricula; Occupation Choice (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I23 J16 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-06-29
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