College Major Competitiveness and Attrition from the Sciences

Does Immigration Affect Whether US Natives Major in Science and Engineering?

“…8 However, attending high school or college with high-achieving immigrants may increase the competition for good grades in math and science classes, and natives who move down in the grade distribution may be less likely to major in S&E. Barnett, Sonnert, and Sadler (2012) report that immigrants earn higher grades, on average, than U.S. natives in college calculus classes, which are crucial gateway courses for S&E majors. Luppino and Sander (2012) show that weaker white, non-Hispanic students typically respond to more competition-higher math SAT scores among students majoring in STEM-by moving away from STEM majors; minorities persist in STEM majors but become less likely to graduate. Ost's study of a large research university (2010) finds that females' persistence in science majors is more sensitive than males' to their grades while Rask's (2010) Immigration may also affect natives' educational outcomes through more indirect channels.…”

“…Another possibility is that higher levels of immigration result in some women attending institutions in which they are less likely to major in S&E. As discussed above, research does not show that immigration adversely affects the likelihood that U.S. natives go to college (Betts and Lofstrom 2000;Jackson 2011), but some evidence suggests that it may change the type of institution they attend (Hoxby 1998). Persistence in and returns to S&E vary across types of institutions, and which students persist in S&E differs across types of institutions as well (Arcidiacono 2004;Griffith 2010;Luppino and Sander 2012;Arcidiacono et al 2013).…”

Modeling College Major Choices Using Elicited Measures of Expectations and Counterfactuals

“…23 In Table 4 we display the average values of these various graduation rates for the top-2 ranked UC campuses, UC Berkeley and UCLA and for the three lowest-ranked campuses, UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz and UC Riverside, by preparation score quartiles and initial major for minority and non-minority students, respectively. 24 The top (bottom) panel shows results for minority (non-minority) 22 The share of minorities from the bottom quartile of S that applied to UC Berkeley was only 4.43 [= 0.375/0.085] times higher than that for non-minorities, whereas the application rates at UC Riverside for minorities in the bottom quartile was only 1.92 [= 0.673/0.350] times higher than non-minorities. 23 We do not examine the fourth possible outcome, graduation in the sciences, conditional on beginning in the non-sciences, since the incidence of this outcome is so small.…”

“…However, the college which makes it most likely that a particular student will graduate in a particular major may depend on the academic preparation of the student. 9 Smyth and McArdle (2004) and Luppino and Sander (2012) also illustrate the importance of relative preparation in the choice of college major, finding that those who are significantly under-prepared are less likely to persist in the sciences. What distinguishes our work is the importance of the matching of student preparation with campus selectivity: students with strong (weak) academic characteristics are more likely to graduate in the sciences at the more (less) selective campuses.…”

University Differences in the Graduation of Minorities in STEM Fields: Evidence from California

“…11 See Arcidiacono, Aucejo, Coate and Hotz (2012) for analyses of the effects of this affirmative action ban on graduation rates in the UC system.12 See Arcidiacono, Aucejo, Coate and Hotz (2012) 13. The 1997 U.S. News & World Report rankings of National Universities included 6 of the 8 UC campuses in their Top 50: UC Berkeley(27); UCLA (31); UC San Diego (34); UC Irvine (37); UC Davis (40); and UC Santa Barbara (47). Neither UC Santa Cruz or UC Riverside ranked in the Top 50 National Universities.14 As noted above, the UCOP data does not include the exact scores students received on the verbal and math…”