College major peer effects and attrition from the sciences

Marc Luppino,Richard Sander

doi:10.1186/s40172-014-0019-8

Abstract

Abstract This paper examines how peer quality within distinct college majors affects graduation rates and major persistence. To mitigate the selection problem, we control for school-specific fixed effects, as well as very flexible application-admissions pattern fixed effects. Non-science peer quality appears to have a positive effect on both the likelihood that a student chooses a science major and on his or her cumulative GPA. Conversely, students who attend campuses with stronger peers in the sciences are less likely to graduate with a science degree. Weaker, non-minority students typically react to stronger peers in the sciences by shifting majors. Under-represented minorities tend to persist in the sciences regardless of peer quality, but in more competitive programs they suffer – often substantially – in terms of college grades and the likelihood of graduating.

Highlights

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) training is an important driver of economic growth and innovation in the United States
As we have argued in the previous section, this pattern of results suggests that the positive effect of non-STEM peer quality on non-STEM GPA is even higher than that estimated for cumulative GPA
We find a negative effect of the ability of STEM peers on the college grades of intending science majors, which is statistically significant according to the wild cluster bootstrap-t procedure

Summary

Introduction

Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) training is an important driver of economic growth and innovation in the United States. 5 Results We begin by examining the effect of major group peer ability on the likelihood that students graduate with a science degree. Increasing the ability of intending non-science major peers by a standard deviation increases the likelihood of graduating with a STEM degree by roughly nine percentage points.

Results

Conclusion