Pre-College Influences and College Major Choice: Gender, Race/Ethnicity and Nativity Patterning

This paper gives a comprehensive examination on patterns of the initial college major choice for gender, racial/ethnic and nativity groups. I focus on the influence of three aspects of pre-college experiences: achievement, attitude and course taking in both math and English. I find math matters more than English in determining college major choice. Math attitude remains as the most important factor in contributing to gender differences in college major choice. Racial minorities share the tendency in choosing more lucrative college majors than whites. (C) 2009 by The Transformative Studies Institute. All rights reserved.