best viewed as the end result of a learning process. We find that students enter college as open to a major in math or … science as to any other major group, but that a large number of students move away from math and science after realizing that … because students realize that their ability in math/science is lower than expected rather than because students realize that …

-five percent of the dropout that occurs in the first two years of college can be attributed to what students learn about their … could influence dropout. Our simulations show that students who perform poorly tend to learn that staying in school is not …

Taking advantage of unique longitudinal data, we provide the first characterization of what college students believe at … of why students hold the initial beliefs about majors that they do. The data collection and analysis are based directly … that students enter school quite optimistic/interested about obtaining a science degree, but that relatively few students …

We use unique data to examine how college students from low income families form expectations about academic ability … characterize beliefs. At the time of entrance, students tend to substantially discount the possibility of bad grade performance …, students update their beliefs in a manner which takes into account both initial beliefs and new information, with heterogeneity …

-out decisions of some students, the large majority of attrition of students from low income families should be primarily attributed … sources do not provide a direct way of identifying which students are credit constrained. This has forced researchers to adopt …

college exposure to female instructors and students, consistent with a wider role for women's colleges in increasing female …

-semester students, although instructors continued to record letter grades. We identify the causal effect of the policy on course choice … and performance, using a regression-discontinuity-in-time design. Students shifted to lower-grading STEM courses in the … first semester, but did not increase their engagement with STEM in later semesters. Letter grades of first-semester students …