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 about obtaining a science degree, but that relatively few students end up …

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 …

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 …

The choice of a college major plays a critical role in determining the future earnings of college graduates. Students … survey students about what their expected earnings would be both in the major they have chosen and in counterfactual majors …. We also elicit students' subjective assessments of their abilities in chosen and counterfactual majors. We estimate a …

college can be attributed to what students learn about their academic performance, with this type of learning playing a … smaller role later in college. Poorly performing students tend to leave because staying is not worthwhile, rather than because …