Career Outcomes of STEM and Non-STEM College Graduates: Persistence in Majored-Field and Influential Factors in Career Choices

Using data from a nationally representative, longitudinal survey of college graduates, this study examines student transition from college to their chosen career paths and identifies factors influencing college graduates’ choosing an occupation related to ones’ undergraduate major. Within the context of expanded econometric framework a wide range of variables are considered, including monetary and nonmonetary costs and benefits as well as cultural and social capital measures. Using multinomial logit regression analyses, the results suggest positive career outcomes associated with individuals who have an occupation closely related to their college major, such as a better income profile and greater job satisfaction. Major-based differences are also examined between STEM and non-STEM graduates, and patterns of changes are documented for 10 years after graduation. An important perspective offered by this study is to consider career outcome as an extended definition of institutional effectiveness and student success. Based on the empirical findings, policy implications are discussed with the hope of bringing attention and improvement to the relationship between the higher educational system and the labor market.

[1]  John C. Smart.  College effects on occupational status attainment , 1986 .

[2]  A. Astin,et al.  Undergraduate science education: the impact of different college environments on the educational pip , 1992 .

[3]  Virginia Morrow,et al.  Conceptualising Social Capital in Relation to the Well-Being of Children and Young People: A Critical Review , 1999 .

[4]  M. Keane,et al.  The Career Decisions of Young Men , 1997, Journal of Political Economy.

[5]  Gregory C. Wolniak,et al.  The Effects of College Major and Job Field Congruence on Job Satisfaction. , 2005 .

[6]  Jacqueline C. Simpson.  Segregated by Subject , 2001 .

[7]  Joseph A. Soares,et al.  Who Goes to Graduate School? Social and Academic Correlates of Educational Continuation After College. , 2003 .

[8]  Nolan L. Cabrera,et al.  Training Future Scientists: Predicting First-year Minority Student Participation in Health Science Research , 2008, Research in higher education.

[9]  Josipa Roksa,et al.  Double Disadvantage or Blessing in Disguise? Understanding the Relationship Between College Major and Employment Sector , 2005 .

[10]  Tania G. Levey,et al.  What Can You Do with That Degree?: College Major and Occupational Status of College Graduates over Time , 2010 .

[11]  W. Weiler.  The Effect of Undergraduate Student Loans on the Decision to Pursue Postbaccalaureate Study , 1991 .

[12]  J. Farley Ordovensky Staniec,et al.  The Effects of Race, Sex, and Expected Returns on the Choice of College Major , 2004 .

[13]  P. Bourdieu,et al.  Reproduction in education, society and culture , 1970 .

[14]  Scott L. Thomas,et al.  Analysis of Large-Scale Secondary Data in Higher Education Research: Potential Perils Associated with Complex Sampling Designs , 2001 .

[15]  F. Pampel.  Logistic Regression: A Primer , 2000 .

[16]  R. Stolzenberg.  Educational Continuation by College Graduates , 1994, American Journal of Sociology.

[17]  S. Menard.  Applied Logistic Regression Analysis , 1996 .

[18]  Maria L. Kraimer,et al.  A Social Capital Theory of Career Success , 2001 .

[19]  Fredrick Flyer.  The Influence of Higher Moments of Earnings Distributions on Career Decisions , 1997, Journal of Labor Economics.

[20]  Pierre Bourdieu,et al.  Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture. SAGE Studies in Social and Educational Change, Volume 5. , 1977 .

[21]  Tak-Shing Harry So,et al.  The Use and Interpretation of Logistic Regression in Higher Education Journals: 1988–1999 , 2002 .

[22]  P. Bourdieu,et al.  The inheritors : French students and their relation to culture , 1979 .

[23]  C. Montmarquette,et al.  How do Young People Choose College Majors , 2002 .

[24]  S. Spilerman,et al.  Educational credentials and promotion chances in Japanese and American organizations , 1997 .

[25]  Laura W. Perna.  Understanding the Decision to Enroll in Graduate School: Sex and Racial/Ethnic Group Differences , 2004 .

[26]  Nolan L. Cabrera,et al.  Predicting transition and adjustment to college: biomedical and behavioral science aspirants’ and minority students’ first year of college , 2007 .

[27]  John C. Smart,et al.  Persistence to graduate education , 1986 .

[28]  Ronald G. Ehrenberg.  Academic Labor Supply , 1991 .

[29]  Laura W. Perna.  Differences in the Decision to Attend College among African Americans, Hispanics, and Whites , 2000 .

[30]  M. Lamont,et al.  CULTURAL CAPITAL: ALLUSIONS, GAPS AND GLISSANDOS IN RECENT THEORETICAL DEVELOPMENTS* , 1988 .

[31]  Mack C. Shelley,et al.  Academic Success for STEM and Non-STEM Majors. , 2010 .

[32]  J. Jacobs.  Gender and Academic Specialties: Trends among Recipients of College Degrees in the 1980s. , 1995 .

[33]  Ernest T. Pascarella,et al.  How College Affects Students: A Third Decade of Research. Volume 2. , 2005 .

[34]  Ryan S Wells.  The Effects of Social and Cultural Capital on Student Persistence , 2008 .

[35]  Linda J. Sax,et al.  Undergraduate Science Majors: Gender Differences in Who Goes to Graduate School , 2000 .

[36]  Liang Zhang.  Advance to Graduate Education: The Effect of College Quality and Undergraduate Majors , 2005 .

[37]  Gregory C. Wolniak,et al.  The Earnings Benefits of Majoring in STEM Fields Among High Achieving Minority Students , 2012 .

[38]  M. J. Chang,et al.  Considering the Impact of Racial Stigmas and Science Identity: Persistence among Biomedical and Behavioral Science Aspirants , 2011, The Journal of higher education.

[39]  Michael S. McPherson,et al.  Microeconomics of College Choice, Careers, and Wages , 1998 .

[40]  K. Goyette,et al.  Who Studies the Arts and Sciences? Social Background and the Choice and Consequences of Undergraduate Field of Study , 2006 .

[41]  J. Coleman,et al.  Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital , 1988, American Journal of Sociology.

[42]  G. Jackson.  Financial Aid, College Entry, and Affirmative Action , 1990, American Journal of Education.

[43]  George Campbell,et al.  Access Denied: Race, Ethnicity, and the Scientific Enterprise. , 2000 .

[44]  M. Fox.  Student debt and enrollment in graduate and professional school , 1992 .

[45]  John C. Smart.  College influences on graduates' income levels , 1988 .

[46]  Do Colleges Shortchange Women? Gender Differences in the Transition from College to Work , 2000 .

[47]  E. Pascarella,et al.  Women's Colleges and Women's Career Attainments Revisited , 1991 .

[48]  Scott L. Thomas,et al.  Post-Baccalaureate Wage Growth within Four Years of Graduation: The Effects of College Quality and College Major , 2005 .

[49]  Amanda L. Griffith,et al.  Persistence of Women and Minorities in STEM Field Majors: Is it the School That Matters? , 2010 .

[50]  J. Jacobs.  The Sex-Segregation of Fields of Study: Trends during the College Years. , 1986 .