IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bba/j00001/v3y2024i2p33-51d175.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

College Selectivity, Choice of Major, and Post-College Earnings

Author

Listed:
  • William Brian Muse

    (Mathematics department, Columbus State University, Columbus, USA)

  • Iryna Muse

    (Assistant Vice Chancellor, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, USA)

Abstract

College choice and choice of major are the most important decisions for future earnings. It is still unclear, however, what makes a greater difference—college or major—or whether a choice of college matters more for some majors, but not the others. Using cross-classified models and College Scorecard data, I show that a discipline is more consequential for future earnings than a college. The effect of STEM is substantial but is less pronounced at institutions with higher overall median earnings. The effect of college selectivity on earnings is more pronounced for non-STEM disciplines. Institutional characteristics—such as tuition, shares of graduates receiving different forms of financial aid, institutional size and location, and type of college—correlate with earnings of graduates. Racial and gender composition of an educational program correlate with expected earnings of its graduates even after control for other institutional and disciplinary characteristics. Models presented here provide a better understanding of the effect of college and major choices on future earnings.

Suggested Citation

  • William Brian Muse & Iryna Muse, 2024. "College Selectivity, Choice of Major, and Post-College Earnings," Journal of Economic Analysis, Anser Press, vol. 3(2), pages 33-51, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bba:j00001:v:3:y:2024:i:2:p:33-51:d:175
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.anserpress.org/journal/jea/3/2/55/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.anserpress.org/journal/jea/3/2/55
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eric R. Eide & Michael J. Hilmer & Mark H. Showalter, 2016. "Is It Where You Go Or What You Study? The Relative Influence Of College Selectivity And College Major On Earnings," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 34(1), pages 37-46, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rajeev Darolia & Cory Koedel, 2018. "High Schools And Students' Initial Colleges And Majors," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 36(4), pages 692-710, October.
    2. Shimeng Liu & Weizeng Sun & John V. Winters, 2019. "Up In Stem, Down In Business: Changing College Major Decisions With The Great Recession," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 37(3), pages 476-491, July.
    3. BARONE, Adriana & NESE, Annamaria, 2017. "Investment in Education, Obesity and Health Behaviours," CELPE Discussion Papers 146, CELPE - CEnter for Labor and Political Economics, University of Salerno, Italy.
    4. Mabel, Zachary & Libassi, C.J. & Hurwitz, Michael, 2020. "The value of using early-career earnings data in the College Scorecard to guide college choices," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    5. Karly Sarita Ford, 2020. "Marrying Within the Alma Mater: Understanding the Role of Same-University Marriages in Educational Homogamy," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 25(2), pages 254-272, June.
    6. Gregory Gilpin & Michael Kofoed, 2020. "Employer-Sponsored Education Assistance and Graduate Program Choice, Cost, and Finance," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 61(4), pages 431-458, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bba:j00001:v:3:y:2024:i:2:p:33-51:d:175. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Ramona Wang (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.anserpress.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.