Attrition in STEM Fields at a Liberal Arts College: The Importance of Grades and Pre-Collegiate Preferences

  1. The results suggest that absolute and sometimes relative grades are important, as is the intended major (as reported on the admissions application).
  2. Higher grades in STEM courses would increase persistence rates throughout all the majors.
  3. AP credits are also strongly correlated to taking a first course, but diminish in the more selected samples.
  4. From the results for men, both progression to a second semester and also a third, the grade received in the course is the most consistent and strongest influence on the decision to continue in the department.
  5. Men appear to be more sensitive than women to the grades received in their STEM courses. Both in terms of statistical significance and also magnitudes, at both stages of progression the men’s estimates are larger.
  6. At each stage, in no more than two departments do men or women exhibit sensitivity to their grades received outside of the STEM course.
  7. There is also strong evidence of ‘switching’ among the science majors, as those who enter intending to major in some other STEM department outside of the introductory course department have a high probability of majoring in the different department.
  8. The author did not find strong or consistent role model influences, peer influences, or course size influences on attrition.
  9. Simulations suggest that if science grade distributions were more like the college average, there would be roughly 2-4% more students progressing in STEM departments.