– Of the group of 2,276 students initially interested in science, 40 percent did not finally concentrate in science, and smaller proportions of women (48 percent) than of men (66 percent) persisted.
– The most significant cognitive factor predicting these losses was low grades earned in science courses taken during the first two years of study.
– With grades held equal, gender was not a significant predictor of persistence in engineering and biology; gender added strongly to grades, however, as a factor associated with unusually large losses of women from a category that included the physical sciences and mathematics.
– Science majors regarded their instruction as too competitive, with too few opportunities to ask questions, taught by professors who were relatively unresponsive, not dedicated, and not motivating.
– Students who defected from science did so largely because of the attraction of other fields, but many shared the criticism of over competitiveness and inferior instruction, along with the view that the work was too difficult.
– Except for perceived competitiveness, women did not rate their classroom experiences as being more unpleasant than did men.
1994 - Choosing and Leaving Science in Highly Selective Institutions
The subject sample consisted of 5,320 students who had entered four highly selective institutions in the fall of 1988. In the fall term, 1991, questionnaire surveys were mailed to the 4,825 students (at that time, nearly all seniors) who were registered for classes at each institution with follow-up letters two weeks after the first mailing. A total of 2,591 were returned. The respondent sample included 1,242 women (48%) and 870 science majors (34%), both higher percentages than existed in the parent sample.
DV: math and science grades
IV: Gender (0 for male, 1 for female); SAT verbal and math scores; the average of the student’s best three achievement test scores; and stated initial interest in a major field of study (the first stated if more than one, coded 0 for nonscience and 1 for science, where science is defined as natural science, and for many analyses subcategorized as engineering, biology, physical sciences, and mathematics); total number of math and science courses taken in high school; mean grade earned in these courses; mean grade earned in nonscience high school courses.