- In both the physical and life sciences, students are “pulled away” by their high grades in non-science courses and “pushed out” by their low grades in their major field.
- In the physical sciences, females are found to be more responsive to grades than males, consistent with psychological theories of stereotype vulnerability.
- However, females do not appear to be more responsive to grades than males in life sciences. This could be because do not suffer from “minority” status within the life sciences compared to the physical sciences.
- For Hispanic and Black students, the raw gap in the likelihood of declaring a physical or life science major disappears after controlling for preparation/ability, suggesting that differences in intended majors between Black/Hispanic students and White students is entirely due to differential preparation between these groups.
- Hispanic students are found to have much lower persistence rates in the life sciences than white students.
- Consistent with the notion that stronger students tend to enter physical sciences, a one standard deviation increase in SAT score is associated with an 8.3% point increase in the likelihood of intending to major in the physical sciences and a 2.8% point decrease in the likelihood of intending to major in the life sciences.
- Entering college with calculus credit strongly influences the probability of intending a physical science major.
- When controlling for performance factors, females still are more likely to drop out of the physical sciences.
- While both males and females benefit from exposure to higher quality peers in physical sciences, the effect is more than twice as large for women as compared to men.
- Controlling for other variables, females are less likely to intend to major in physical sciences.
- Students who are at most risk of failing to persist are also most influenced by their peers in physical sciences.