Why Do Black Students Choose Lower-Paying Majors?

[foosondaughter]

Richard Sander and Stuart Taylor wrote a book about this (Mismatch: How Affirmative Action Hurts Students It’s Intended to Help, and Why Universities Won’t Admit It)*, which they attribute to mismatch. As discussed here (http://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2012/12/how-not-attract-minorities-stem), before entering college blacks actually showed a bit higher interest in STEM. This only changed after enrollment:

“As seniors in high school, blacks were somewhat more likely than whites to report an interest in majoring in” STEM—45% to 41% respectively, the book states, citing research on students at Ivy League colleges by psychologists Rogers Elliott and A. C. Strenta of Dartmouth College. These once-aspiring minority scientists, however, “were only slightly more than half as likely as whites to finish college with a STEM degree.”

*A decent overview and discussion is here: http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/24635/