Major Movement: Examining Major Switching Patterns and Pathways at Community Colleges

• In Event: 15.055 - Experiences in Postsecondary Education

Abstract

Given wide variation in the returns to sub-baccalaureate degrees based on major and ongoing higher education reforms to create and track community college students into “meta-majors,” there is a pressing need to understand the predominate patterns of major switching in the public two-year sector and which factors influence students’ switching behavior. This study uses nationally representative data to examine patterns of major switching at community colleges. Leveraging we use multinomial logistic regression, we illuminate the pathway from initial broad major fields to the subsequent major field to understand how students switch majors and whether the process varies across race, gender, and socioeconomic status.

Authors

• Lauren Schudde, The University of Texas at Austin

• Raymond Brown, The University of Texas at Austin

• Wonsun Ryu, University of Texas at Austin