Closure in the Pipeline: College Major Restrictiveness and Student Academic Outcomes

• In Event: 21020 - Section on Sociology of Education Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 3: Learning and Mentoring in Higher Education

Abstract

Research on sociodemographic differences in college major selection and graduation has mainly conceived of these differences as a function of students’ preferences and abilities. However, focusing only at the student level misses the importance of higher-level organizational forms such as disciplines and departments that also govern students’ ability to successfully meet educational milestones. In this paper, I investigate how dynamics operating at the level of majors shape how “restrictive” different majors are to enter and graduate from, and ultimately influence students’ major declaration and graduation outcomes. I rely on a theoretical framework incorporating occupational closure and organizational ecology theories to derive hypotheses about the relationship between major restrictiveness and major-level attributes such as the labor market rewards associated with majors, their demographic composition, competition for organizational resources, and links to occupations. I apply major-year panel data models and multilevel models to quantitative transcript data from a single large U.S. public flagship university to first predict major-level restrictiveness and then to examine how these major-level factors contribute to inequalities in students’ academic progress.

Author

• Katherine Leu, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor