How Do Northwestern Students Infer Returns to MMSS? Major Choice Behavior of Northwestern Students

This study investigates how college students form their expectations on each major and how they choose their majors in relation to their expectations. In particular, we investigate: (i) the relationship between students perceived ability in each field of study and the likelihood of majoring in that field, and (ii) the relationship between students expected major-specific earnings at age 30 and the likelihood of majoring in each respective field. We find that major-specific earnings expectation plays a significant role in major choice, especially for underclassmen. We find that female students are less influenced by expected academic performance in their major choice, contrary to the findings of Figlio, et al. (2017). Moreover, we provide upper-bounds to the returns to Economics/MMSS major combination relative to alternative majors; in particular, we estimate the upper-bound for mean log-wage increase for majoring in Economics/MMSS relative to Humanities to be 0.532.