Major Selection as Iteration - Observing Gendered Patterns of Major Selection Under Elective Curriculums

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Adam

Major selection in U.S. higher education is shaped by elective curriculums, yet research has rarely examined how these curricula mediate gender differentiation in students’ choice of majors. This study uses a novel dataset of 11,730 students at a large public research university to analyze an iterative major-selection process across academic terms. Results show strong correlations at entry, frequent major switching before declaration, and persistence of gendered patterns because changes cluster in academically adjacent fields.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages17

Reading Time43 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Major selection under elective curriculums

Iterative conception and gendered academic choice

AERA Open January-December 2024, Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 1–17 DOI: 10. 1177/23328584241249600 Article reuse guidelines: [sagepub.com/journals-permissions](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[ ](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)© The Author(s) 2024. [https://journals.sagepub.com/home/ero](https://journals.sagepub.com/home/ero) Major Selection as Iteration: Observing Gendered Patterns of Major Selection Under Elective Curriculums Tobias Dalberg Uppsala University Kalena E. Cortes Texas A&M University Mitchell L. Stevens Stanford University Social scientists have long recognized field of study as an important mechanism of gender differentiation and stratification in U.S. higher education, but they have rarely attended to how elective curriculums mediate gender differentiation in major selection. Under elective curriculums, major selection is an iterative process, in which students select courses in stepwise fashion at the beginning of each academic term, and are able to change majors early in their undergraduate careers. We observe how an elective curriculum mediates gendered patterns of major selection, using a novel data set describing 11,730 students at a large public research university. We find (a) gender and intended major are strongly correlated upon college entry; (b) large proportions of students change majors between entry and declaration; (c) because most changes are to academically adjacent fields, gendered patterns infield of study persist through the undergraduate career. Findings suggest the value of an iterative conception of major selection and offer tractable means for intervening in the process through which students select majors. JEL codes: I21, I24, I26, J16. Keywords: colleges, curriculum, higher education, postsecondary education, correlational analysis, descriptive analysis, elective curriculum, iterative selection, gendered majors, major stratification Introduction Major field of study is an important mechanism of stratification in higher education. Majors vary in their reputations for curricular difficulty and in the distribution of grades students receive (Armstrong & Hamilton, 2013; Arum & Roksa, 2011) . They serve as signals to employers about graduates’training, career orientations, and likely fitness for particular jobs (Bostwick, 2016; Quadlin, 2018; Roksa & Levey, 2010) . And they are gendered. Majors vary both in their gender demography and in the cultural meanings associated with different fields of study (Charles & Bradley, 2009) . These facts warrant ongoing investigation by social scientists, who have accreted a substantial literature on the relationship between gender, field of study, and occupational stratification and inequality (e.g., Buchmann et al., 2008; England et al., 2020; Gerber & Cheung, 2008; Jacobs, 1996; Morgan et al., 2013) . Yet researchers have only begun to study how the elective curriculum itself mediates patterns of gender major segregation. Colleges and universities in the United States are commonly organized on an elective curriculum, in which students select a composite of courses to meet requirements for declaring particular majors. Elective curriculums give students considerable freedom to change majors through the early stages of their undergraduate careers. At least in theory, this makes it possible for students to explore multiple potential majors as their coursework accumulates. The ubiquity of elective curriculums in the United States calls for conceptualizing major selection as an iterative process, in which undergraduates’ accumulating experiences in college overtime may at least potentially influence when and how they commit to majors. Yet the iterative character of academic Creative Commons CC BY: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License ([https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)) which permits any use, reproduction and distr

FAQs

How does the paper define major selection under elective curriculums?

It describes major selection as an iterative process where students select courses stepwise each term and can change majors early in their undergraduate careers.

What dataset and research setting does the study use?

The study observes 11,730 students at a large public research university using a novel dataset designed for this purpose.

What key findings are reported about gender and major changes?

Gender and intended major are strongly correlated at college entry; many students change majors between entry and declaration; and because most switches are to academically adjacent fields, gendered patterns persist through undergraduate study.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Adam