University Differences in the Graduation of Minorities in Stem Fields: Evidence from California

By P. Arcidiacono, Esteban M. Aucejo, V. Hotz. Social Science Research Network, 2013

247 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The low number of college graduates with science degrees - particularly among underrepresented minorities - is of growing concern. We examine differences across universities in graduating students in different fields. Using student-level data on the University of California system during a period in which racial preferences were in place, we show significant sorting into majors based on academic preparation, with science majors at each campus having on average stronger credentials than their non-science counterparts. Students with relatively weaker academic preparation are significantly more likely to leave the sciences and take longer to graduate at each campus. We show the vast majority of minority students would be more likely to graduate with a science degree and graduate in less time had they attended a lower ranked university. Similar results do not apply for non-minority students.

Subfields: Education, Safety Research

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c32ac996264ff2df78c446ca7e578d40ced08a7b

Citations in the corpus

• Teacher Expectations Matter (2016, unknown): “dent success in STEM fields and highlights the policy-relevance of black-white achievement gaps in STEM fields (Anderson and Kim, 2006; Arcidiacono et al., 2016; Harper, 2010).”
• A Major in Science? Initial Beliefs and Final Outcomes for College Major and Dropout (2013, unknown): “(See, e.g., Ost, 2010, Arcidiacono et. al, 2012b, Arcidiacono et al., 2012c, and Arcidiacono et al., 2013).”
• The Demand for Effective Charter Schools (2018, unknown): “Other related studies look at selection in higher education (Arcidiacono, 2005; Brand and Xie, 2010; Howell, 2010; Arcidiacono et al., 2016; Dillon and Smith, 2017) and in education programs outside the U.”