Abstract
Students’ choice of college major is related to their interests (Porter and Umbach in Res High Educ 47:429–449, 2006), and students whose major is well-aligned with their interests are more likely to persist in that major (Allen and Robbins in Res Higher Educ 49(1):62–79, 2008) and complete a college degree in a timely manner (Allen and Robbins in J Couns Psychol 51(1):23–35, 2010). This study investigates whether a specific signal (i.e., Low, Medium, or High fit) that high school students receive about the alignment between their initial choice of planned major and their measured interests has an impact on the subsequent certainty of their initial choice of planned major. A regression discontinuity design was used to investigate the stability/increase in planned major certainty across two ACT administrations for students with Medium versus Low fit and High versus Medium fit. Results did not provide evidence that the signal is effective; possible explanations and recommended future research are discussed.
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Notes
Also included within our study, but not provided in this manuscript, were full-sample OLS regression models that accounted for the linear, quadratic, and cubic functional forms of the forcing variable (i.e., Interest Major Fit correlation). These models were estimated both with and without the additional covariates. The effect of the Interest-Major Fit signal was statistically non-significant across different model specifications.
Results of the full-sample OLS regression models that accounted for the linear, quadratic, and cubic functional forms of the forcing variable (i.e., Interest Major Fit correlation) were consistent with those of the local linear regressions. These results are not provided in the manuscript, but are available upon request.
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Moore, J.L., Cruce, T.M. The Impact of an Interest-Major Fit Signal on College Major Certainty. Res High Educ 61, 383–407 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-019-09560-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-019-09560-0