Major Selection and Post-College Financial Obligations by Hannah Cash | December 22, 2020 | Winter 2018
Imagine telling your family you hope that you or your child majors in philosophy. Feel the blank stare. Watch the slow head-nod. Researcher Natasha Quadlin knows this is an odd scenario because the major is considered wildly unmarketable. But perhaps this is actually a good sign: perceived financial obligations after college may affect students’ major selection during college.
Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, Quadlin’s new
Social Forces piece investigates how three funding sources (loans, family contributions, and grants) affect students’ choice of study. Quadlin sorts majors into either applied or academic where applied fields are oriented to a specific job, such as nursing or engineering, and academic fields fall typically in the social sciences and humanities and into STEM and non-S