Why Students Choose Majors

We ask a lot of 18-year-old students. Upon entering college, students weigh advice and expectations from parents, teachers, and administrators when choosing a major to study for the next few years. On top of that, they're supposed to decide as quickly as possible, ideally before the end of the first semester. For a "major" life decision, that's not a lot of time to weigh the options. Over the past few decades, a growing body of research has been teasing apart the reasons why people choose certai...