Thursday, January 19, 2012

Researchers have found that black students’ GPAs indeed converge eventually with those of white students, but attributed this to black students being more likely than white students to switch to less difficult majors

According to the study, among students matriculating in 2001 and 2002 who initially expressed an interest in majoring in engineering, economics or the natural sciences, 54% of black males and 51% of black females ended up switching to other majors in the humanities or social sciences. By contrast, only about 8% of white men and 33% of white women switched majors. Black students are slightly more likely than white students to express an initial interest in engineering, economics or the natural sciences — 61.7% for blacks compared to 60.8% for whites — yet less than 30% of black students finish with a major in that realm compared to 50.5% of whites.

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