Gender Sensitivity to Peer Math Ability

Revision with unchanged content. College curriculum choices have strong effects on students¿ future incomes, with the highest salaries often going to math, science, and engineering (MSE) majors. Prior investigations suggest that both college environment and gender affect how students choose their curriculum. This begs the question: Do women and men chose their curriculum content with different sensitivity to college environment, and how does this affect their wage outcomes? This work examines the effects of peer math ability at college, total credits achieved in MSE, and GPA on the earnings of young college graduates, using survey data to track students from high school through college into the job market. Average quantitative SAT score of the school attended is used to determine if the ability of a student¿s peers has a significant effect on how many MSE credits the individual chooses. Evidence presented in this work suggests that this effect is larger for women than for men. Additionally, high school preparation is a stronger determinant of total MSE credits for men than for women, and total MSE credits have different effects for men and women in determining earnings in the first two years following graduation. This book is addressed to researchers and individuals with an interest in higher education and gender differences in education choices.