Does Your Major Reflect Your Smarts?

GRE scores

Like business, students targeting social sciences have also improved dramatically over the past decade. Wai shares two hypotheses on this. First, the SAT removed psychology (a 496 average) from social sciences (557.5 without psychology). He also believes school choice plays a part. “My hypothesis is that the higher average for social sciences is due in part to the fact that schools who select students with the highest test scores—such as Harvard University, Columbia University, Stanford University, University of Chicago, and Washington University in St. Louis—have “social sciences” as their most popular major according to data from US News.”

RELATIVELY CONSISTENT OVER FIVE DECADES

Wai also cited three other studies to bolster his case. From the 1970s, he refers to Project Talent, where a random sample of 400,000 high school students were tested on math, verbal and spatial aptitudes, with a follow up conducted 11 years later to evaluate their educational and career performance. Like before, students who entered engineering, physical sciences, and mathematics showed the highest abilities and academic achievement (though biological science students slipped below humanities and social sciences in this studies). As before, education majors graded out the worst. Despite finishing next-to-last overall, likely business majors actually outperformed students leaning towards arts, social sciences, humanities, and biological sciences when the sample was segmented to masters degrees.

From the 1950s, Wai refers to the Selective Service College Qualification Test (SSCQT), a 150 item test given to 38,420 college seniors. Here, physical sciences and engineering tied for the top spot, with education again alone at the bottom (and business in the bottom third). From the 1940s, Wai points to the Army General Classification Test (AGCT), taken by 10,000 U.S. college graduates in the 1946. Again, physical sciences and engineering majors landed the top spot, with educators (again) at the bottom.

So what’s behind all this? Despite an influx of women and minorities into higher education over the past 50 years, the results have remained relatively consistent. Mind you, Wai is careful to note that this data “looks only at group averages and does not speak to the aptitude of specific individuals.” However, he points out that this data has repercussions. For example, a recent survey from PayScale found that business majors and teachers were among those most likely to be underemployed. Similarly, Wai alludes to PayScales’s college salary report, which showed that STEM majors, as a whole, earn more than other academic disciplines.

And that may stem (excuse the pun) from a bedrock business principle: supply-and-demand. “That STEM majors have consistently had the highest average academic aptitude may also reflect the fact that STEM disciplines are highly complex and require such aptitude,” Wai writes. “Perhaps the STEM disciplines have always selected on academic aptitude and employers have rewarded that aptitude and skillset due to STEM’s usefulness in a variety of fields.”

DON’T MISS: THE BEST SCHOOLS FOR SALARY POTENTIAL or THE SCHOOLS WITH THE HIGHEST SALARY POTENTIAL FOR BUSINESS MAJORS

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