Background Literature.

According to the Journal of Education for Business, the primary determinant of major choice lies within the seemingly obvious answer: students’ interests. However, it was found that sex is the most prevailing influence in major choice; surpassing the impact of race and ethnicity. Male students were observed to be more heavily driven by potential career opportunities as opposed to female students who were more influenced by their aptitude in a particular field. This source highlighted an increased liklihood for female students to switch from STEM majors in comparison to men. In the Journal of Family and Economic Issues, gender disparity was also seen in how parental occupation and socioeconomic status influenced students’ decisions. This study finds that female students are more heavily influenced by the occupation of their fathers, while male students are more influenced by their mothers (when examining parents in professional occupations). It was also found that high socioeconomic status seemingly influences male students to major in business with the opposite being true for female students of similar socioeconomic status. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science found disparity of major choice to also be dependent on citizenship, with foreign students having a tendency to choose STEM majors in comparison to domestic students whose propensity to choose STEM majors was more heavily influenced by gender and race.The author also observed a ideological shift overtime among international students decreasingly opting for high return majors. 

In regards to career outcomes, the journal of Research in Higher Education suggests positive career outcomes associated with individuals who have an occupation closely related to their college major, such as a better income profile and greater job satisfaction. It was found that African Americans, Native Americans, and Hispanics has a higher likelihood of choosing non-major related career paths than their White and Asian counterparts. However, there is a higher rates of dissatisfaction associated with this choice. Additionally, minority groups were also found in lower wage-potential majors. College graduates who hold part time jobs were also found to be more likely to choose non-major related fields.

Analysis on College Major and Income

First Let’s get a breakdown on the highest and lowest earning college majors based on the GSS dataseta.

Here are the majors with the 5 Highest Average Incomes with more than 75 entries

major1	Average_Income
ACCOUNTING/BOOKKEEPING	24193.40
EDUCATION	24386.67
ENGINEERING	24173.85
MARKETING	24326.67
NURSING	24150.30

Here are the majors with the 5 Lowest Average Incomes with more than 75 entries

major1	Average_Income
.Y: NOT AVAILABLE IN THIS YEAR	20938.80
ART	22529.41
ENGLISH	23372.83
HEALTH	23286.80
LIBERAL ARTS	22814.10

Now here is a plot of the top 5 majors over time.

Some interesting takeaways from this graph are marketing and engineering has seen a rise over the years of 2012 to 2022 in the average income, while some of the high earning majors have seen major fluctuations, such as marketing and nursing.

Analysis on College Major, Gender, Race, and Income

Now lets get a breakdown of these top and bottom college majors by Income (or stability) by race and gender. First by showing the breakdown of gender by the highest and lowest income majors.

## Selecting by Average_Income

major1	sex	Count	Total	Percentage
ACCOUNTING/BOOKKEEPING	FEMALE	135	1711	7.890123
ACCOUNTING/BOOKKEEPING	MALE	93	1711	5.435418
EDUCATION	FEMALE	512	1711	29.924021
EDUCATION	MALE	142	1711	8.299240
ENGINEERING	FEMALE	59	1711	3.448276
ENGINEERING	MALE	319	1711	18.644068
MARKETING	FEMALE	50	1711	2.922268
MARKETING	MALE	33	1711	1.928697
NURSING	FEMALE	334	1711	19.520748
NURSING	MALE	34	1711	1.987142

## Selecting by Average_Income

## Saving 7 x 5 in image

As shown in the chart above, women actually take up the majority of most of the majors, except for engineering.

## Saving 7 x 5 in image

As shown in the chart above, women take up the majority of percentage of all of the lowest earning the majors.

## Selecting by Average_Income

We can see that white people take up the majority percentage in all of highest earning major.

White people also seem to take up the majority of space in lowest earning majors as well.

Financial Satisfaction

From these two charts, we can see that people in higher earning majors seem to have higher satisfaction with their financial situation than those in lower earning ones.