Abstract
Although a third of STEM-intending freshmen leave the STEM fields and graduate in a non-STEM major, the size of the STEM graduating cohort is larger than the freshmen STEM cohort in two cohorts of bachelor’s degree graduates—one graduating in 2009 and the other in 2017. This study analyzes a nationally representative, longitudinal survey of four-year college students to examine freshman-to-bachelor’s degree pathways. Within these two cohorts of STEM bachelor’s graduates, a large share of students did not initially declare a STEM major; just under a 20% of “late declarants” in STEM first begin as non-STEM majors. Rather than a “leaking pipeline,” STEM disciplines appear to be a two-way street with many students attracted into STEM fields during college. The findings of STEM bidirectional flows suggests that the dominant focus on STEM retention should be broadened to consider STEM “attraction” during college, since a large share of STEM graduates begin college as non-STEM and undeclared majors. A more focused STEM strategy requires more detailed understanding of the flow dynamics. Late entrants into STEM are often overlooked in research, theory, programs and policy because of prior research that focused only on attrition.