Students with lower grades earn degrees more often when they belong to an academic major's majority group

A recent study published in Nature Human Behaviour reveals that students with lower pre-college grades and test scores are more likely to earn degrees in majors dominated by a different demographic group than their own. Specifically, straight cisgender men with lower academic performance are overrepresented in male-dominated fields such as engineering, computer science, and business.

This trend is less pronounced among students with higher academic achievement, with gaps narrowing among the top performers. Conversely, LGBTQ+ individuals tend to be underrepresented in fields that are majority male. The study, which analyzed two large, nationally representative datasets collected by the U.S. Department of Education, found that these disparities tend to be more pronounced among students with lower academic performance.

The researchers suggest that this may be due to social norms and institutional environments that subtly favor the majority demographic in these fields. They caution that while the study is correlational and cannot establish causation, it highlights a missed opportunity if talented students are leaving or never entering fields where they could excel and contribute based on factors unrelated to their preparation or interest.