ABSTRACT
The National Longitudinal Study contains a nationally representative sample of students who were high school seniors in 1972 (Hilton & Rhett, 1973). These students were followed longitudinally at regular 2-year intervals until 1979. Only those students with data at all five time points were selected for the study described in this chapter, resulting in a sample of 12,964. With this sample, the proportion of the high-school senior cohort of 1972 who expressed interest in majoring in mathematics, science, and engineering or who actually chose such majors in college and/or graduate school could be determined at five time points:
• Senior year of high school. • First college entered, within 2 years of high school graduation. • Junior year of college. • College graduation (BS or BA degree). • Graduate school.
