Asian Indian College Students’ Science and Math Preferences: Influences of Cultural Contexts

Cultural, immigrant, and prejudicial contexts influence minority students’ preferences for college majors and their subsequent career development. Participants were Asian Indian immigrant college students as well as their parents. The early first-generation and late first-generation students were similar to each other in their major preferences; however, both groups had significantly greater preferences for science and math majors than the second-generation students. Parents’ perceived prejudice and preferences for science and math contributed significantly to their second-generation children’s preferences for science and math. Even though second-generation children preferred nonscience majors more than their first-generation parents, the majority reported that their actual majors were in science and math.