An Analysis of Science High School Graduates’ College Major and Career Choice after College Graduation

Abstract

This study analyzed science high school graduates’ college major and career choice after college graduation using five waves of Graduates Occupational Mobility Survey of Korea Employment Information Service. The findings indicated that 92 percent of 510 science high school graduates chose engineering and natural science major in college, whereas about 3 percent of them chose medical or pharmaceutical school. After college graduation, about 60 percent of science high school graduates entered a graduate school majoring in engineering and natural science, while 45 percent of the comparison group did. This finding confirms science high school graduates are more likely to become advanced engineers and scientists than graduates from general high school. Also, the proportion of science high school graduates who re-entered medical school or entered medical professional school at graduate level was higher than the comparison group. Therefore, about 13 percent of science high school graduates made a career choice in the medical or pharmaceutical field. Finally, we divided science high school graduates’ career choices after college graduation into four categories: engineering or natural science graduate school, medical/pharmaceutical school, other graduate school, and no graduate school, and compared characteristics of each groups, based on which we suggested implications.