Updating Tertiary Education Expectations and Choices with Learning

I conduct a large-scale analysis on how students revise their educational expectations and change their post-secondary education (PSE) pathways. I find evidence that an important determinant is exposure to unexpected information on the quality of match between their ability and academic difficulty of the program. This relationship is non-linear, and responsive only to unexpected information that signals a mismatch. In Canada about 25% of freshman experience a PSE path disruption, which entails a public and private cost. The findings suggest that policy measures targeting to improve the quality of match through student consultation could be employed to reduce this inefficiency.