In the United States, students have considerable freedom in selecting their university courses, often taking up to half of their coursework outside their major. This flexibility presents an opportunity for strategic decision-making, where students align their choices with both personal interests and career goals.

This project examines the relationship between course choices, skill acquisition, and labor market outcomes. It aims to identify the skills students develop across diverse courses, understand how their aspirations shape educational decisions, and analyze how these choices impact their career trajectories. By modeling students’ decision-making processes, the study seeks to uncover how preferences for grades, skills, and job prospects interact in shaping their human capital accumulation. 

The findings will provide insights into how students navigate the trade-offs between academic enjoyment and labor market value, and how better information or alternative incentives could influence their educational strategies and outcomes.