Abstract:

This work has two main objectives: (i) to analyze the process of election of the studies in B.A in Administration and Business and Economics by High School students and to study the main determinant factors and (ii) to observe the academic performance obtained by first-year students of the BA in Business and Administration and the BA in Economics at the university of Murcia for the period 2010-2012. For our first objective we developed a survey in a representative sample of 600 High School students in order to capture the main relevant factors. Through the use of discrete choice models, we found that this decision is determined by some relevant factors such as the education of the parents, marks in mathematics and economics, nationality of the parents and valuation of the topics of mathematics and economics.
For our second objectivie we focus in the results obtained in the topics of Economics, Statistics and Mathematics. In the sample considered, some students have completed the Bachelor of Humanities and Social Sciences while others come from the Scientific-Technical High School. We observe differences in the academic results obtained in the topics trying to determine which factors determine the success rate. To this end, we use the results of a survey to first-year students in order to collect some relevant information.

Keywords:

Academic performance, pre-university determinants, quantile regressions, selection biases.