Students are typically given a large amount of freedom to choose the level of "curricular dispersion": the tight focus or lack thereof in the courses they elect to take while in college. There is little evidence about what predicts students' curricular dispersion, whether it affects later college or labor force outcomes, or, in fact, how…

Recent studies have found a large earnings premium to attending a more selective college, but the mechanisms underlying this premium have received little attention and remain unclear. In order to shed light on this question, I develop a multidimensional signaling model relying on college grades and selectivity that rationalizes students' choices…