What this author curiously does not show any interest in explaining is that the university where he does his study also offers first-year writing and communication courses at 7:30. They do this because they don't have the classroom space to start everyone after 9am.

Also the metric being STEM majors and future earnings (by major) seems kinda whack. Do think everyone who wants to go into STEM should get a fair shot. But imagine reframing this as "Giving students early morning classes produces more humanities majors bc they learn what they really care about."