Abstract: A questionnaire survey of the liberal arts students at Beihang University shows that students' major choice is affected by career prospects, personal interest, specialties and interpersonal relations. The career prospects of students play a key role in their decision, and the other three factors are relatively weak. The female respondents put a greater emphasis on career prospects. The students with lower family income are more concerned with career prospects than those with higher family income. In order to improve the rationality of the students' behavior, the university should strengthen the cultivation of personal interest, which can also help to ease the contradiction between free choice and the lack of teaching resources.