Factors in the Selection of a Major by First-Year Engineering Students

Michael Elmore; Koenraad Gieskes; Nicole Alfarano

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Conference: 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Publication Date: August 23, 2022
Start Date: June 26, 2022
End Date: June 29, 2022
Conference Session: First-Year Programs Division Technical Session 6: Admissions, Transfer Pathways, and Major Selection
Page Count: 22
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--40468
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/40468
Download Count: 330

Paper Authors

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Michael Elmore State University of New York at Binghamton

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Mike Elmore is director of and a visiting associate professor in the Engineering Design Division in the Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science at Binghamton University, State University of New York at Binghamton, NY. He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Vermont in Burlington, VT, a M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Syracuse University in Syracuse, NY, and a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Binghamton University. He has worked for Lockheed Martin, IBM, General Electric, BAE Systems, and Celestica Corporation. He has 25 years of experience in these companies designing military and commercial power electronic circuits and as a systems engineer for airborne and land vehicle electrical systems. He is a licensed professional engineer. He also received a B.A in philosophy and a M.Ed. from the University of Vermont. Before becoming an engineer he was a high school mathematics teacher.

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Koenraad Gieskes State University of New York at Binghamton

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Koen Gieskes first joined the Engineering Design Division at Binghamton University as a graduate student in 2004, then, in 2009, he was hired on as a full-time lecturer, and in 2017 he became the Assistant Director. In 2022, Koen began serving as the Interim Director. Mr. Gieskes received both his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Binghamton University. In 2019, Mr. Gieskes received the Chancellor's Award in Teaching.

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Nicole Alfarano State University of New York at Binghamton

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Abstract

Factors in the Selection of a Major by First-Year Engineering Students

This Complete Research paper will investigate how first-year engineering students often are unsure which field of engineering they want to pursue. To track the impact of the first-year engineering program, students at *university* have been asked to complete a two-question survey in the first week of classes regarding their intended engineering major. The two, multiple choice questions are: 1) What is your intended engineering major? And 2) how sure are you of your decision? Responses have shown that about half of the first-year engineering students express some uncertainty in their intended choice of engineering major. They indicate that they are either undecided, very unsure, unsure, or neither sure nor unsure of the strength of their engineering major interest.

Out of programs that offer a combined first-year experience for engineering students, many do not require that students declare their major until the end of the first year or even second year of study. Until recently, *university* students have declared their engineering major at the end of their second semester of study. Now, the declaration of major is done at the end of the first semester, although students are informed that they can still change their selection with no penalty until the start of their second year. The fall semester of engineering courses introduces students to the engineering majors offered at *university*. There are guest lecturers from the engineering departments and industry. And the engineering lectures, laboratories, and student projects represent all the engineering majors. These educational experiences are designed to give students a better understanding of the engineering majors, so that they can make a more informed decision, when they declare their major.

The present study compares the intended engineering major of first-year engineering students in the first week of the fall semester to their actual declaration of major. This study began in the 2015/2016 academic year with an anonymous survey each fall semester. The survey was not anonymous for the first time in the 2020/2021 academic year. The authors wanted to better understand the correlation between the responses in the survey and the students’ eventual choice of major. However, the COVID pandemic resulted in a mostly on-line course experience for first-year engineering students at *university* in the 2020/2021 academic year. In the current 2021/2022 academic year first-year engineering students at *university* are taking classes entirely in-person once again. The questions asked in the present study are “Are there any significant differences between the choices of major between the 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 academic years? And if there are, what might be the factors that influenced those choices?” A follow up non-anonymous survey will be given when students declare their majors at the end of the fall 2021 semester in an attempt to understand what factors might have influenced their decision.

Citation
Format

Elmore, M., & Gieskes, K., & Alfarano, N. (2022, August), Factors in the Selection of a Major by First-Year Engineering Students Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--40468

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Factors in the Selection of a Major by First-Year Engineering Students 


This Complete Research paper will investigate how first-year engineering students often are unsure which field of engineering they want to pursue.  To track the impact of the first-year engineering program, students at *university* have been asked to complete a two-question survey in the first week of classes regarding their intended engineering major. The two, multiple choice questions are: 1) What is your intended engineering major? And 2) how sure are you of your decision? Responses have shown that about half of the first-year engineering students express some uncertainty in their intended choice of engineering major. They indicate that they are either undecided, very unsure, unsure, or neither sure nor unsure of the strength of their engineering major interest.

Out of programs that offer a combined first-year experience for engineering students, many do not require that students declare their major until the end of the first year or even second year of study.  Until recently, *university* students have declared their engineering major at the end of their second semester of study. Now, the declaration of major is done at the end of the first semester, although students are informed that they can still change their selection with no penalty until the start of their second year. The fall semester of engineering courses introduces students to the engineering majors offered at *university*.  There are guest lecturers from the engineering departments and industry. And the engineering lectures, laboratories, and student projects represent all the engineering majors.  These educational experiences are designed to give students a better understanding of the engineering majors, so that they can make a more informed decision, when they declare their major.

The present study compares the intended engineering major of first-year engineering students in the first week of the fall semester to their actual declaration of major.  This study began in the 2015/2016 academic year with an anonymous survey each fall semester.  The survey was not anonymous for the first time in the 2020/2021 academic year. The authors wanted to better understand the correlation between the responses in the survey and the students’ eventual choice of major.  However, the COVID pandemic resulted in a mostly on-line course experience for first-year engineering students at *university* in the 2020/2021 academic year. In the current 2021/2022 academic year first-year engineering students at *university* are taking classes entirely in-person once again. The questions asked in the present study are “Are there any significant differences between the choices of major between the 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 academic years? And if there are, what might be the factors that influenced those choices?” A follow up non-anonymous survey will be given when students declare their majors at the end of the fall 2021 semester in an attempt to understand what factors might have influenced their decision.

AU  - Michael Elmore
AU  - Koenraad Gieskes
AU  - Nicole Alfarano
CY  - Minneapolis, MN
DA  - 2022/08/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Factors in the Selection of a Major by First-Year Engineering Students
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/40468
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--40468
ER  -