Factors Affecting First-Year Engineering Students' Choice of Majors

Engineering educational and professional persistence are based on students making an informed selection of an engineering major. The purpose of this study was to explore the engineering major discernment process for First-Year Engineering students. It was hypothesized that students would become more certain of their engineering major selection over the course of their first year. This fully integrated mixed method study utilizes the survey responses of all students in the First-Year Engineering Program during the 2017-2018 school year (500+) in conjunction with the reflections of a subset of those First-Year Engineering students (300+) to qualitatively review students' experiences. Over 50% of the students changed their major from the engineering discipline they initially indicated they planned to pursue over the course of their first year. The certainty level of students with their engineering major selection increased over the course of the school year with over 80% of students indicating an increased level of certainty. The majority of first-year engineering students in the current study changed majors from their initial plans, thus First-Year Engineering programs offer an opportunity for students that do not have significant prior involvements with engineering related experiences to explore their interests without slowing their academic progress and increasing their certainty in engineering. The current study found that: (1) performance outcomes were the most frequently cited factor for selecting engineering, this was true for all students regardless of intended engineering discipline or gender, (2) certainty levels in studying engineering increased for all students, although there were some differences by gender, and (3) the majority of major changes were for students that were initially not as clear on engineering professional pathways, and (4) the majority of students that decided not to continue in engineering initially indicated they were "just trying it out'' and had lower certainty levels to begin with.