Factors influencing students' choice of engineering major

This research focuses upon evaluating decisions mad e by engineering students to choose or change their field of engineering study in order to determine influences and mechanisms that drive their choice of engineering major at the Univ ersity of New Haven (UNH). Socializers (parents, peers, and faculty), self-identified comp etence, and media sources were studied for their level of influence and effect upon the selection of an engineering field. This research also investigates students’ perceptions of different eng ineering majors at the University and their awareness and understanding of those majors. Unders tanding this type of decision and knowledge helps the University’s engineering educat ors in emerging new undergraduate engineering majors or innovative interdisciplinary engineering programs attract and recruit students to these lesser known or understood majors . The long-term goal of this research is to develop a survey instrument that can be used at oth er universities in order to collect generalizeable information of the choice of enginee ring major. This paper presents select quantitative and qualitative results from this stud y. A survey was conducted of 97 voluntary participants from eight undergraduate programs with in e College of Engineering. Some key findings indicate that gender and parental educatio n l achievement levels affect choice of engineering major at UNH. In addition, only 66% of engineering students indicated that they had determined their specific major before visiting pot ential universities during their search. This should indicate to the University’s engineering pro grams that there is significant opportunity to influence student decisions during the recruitment process or during their first and second years of study.