How I Became IS: Understanding the Major Decision

For over a decade, the IS discipline has been struggling to increase student enrollment. The enrollment problem is exacerbated by the fact that females/minorities are graduating college in increasing numbers and the IS discipline has historically attracted white males. This study assesses the effectiveness of the many enrollment interventions recommended in the IS literature by reporting on how and why students, who have been exposed to a plethora of enrollment interventions during their college career, become IS majors. Addressing the differences between white males and females/minorities, this study provides rich and contextual insight to the IS enrollment literature and finds that IS programs need to emphasize that students do not need a technical background to become IS majors and to promote IS as a second choice for students struggling in degree programs like computer science that do require a technical background. IS programs seeking to implement enrollment interventions into their curriculum will benefit from this study.

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