2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Engineering major selection is one of the most impactful and consequential decisions that students need to make either before entering college or during their first year of studies. It is therefore crucial to include enough information and guidelines regarding different engineering majors in their first-year education. In addition, it is important to understand the factors that impact students’ decisions the most. This will allow for creating an environment where all students have freedom of choice and are not limited by factors such as socioeconomic status, race, gender, and lack of parental encouragement or role models.
The aim of this work is to: 1) Investigate the factors that are most important for students in selecting their engineering major, and 2) Include the information and guidelines necessary for an informed decision in their first-year education. Specifically, this research is conducted in a first-year course titled “Introduction to Engineering”. Data was collected at the beginning of the semester and will be collected again at the end of the semester for comparison through student surveys. There is a total of 126 students in 5 sections of the course. The survey is designed to collect data on both the impacting factors for major selection, and the change in students’ understanding of different majors after taking the “Introduction to Engineering” course. There are a total of 15 questions in the survey (excluding demogrpahics questions). Questions designed to evaluate factors impacting major selection ask students to rate the importance of ten different factors in their decision making process on a Likert scale (1: Not at all important – 5: Extremely important). Some examples of these factors include personal interest, salary level, and opportunity to serve the society. Questions designed to compare students’ understanding of different majors before and after taking the course ask for student definition of their major, as well as the type of jobs they are aiming for after graduation. Some modules included in the course aimed at familiarizing students with engineering majors are: hands-on labs on each major available in the engineering school of this university (Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering, and Computer Science), research and presentation assignments where students study and explain several job titles related to engineering, real-world applications of different engineering majors, and a hands-on final project combining their knowledge on all engineering majors, as well as computer science.
A total of 121 surveys were collected at the beginning of Fall 2023 semester, and surveys will be administered again at the end of the semester. The collected data from student surveys will create a roadmap for the material required in first-year education of engineering students to guide them in their major selection decision and will help the university and the educators create a more inclusive environment and ensure students’ major selection is not negatively impacted by limiting factors outside of their control.