Early Academic Experiences of Non-Persisting Engineering Undergraduates

Engineering programs nationwide lose almost half of their undergraduate students during the course of their undergraduate careers. Increasing our understanding of the students who leave engineering (“non-persisters”) is crucial to determine ways to better support engineering undergraduates and increase retention. This study utilizes academic transcripts and interviews collected from the Academic Pathways Study (APS) to understand persisting and non-persisting students from a Suburban Private University (SPri). Data from the APS allow for characterization of the coursework the students take and exploration of their experiences with and reactions to engineering coursework. In particular, differences between experiences of persisters and non-persisters in their first two years of study are compared to identify factors that may strongly influence non-persisters to switch out of engineering. Prior research on the same data set has found that at the onset of their first year, non-persisters are already less intent on finishing an undergraduate major, and they experience a sharp decrease in intrinsic psychological motivation to continue studying engineering after their first year. The current work shows that non-persisters do not take significantly less engineering coursework than their peers during their first year, and students who ultimately choose non-engineeirng majors exhibit a marked decrease in the amount of engineering coursework they take at the beginning of the sophomore year. Students do not differ in grades or confidence in math and science, suggesting that differences in ability may not be a primary reason for switching. Both groups of students appear to undergo the same hardships of curriculum overload due to inflexible and overwhelming course requirements for engineering majors. However, interview data suggest that persisters and non-persisters deal with academic difficulties differently and have varying opinions about the relevance and importance of prerequisite engineering coursework. Furthermore, those who matriculated intent on majoring in engineering but who eventually go on to switch majors report a steady decrease in their intention to complete an engineering major through the course of their first year; this suggests that while these students may be taking the same courses as the persisters, they may be experiencing them in a very different way.