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Engineering Freshman Enrollments: Critical and Non‐critical Factors
Author(s) -
Heckel Richard W.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
journal of engineering education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.896
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 2168-9830
pISSN - 1069-4730
DOI - 10.1002/j.2168-9830.1996.tb00202.x
Subject(s) - salary , graduation (instrument) , curriculum , engineering education , unemployment , psychology , medical education , mathematics education , engineering , political science , pedagogy , economics , economic growth , engineering management , medicine , mechanical engineering , law
Freshman enrollment and bachelors degree data over the last three decades for all undergraduates as well as engineering students are analyzed and compared to variations in the numbers of high school graduates. Engineering enrollment data trends are shown to differ significantly from those of undergraduates as a whole and to exhibit little correlation with trends in high school graduation data. Freshman engineering enrollments show a very strong correlation with factors which might indicate to high school students the magnitude of their personal economic gain such as on‐campus industrial interviewing intensity, annual growth in starting salaries and starting salary levels relative to average salaries of all undergraduates. No correlation between engineering freshman enrollments and national economic conditions as measured by the Gross Domestic Product or unemployment was found. Implications of the correlation between freshman enrollments and perceived personal economic reward are considered in terms of strategies for recruiting freshmen, student performance in engineering curricula and trends for the future.