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Inside Higher Education
Decision Time
By Carl Straumsheim
August 24, 2016
Study of tens of thousands of college students finds that those who
were open to change their major were more likely to graduate than those
who decided right away.
The key to graduating in four years (at least in the minds of many
parents) is picking a major early and sticking with it. But a new
report suggests students who change their major as late as senior year
are more likely to graduate from college than students who settle on
one the second they set foot on campus.
The report, published by the Education Advisory Board, a research and
consulting firm based in Washington, D.C., challenges the notion that
changing majors is keeping students in college past their intended
graduation date and driving up their debt. Instead of looking at when
students first declared a major, the EAB's study explored the
connection between students' final declaration and how it affected
their time to degree and graduation rates.
“Maybe the first-choice question is a red herring?” said Ed Venit, a
senior director at the EAB. “Maybe the most important decision is the
final major you choose?”
Most students -- as many as 80 percent in some surveys -- will switch
majors at one point during their time in college. According to the
report, students who made a final decision as late as the fifth term
they were enrolled did not see their time to graduation increase. Even
one-quarter of the students who landed on a final major during senior
year graduated in four years, the EAB found.
Neither did settling on a final major during the second through eighth
terms of enrollment influence students’ graduation rates. Students who
declared a new major during any of those terms posted a graduation rate
of between 82 and 84 percent.
The EAB used data provided by colleges in its Student Success
Collaborative for the study. The collaborative is a membership
organization for colleges and universities that uses data-assisted
research to improve student support, retention and graduation rates.
Ten member institutions of the collaborative supplied at least six
years’ worth of data about more than 78,000 students who either
graduated or left the institution for the study. The colleges were not
named, but the EAB said they were selected to “provide a representative
snapshot of national major declaration trends.” The sample included
both public and private institutions -- all of them on the semester
calendar -- with enrollments ranging from 5,800 to more than 42,000.
The study looked only at students who had accrued 60 or more credits to
avoid including students who dropped out as freshmen or sophomores in
the final data. It also focused on when students settled on a final
major, ignoring any other times they may have switched.
Most colleges have policies in place governing when students need to
declare a major, but few have firm policies saying how many times a
student can switch. The data suggest switching majors can be a positive
experience for students, as opposed to an acknowledgment that they
initially made the wrong decision.
For example, students who never switched majors had a slightly lower
graduation rate than did students who made a switch. While graduation
rates hovered around 83 percent for students who finalized their major
during their second semester or later, students who declared a major
during their first semester in college and stuck with it were four
percentage points less likely to graduate.
The EAB did not explore the reasons behind that gap in this study, but
Venit speculated it could have something to do with students who enroll
in preprofessional programs -- law, medicine, nursing and so on -- but
aren’t admitted and drop out as a result.
Alternatively, Venit said, some students who declare a major as
freshmen may feel obligated to do so -- perhaps because of pressure
from family members -- and end up not graduating.
“They’re pursuing it, and they don’t necessarily feel that they’re in
love with it, but they’re also not sure if they can leave it,” Venit
said. “They’re just making a choice to continue on.”
Students who change their majors, meanwhile, may be responding to their
own changing interests and maturation as they move from being teenagers
to young adults. Like transfer students, who make a decision to move
from one college to another, “the act of major switching itself is a
positive indicator of engagement,” Venit said.
Other than a reminder that “policies that encourage or force students
to make choices early on in their careers may not be doing much to help
students,” the report doesn’t make any policy recommendations to
colleges. Venit said colleges should continue to allow students to
switch majors and instead focus on encouraging the act of exploration
in the first place.
Georgia State University is one institution that does that. The
university is one of several that offers “metamajors,” clusters of
courses in the same general field -- business, humanities or STEM, for
example -- that let undeclared students discover areas of interest
while at the same time giving them a somewhat structured pathway toward
graduation.
The university, which enrolls mostly first-generation students from
low-income backgrounds, used to require students to pick one of its
roughly 90 majors as freshmen. About six years ago, the university
realized students went through about 2.5 majors before they graduated.
“We were not doing a good job of fitting students into the right
major,” said Timothy M. Renick, vice provost and vice president for
enrollment management and student success. “It was overwhelming,
especially for first-generation, low-income students … to try to wade
through these choices and options. In most cases students were making
the wrong choices.”
Now, students choose from one of seven metamajors. A student who wishes
to become an accountant, for example, enrolls in the business
metamajor, and every course that student takes in that metamajor
applies toward graduation. If, down the line, the student decides to
switch from accounting to management, previously earned credits still
count toward that degree, Renick said.
After enrolling in the metamajor (which for some students lasts for one
semester; for others, two semesters plus the preceding summer term),
students then go on to select majors. At that point, “Most freshmen are
prepared to make a much more informed decision,” Renick said, though
they are still free to delay that decision if they remain undecided.
Georgia State has offered metamajors for the past three academic years.
During that time, the university has seen a 32 percent drop in the
number of major changes among its undergraduates, Renick said.
Additionally, students who graduated this spring took on average about
half a semester less time to finish their degree requirements than
students in the class of 2013, he said.
“There’s no value to try to force a student’s hand as they enter the
university,” Renick said. “An ill-informed choice is worse than no
choice at all.”
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