The Truth Behind the Major Selection Process

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The Truth Behind the Major Selection Process

• Students Reflect on Their Journeys

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Assessment Committee

• Kathleen Smith, Ph.D. Brad Brock
• Adrian Husband Michelle Rutherford
• Danyele Martin

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Presentation Content

• Significance of the Issue
• Project Description
• Guided Topics
• Emergent Themes
• Recommendations for Advisors
• Questions

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Significance of the Issue

• Only 8 of new students feel they know a great
  deal about their intended major.
• 75 of all students entering college are actually
  undecided about their academic and career plans
  and at least half are prematurely decided.
• Most college applicants feel pressured to
  indicate major plans despite their lack of
  exposure.

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Significance of the Issue

• Student commitment to educational and career
  goals is the strongest factor associated with
  student persistence to degree completion.
• The number of students who take five or more
  years to graduate from college has doubled since
  the early 1980s.
• College students clearly need support from
  effective academic advisors to negotiate the
  challenging and sometimes confusing process of
  educational planning and decision making.

Cuseo, Joe (2002). Academic Advisement and
Student Retention Empirical Connections and
Systematic Interventions. Policy Center on the
First Year of College On-line. Available
http//www.brevard.edu/fyc/listserv/remarks/cuseore
ntation.htm
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Project Description

• The Florida State University
• Research Questions
• Who are the key players?
• What are the primary factors?
• What campus resources do students utilize?
• What is the role of the advisor?
• What would enhance the advising experience?

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Project Description

• Student Sample
• Tier One
• Email Survey
• Review of Responses
• Tier Two
• Individual Interviews
• Transcription and analysis

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Guided Topics

• Influences
• Reasons
• Student Perceptions
• Campus Resources
• Academic Advising

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Influences

• Peers
• P.R.! Totally! Do something with peoplebut they
  really helped me as my friends cause they were
  honest with me. They told me exactly what I
  should be doing.
• Family
• I think, um, as much as my parents are coming
  around to the idea of me doing basically
  whatever, um, they have anxiety about my future
  also and that passes down to me because Ive
  always been a person who feels a lot what my
  family feels.

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Influences

• Media
• I wanted to be a sports agent, you know, I had
  no interest in sports, just because I saw these
  commercials for Jerry McGuire and thought, Wow!,
  hes got a cell phone, and a fancy car
• High School
• Cause in high school we had an engineering class
  and it really it dealt with a lot of things
  engineers do like working in teams and getting
  together and trying to find the best solution for
  something and I really enjoyed it andthats when
  I decided, you know, I want to go to College and
  become a mechanical engineer

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Reasons

• Finding Your Passion
• Regardless of how long I had to work if it was
  18 hour days or 8 hour days, it doesnt matter.
  I want to love my job.
• Passion is almost, I want to say, parallel to
  love for something because if you dont have
  passion for something, youre not gonna succeed
  in it. I mean, thats true for all majors.
• Opportunities
• Its broad. I could still work in the area and
  not have to do the same thing all the time.

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Reasons

• Abilities
• Ive always been really good at organizing and I
  love organizing things. I was the little girl
  like when we first got cds, mine were in
  alphabetical order. My Barbie dolls were
  organized from tallest to shortest.
• Safety Net
• Id figured Id just do business because it was
  the safest thing
• Exploration
• I didnt like the people in the major. Everyone
  was a diva

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Student Perceptions

• Pressure to Choose vs. Time to Explore
• it just seems like theres a lot of pressure
  from the get go to have a majorbecause its one
  of the first questions that people ask you once
  they meet you, whats your name, what year are
  you, whats your major, and its just sort of
  like this pressure
• Ok, I have plenty of time, Im gonna be here for
  four years. I wasnt rushed.

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Student Perceptions

• Credibility of Major
• I dont talk about my major very much because it
  sounds so artsy and artsy is a BS major just
  because you have this concrete major doesnt mean
  youre gonna have a concrete job.
• Fear Factor
• When I was thinking about declaring a major in
  high school and continuing into college, I had no
  clue because it was such a big process such a
  big decision that would affect my life.

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Campus Resources

• Academic Advising
• Career Center
• He pulled out a bunch of books and was like I
  hope you find what youre looking for because he
  had no idea.
• We discussed in choosing a major what I wanted
  to get out of my major, my future including how
  much time I wanted to spend at work. If I wanted
  to be inside or outside. If I wanted to face a
  computer all day or interact with people. How I
  wanted my family life to be in the future. Do I
  want to be a doctor and never be home? We talked
  about all that stuff

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Campus Resources

• Web Resources
• I went home and started looking at the online
  pages where you have all of the majors and the
  courses you have to take and what careers.
• Campus Representatives
• I have a spiritual advisorand I meet with him
  monthly and we discuss a lot of things and just
  sort of like how I make my decisions.

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Academic Advising

• Developmental Approach to Advising
• Basically, because I feel like if youre
  advising me, and youre scheduling my classes,
  those are, those are two different things. You
  should help me with my decision before you help
  me schedule my classes. Cause theres no point
  in taking the classes if thats not what I want
  to do.
• That was helpful because, you know she was
  pointing to things that werent just classes, she
  was looking at my experience holistically as
  opposed to OK, youre just a person that we have
  to advise, get out the door, here are your
  classes, go for it you know, it was more were
  gonna help you with the whole thing not just the
  classes part.

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Academic Advising

• Fostering the Relationship
• She was really helpful, she gave me her card and
  I was able to call back and email her if I had
  any, you know, little stupid questions like who
  do I need to talk to to get into this classI
  felt like I wasnt bothering her.
• They were very helpful, actually. Uh, they
  talked me through what classes I was gonna be
  taking, and I had the comfort of knowing that
  they were going to help me from then oninstead
  of throwing papers at me and saying good luck.

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Academic Advising

• Knowledge
• So she showed me the classes I could take, and
  even different majors, which I thought was really
  cool that she is so smart, so educated with all
  the different majorsshe gave me all the papers I
  needed too, just so Id have all the information
  when I went home.
• Value the Process
• You know it happened likeit was so fast I
  became a communication major, I left the office
  and thought what just happened?

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Recommendations for Advisors

• Developmental Approach
• Career Knowledge
• Online Presence
• Accessible
• Attitude

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Recommendations for Advisors

• Advocate for the Student
• Encouraging
• Realistic
• Recognizing Your Role

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• The first time I got here, everything felt so
  strange. I walked up to the door of every class
  a week before the classes started because I had
  no clue where I was. And, I only say that
  because thats the way everything else felt.

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For More Information Please Contact Kathleen
Smith at kssmith_at_admin.fsu.edu