W. Rodman Snelling
Tatnall School Wilmington, Delaware 19800 and Robert Boruch American Council on Education I DuPont Circle Washington, D.C. 20036
1
Factors Influencing Student Choice of College and Course of Study 1
Influences on a student's decision to choose a particular college or course of study have been popular topics of research for many educators. Most of the recent research ( I , $ ) has evolved from rather large samples of college students, from university and 4-yr college environments. The generalized information derived from such studies has been quite helpful to administrators, educators, and counselors in secondary and higher education environments. More specific data, conditional on particular curricula and type of college has usually been minimal, however. Except in the case of periodic research reports (such as Creager (3)) the variations in determinants of curriculum and collcgc choice as a function of major discipline and of college type have not been well document,ed. The lack of information on age at which vocational decisions are made is also evident for st,udents in the sciences. A purpose of the current report is to ameliorate part of this problem by furnishing relevant information on a specific subsample of the college population. More specifically, this report contains descriptions of some temporal and behavioral aspects of the liberal arts science graduates' decisions to enter the sciences, and to choose the liberal arts college. When do students form vocational judgments about entering the sciences? At what stage of his education is the choice of a specific scientific field made? What do graduates perceive as major influences i n determining such choices? Responses to these and ot,her inquiries were provided by science graduates of high-quality institutions. The dat,a are important insofar as career and curriculum guidance may have a differentialimpact on the student's development, depending on the time and the source of counseling. If, for example, decisions about major studics are made during early high school years, then later general counseling may be ineffectual. Or, if some forms of counseling appear to be most important in the science graduates' choices, perhaps less professional investment in other methods is desirable. The data mag also be of some use in predicting enrollments of science departments and in longer range manpower studies. Coupled with information on actual graduation and post-graduate performance, one can facilitate more accurate and more precise forecasts of scientific personnel availability. Data furnished here provide a basis upon which more elaborate studies can be developed. This brief paper is a condensation of two chapters of s manoscript nearing completion for puhlieat,ion by the Research Corporation. The ukimate publication constitutes a study, initiated in mid-1967, directed to the productivity in the sciences of a selected group of 49 primarily four-year undergraduate liberal arts colleges.
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/ Journal o f Chemical
Educofion
The Sample:
A Brief Description
The Research Corporation study (4) is restrict,ed to consideration of five categories of graduates from 49 colleges: biology, pre-medicine, chemistry, mathematics, and physics. Data for this report were extracted from responses to a six-page quest,ionnaire completed by 16,395 science majors who graduated during 1958-67. The questionnaire completion rate comprises 79y0 of the individuals to whom inquiries were sent. Other demographic attributes, such as number of graduates wit,hin various categories, are included in tabulated data of this report. The institutional sample consist,^ of only private fouryear liberal arts colleges of acknowledged high quality. College selectivity during 1 9 5 8 4 7 has been consistently high as evidenced by average Scholastic Aptitude Tests scores of the most recent class: G48 (Quantitative S.A.T.), 601 (verbal S.A.T.). The majority of institutions also have high expenditures-to-student ratios, an index which is also highly correlated with selectivity. In tcrms of product,ivity of graduate school candidates, the colleges also excel. Forty-eight per cent of all graduates during 19;28-67 have received at least one advanced degree. A notable ratio have published books and scientific articles. These colleges, then, are members of the most affluent strata of the total institutional population. (See Creager, et al., (3) for a description of criteria useful in evaluating institutional affluence and selectivity.) Comparisons between this group of colleges and other institutional samples should, of course, include consideration of these factors. I n addition to the limitat,ions implied by the unique sample of colleges, the survey questionnaire itself also imposes restriction on interpretation. Responses to the questionnaire are, in effect, retrospective reports of the graduates. To the extent that these reports are not biased systematically in one direction rather than another, the data reflect an accurate description of the phenomena or situation under scrutiny. Curriculum Choice
Tables 1 through 6 contain statistical data on temporal characteristics of the graduates' decisions to enter the sciences and their particular field of study. We shall assume that the integrity of the retrospective information provided by graduates is consistent for all graduating classes from 1958 to 1967. Consider, first, the decision to enter the sciences as a career (Table 1). Interestingly, from 42-SOTo of graduates acknowledged that a decision to make science their major field of interest was made prior to the ninth grade. From the longitudinal data, it is evident that
Table 1.
Grade Level at Which Science Was Chosen to Be Major Field of Interest (Percentages)
NO reaponse Prior to Grade 9 Grade S Grade I 0 Grade 11 Grade 12 C o l l e g e l a t year C o l l e c e Z n d year Colicgr-3rd year C o l l e g e 4 t l l year C o l l e g e M l r year C o l l r s e 6 t h year Invalida
o Invalid responses i n this t ~ b l eand in succeeding mesentations inolude erroneous or inconsistent questionnaire reamnses.
earlier decisions on choice of a major study area are increasing. The rise may be related to the increasing emphasis on vocational counseling in the primary and secondary schools during recent years, and perhaps also to increasing societal pressures on the student who is ambivalent about his choice of career. I n any event, the importance of the grade school years in shaping career choice for the science majors appears to be paramount. One might expect differences in the age at which groups of students make vocational decisions to depend, in part, on the specific category of interest. For the graduates within biology, chemistry, etc., one can conjecture that such decisions are functionally dependent on this familiarity and interest in the specific substantive area. Insofar as expertise or acquaintance with chemistry and physics is likely to be delayed (by comparison to biology, for example), then later decisions to enter the sciences may be more typical for these groups. Table 2.
Grade Level at Which Science Was Chosen to Be Major Field of Interest (Percentages) Biology Chemiatw
N =
,5996
N =
51fi2
Math N = RRRR
Physics N = 2045
Pre-Med N = 1329
I n fact, Table 2 cont,ains information which suggests that any trend in the proposed direction is in a direction opposite to the one suggested above. Nearly 50% of chemistry, physics, and pre-medical students decided to enter the sciences during theirfirst8 yrof education, while 42% of mathematics and biology majors made their choices during this same period-somewhat less frequently. Evidence of the high school course work influence is apparent in that 200jo of those in biology chose science at the tenth grade level, a traditional year for introducing biology to the high school student. Across all disciplines, less than 10% of the graduates indicated that a scientific field of interest was adopted during their college gears. More biologists made such deci-
sions during this period (10%) than graduates in other disciplines. Physicists appeared to be the earliest to make a choice, only 5% having decided upon science during 4 or more years of college. Anecdotal information on men's and women's decisions to enter particular careers usually carries the implication that decisions are made earlier in life by men. When the current data are classified by type of undergraduate institution, it is evident t.hat sex differences are not very large. More women (graduates of coed or women's colleges) made their decisions later than men. The largest differential occurs between the graduates of the women's and the men's colleges. Ten per cent of the women acknowledged a decision during their college years and about 6% of graduates of the men's colleges did so. Men and women from the coed colleges are more homogeneous insofar as 6y0 and 7.5%, respectively, made this decision while at college. Choice of Major Discipline
Although the choice of sciences as a field of study occurs rather early in the student's development, specifying a major study area was delayed, as one may expect, for a majority of graduates (Table 3). About Table 3.
Grade Level Final Major Was Selected (Percentages)
No Response
Prior to Grade 9 Grade 9 Grade 10 Grade 11 Glade 12 Colleee-1st year Coliepe-2nd year C o l i e z e 3 r d year C o l l r s e 4 t h year C o i l ? g e S t h year Colleee-Gti> year Inialld
58% made such a decision while a t college and only 5% acknowledged selection of their major prior to the nint,h grade. The information is fairly consistent for each graduating class of 195847. No pronounced tendency for more recent graduating classes to make earlier decisions is evident. Female graduates of the coed colleges and men from coed or men's colleges are most alike insofar as they selected major fields a t approximately the same time. Graduates of the women's colleges delayed their preferences somewhat-nearly 31% choosing a major during the first year of college work. Across major field categories differences are not suhstant.ial. Fre-medical students made their decisions earlier than other groups; 14y0 selected dheir major interest prior to the ninth grade. Somewhat less t,han 4y0 of physics, chemistry, and mathematics graduates admitted that a selection had been made this early. The largest percentage of those choosing a major during the college years occurred in the mathematics group (65%). Nearly 10yo less of the othergraduat,eschose a major during this period. Degree Aspirations
A slight trend toward earlier development of degree aspirations is evident from Table 4. The majority of Volume 47, Number 5, May 1970
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327
Table 4. Grade Level Highest Degree to Be Sought Was ldentified
No Response 6 . 0 4.6 5 . 8 PriortoOrade9 6 . 3 6.4 8 . 0 Orade 9 2 . 4 2.2 1.8 Grade 10 2 . 5 2.6 3 . 0 Grade 11 2 . 4 3.2 3 . 0 Orade 1 2 5.6 4 . 9 6 . 5 Colleeo-lstyear 6.1 6.7 4 . 3 C o l l e g e 2 n d year 7 . 2 6.3 6 . 0 C o l l e g e 3 r d y e a r 11.8 1 0 . 8 1 1 . 2 C o l l e g e 4 t h y e a r 27.0 27.7 27.5 Collc.e5thyear 10.0 1 2 . 4 1 2 . 4 C o I i ~ ~ c G year th 1 2 . 7 1 2 . 2 10.4 Invslid 0.1 0.0 0.1
6.4 7.8
Determinants in Choice of the Liberal Arts College
5.0 4 . 9 5.5 5.8 6.3 7 . 8 8 . 4 7 . 9 6 . 5 8.310.3 2.0 1.7 1.7 2 . 0 2.5 2.3 2 . 4 3.2 3.3 3 . 4 3 . 7 4.3 4 . 6 2.7 3 . 0 2 . 6 3 . 4 4.1 3 . 9 4 . 5 5.2 3.8 4 . 4 5 . 2 5 . 7 5 . 6 5.0 6 . 8 4 . 7 6 . 8 5.6 6 . 5 5.9 6.6 6 . 5 7.2 7.8 8 . 4 8 . 2 9.0 8.7 1 2 . 2 12.3 12.7 12.4 15.1 1 2 . 4 15.1 27.6 27.0 28.5 27.4 25.2 27.1 24.7 10.6 1 2 . 1 11.0 11.1 8 . 9 8.9 9 . 2 10.5 11.7 9 . 0 8 . 3 8 . 6 6 . 5 2 . 7 0.0 0 . 1 0 . 0 0 . 2 0 . 1 0.0 0.0 5.3
1.6
Table 5. Grade Level Highest Degree to Be Sought Was ldentified
N
Male Male Cod Colleces = 7993 N = 3550
Female Coed. 3152
Female Colleees N = 1700
No response
Prior t o Orade 9 Grade 9 Grade 10 Glade 11 Grsde 1 2 C o l l e g e l s t year College-2nd year College-3rd Coll~pe-4th College-it11 Colleee-6ti~
yea year
year gem
Invalid
Table 6. Grade Level Highest Degree to Be Sought Was ldentified R i o i o ~ yChemistry
N =
5996
N = 3362
Math
N =
3666.
Phyaics N = 2045
PreMed N = 1329
No Response Prior to Grade 9 Orade 9 Glade 10 Grade 11 Grade 1 2 C o l i e e c l s t year Collese-2nd year Collo~e-3rd year Coiiege-4th year C o l l e p e 5 t l l year Colle~e-6th year
Invalid
graduates elected to pursue a specific degree during their college years. Within the college period, the fourth year was an import,ant period for deciding on the highest degree to bc sought for the majority of graduates. Women generally postponed a choice until their fourth year of college more frequently than men did (Table 5). Female graduates of both women's colleges and the coed schools are similar in this regard. Slightly more than one-fifth of the men acknowledged the fourth year as a decision point, and proportionately more men decided on the highest degree to be sought during the preceding years including the grade school period. Across major field categories, pre-medical graduates acknowledged early decisions on degree aspirations more frequently than other groups (Table 6). The choice, of course, is compounded with their decision to enroll in a pre-medical program. Mathematics and physics graduat,es made fewer decisions, relative to other science groups, early in their education. Eleven and 15% of these graduates in the respective categories picked thcir level of educational aspiration during the pre-college period. More than one-fifth of the biology and chemistry g r a d ~ a t ~did e s so. 328
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Journal of Chemical Educafion
One can hypothesize a wide variety of influences which determine a student's attending a liberal arts institution. What attributes are most appealing to the students who choose this type of environment? Which features are acknowledged by graduates to have been no influence a t all? These and other questions are considered in this section. The basic data on "strongly influential" factors in choosing the liberal arts college are given in Table 7, classified according to the undergraduate major field of study. One might expect that institutional size, coupled with direct implications of this characteristic of liberal arts colleges, are important determinants in choice of the collegc. Indeed, this is the case. Small classes, close faculty-student ties and a small (total) number of enrolled st,udents are acknowledged by a majorityof graduates t,o be stronginfluences. Roughly, GO-SOYo of graduates from any of the major curriculum categories affirm the importances of the more intimate environment,^. Comparing across groups, it is evident that physicists are somewhat less likely to choose a college on the basis of size factors. A smaller number of respondents also indicated that other functional attributes of the liberal arts college were very important. Generalized background and flexibility provided in the liberal arts curriculum and the quality of students and facilities are only a bit less frequently cited as being important in choosing the college. From 4.5555% of st,udent,sin each of the science categories admitted thc influential character of such features. Quality of the students a t the college impressed Table 7. Major Influences Leading to Decision to Enter Liberal Arts College
biology and pre-medical graduates more frequently than the other science groups. Pre-medical students were much more likely to have been influenced by the college reputation in math or science. Some of the factors which influenced a minovity of graduates are interesting. The reputation of the college in mat,hcmaties and sciences was said to be strong influence for less than one-fourth of graduates within all, major fields except medicine. I n the latter category, about half the graduates provided affirmat,ive responses. Impressions of the science facilities are important for still fewer graduates; less than 209& of respondents indicated that this is a major influence. Factors which influence relatively small but equal lumbers of respondents are: proximity of t.he college t o the student,'s home, the fact t,hat relatives had att,ended the college or that. admission was assured, and the impact. of the college admissions staff. From 5 t o 10% of respondents affirmed the importance of these. Of the standard types of guidance counseling available for choosing a college (high school counselor, science teacher, and parents), the high school teacher was designated by the fewest number of graduates as having exerted a strong influence. Parents arc only a bit more likely than counselors to have a strong impact. Consider now the possibility that t,he major influences in choosing a liberal arts college int,eract with the various college categories. It is plausible to expect influences to differ, depending on whet,her the respondent is a graduate of a coed, men's or women's college. Women may be attracted t,o an institution for reasons different from t,hose given by men. Sex differentials for the general collcge population are also apparent in the extent t o which family, teacher, etc., influence decisions to enter college (3). Table 8 provides information on this aspect of the college choice situat,iou. The women from coed or women's college more frequent,ly cite the flexibility and the broad background provided in the liberal arts as strong influences in t,heir Table 8.
Maior Influences Leading to Decision to Enter Liberol Arts College Female Female Male Male College College Coed Cued N = 7993 N = 8550 N = 3152 N = 1700
Impressed by science iaoiiities ~ ~ o m o t i ooni slumni opposite sex oioae at hand Reoomlnendation \ h i solmoo1 mlln~el~r Recommendation l,y llieli rel~uulreienee tesoher Psrenls >\-*"telllii1eraI arts college Inflaenro o l admissions ltellty eoi;ece
oi
~ l l l d e n t sin tile
lnflurnce o i ohimh
choice. They are more likely t o be influenced by t.heir parents than are the men in this sample. On the other hand, men acknowledged the impact of t,he college's reputation in math and science, and the science facilities more frequently. Also, men appear'to be a bit more likely to be influenced by an assured college admission, scholarship aid, and promotion of the college by alumni. Small classes, close faculty ties, a small student bodv, and the fact that relatives attended the college are all influential to about the same extent across all group categories. Some differences between affirmative response rates associated with coed colleges and other groups are evident. Graduat,es of women's colleges indicated more frequently than other groups that this impression of college facilit,ies, parental advice, quality of students a t the college and fiexihilit,y of the curriculum were irnp o h n t determinants of their college choice. Respondents in this sample also provided information on factors which they perceived as deterrents in their choice. The presumption, of course, must be t,hat these negative aspects were not substantial enough to warrant choice of another type of college or attrition prior to graduation. In fact, few graduat,es admitted any negative impact of the factors considered above. The largest single category of response was the proximity of the college to home but here the data allo~vno unambiguous inferences. Between 5 and 7% said that the college was too close and from 6 to 8% suggested that the distance was too far. The proportion of graduates acknowledging other deterring factors was negligible (much less than 3% for all t,he factors considered). Summary and Discussion
From the information presented earlier, it is apparent t.hat nearly half the graduates decided during their primary school years to pumue interest in the sciences. Choice of a specific major area was late by comparison, occurring for most students while they were a t college. RTost graduates acknowledged that a preference for highest degree to be sought was developed during their college experience and especially during the senior year. A definite trend toward earlier decisions to emphasize study of the sciences is evident. There is small tendency for more frequent early choices of major discipline and of degree expectat,ions. Conditional on such information it appears that rather generalized vocational counseling may be most effectual during the primary school years. This sort of functional advice is probably fulfilled largely by parents, and possibly by teachers already. The magnitude of t,he parental influence, however, is not estimable from these data. More specific t,ypes of counseling may be most) effectual later in the st,udentlsdevelopment, during t,he high school and college years. The wide variation in exact t,ime for specific and generalized decision making imply the importance of appreciating individual differences in student abilities and experience in this context. Intergroup differences are not substantial, but graduates of the women's colleges appear to delay most frequently in choosing science as a major field of interest, a specific major course of study and the highest degree to be sought. Across major field categories, physics and Volume 47, Number 5, May 1970
/ 329
mathematics graduates appear t o make choices somewhat later than other groups. Premedical school graduates most frequently affirm decisions of this sort a t a goungcr age. I11 view of data on choice of a liberal arts college - it is apparent t,hat the strongly influential factors for st,udent,sare related to size of the student body and concurrent class size and faculty student relations. A secondary grouping of major influences includes the scicnce or math reputation and facilities of the college. Influence of traditional personal guidance (teachers, counselors, parent,^), forms a third ranking group with some discernible impact on student behavior. According to thc great majority of graduates, no single factor produced a substantial negative influence on their decision t,o enter the college. Insofar as the relative importance of these influenccs applies also to the more current prospective students, it would appear that college representatives can use this type of information effectively in recruitment. Providing t,he st,udent (and his parent,^, teachers, etc.) with descript,ion of the benefit.^ associated wit,ll the smaller liberal arts inst,itutiou is, of course, not very unique but it appears to he essential for most students. I t appears,
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/
Journal of Chemical Education
also, that the influencc of teachers and counselors may be rather low because this potent,ial source of support has not been utilized fully. Particularly appealing features of t,he college also differ depending on the sex of the student. Insofar as the opposite sex is close a t hand, there is additional incentive for womeu a t the coed liberal arts colleges, hut, this same characteristic is not so important to the men considering enrollment,. Parent,xl influence is also more frequently effective in the case of women. Such informat,ion can be usefully considered by the student,, his parents and the college recruiter in dekrmining a reasonable choice of the college, and in recognizing the factors inherent in making the decision. Literalure Cited (1) AUSTIN.A.
(2) (3) (4)
(5)
W..A N D PANOS.R. .I. "The . Educational and Vocational Development o i College Students." Washington: American Council on Eduostion. 1969. D ~ v l s ,S. A,. "Under~raduate Career Deoisions," Chicago. Aldine publish in^ ComPmy. 1965. C n s ~ a ~ J. n ,A,, A u ~ N A. , W.. BORUCMR. F., AND DATER,A. E., "National Norms for Enterin. Collere Freshmen-Fsil 1968," A C E Research Rep0718. 1.3 (1968). Research Corporation Quarterly Dulletin. "Liberal Arts Soience Study Analysis Uoder,yay." Spring. 1969. P. 1-2. Snellinp, W. R., The Impact o i a Personalized Mail Questionnaire." Journal of Edueoliond Research. 63, [31. 126 (1969).
