One third of college students who entered college to earn their bachelor’s degree changed their major at least once during their college career based on a study done by the National Center for Education Statistics. One-third! That is a massive amount of students that were not 100% certain about finishing the major they started with.

The big question is: why did so many students change their majors?

Possible Reasons

There is no way to know exactly why every single one of the students included in the study above changed their major. We can take a look at the top 5 majors that students changed from to gather clues: Mathematics (52%), Natural Sciences (40%), Education (37%), Humanities (36%), and Engineering (32%). After looking at these majors, these two reasons for why students change major seem very likely:

1. Difficulty

The fields mentioned above may have been too intellectually demanding for the student. Mathematics are notoriously difficult for students. The upper classes of Calculus as well as applied mathematics, focusing heavily on statistics or physics, can be (although they may not be in certain cases) exponentially more challenging than high school courses. The main reason for this is that finding good math teachers is difficult. Another reason for this is the difficulty in achieving the conceptual understanding that is required to do well in these high level courses.

2. Experience

In college, the students are finally introduced to more fields; fields they never knew existed. This may be the reason for many of the major changes. People grow up knowing that they can become a doctor or a lawyer. However, it is not drilled into a young student’s head that he or she can become a character designer for a famous RPG video game. This concept seems far-fetched to most high schoolers. When the students finally take a look at all the different courses and majors available at their university, they may have a change of heart, especially if their interests start to change as they grow into adulthood.

Diving into a Career Path

To further our understanding of the major-change phenomenon, we can take a look at the education required to achieve a degree for one of the majors that were dropped most often: engineering. Most students really don’t understand the full extent of the coursework required and might be surprised by the sheer amount and difficulty of it all. This can be enough to dissuade them from completing the major. Here’s a breakdown of the coursework for engineering:

Example of Prerequisites

Job title: Engineer

High School

Requirements:

Chemistry
Physics
Biology
Algebra
Geometry/Trig
Pre-Calculus
Calculus
Liquid intelligent (for problem solving)
Critical thinking/reasoning skills
Social intelligence (working in groups to solve problems)

College, Bachelor’s Degree from ABET accredited program. Requirements:

Engineering Materials
Analytical Geometry & Calculus
Logical Design & Digital Circuits
Mechanical Engineering Laboratory
Engineering Mathematics
Decision Analysis
Probability and Risk Analysis for Engineers
General Chemistry
General Physics
English Composition
American History
Intro to Psychology
Intro to Sociology

1st Option Post-Bachelor’s Degree: Become a licensed PE (by state) Requirements:

Degree from accredited program
Pass National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying test (3+)
Pass Fundamentals of Engineering Exam (3+) 8 hour test
Work as engineer-in-training or engineer intern for 4 years to get necessary 4 year work experience.
Take PE exam in your discipline (3+) 8 hour test

2nd Option Post-Bachelor’s Degree: Masters of Science in Mechanical Engineering Requirements:

One year college calculus
One quarter differential equations
One quarter linear algebra
Thermodynamics
Heat Transfer
Fluid Dynamics
Materials Laboratory
Manufacturing Processes
Machine Design
Systems, Dynamics, controls
Introduction to Design
Computer Graphics
Introductory programming
Fundamental Material Science
One quarter stat
One quarter mechanics of materials
One quarter dynamics
One quarter circuit theory
Two quarters college chemistry
Three quarters college physics

Median Salary 91,000

Overview and trajectory

Even armed with this information, it is still difficult to tell whether a student will actually finish their degree or change to another one. However, there is a way that we can ensure that the student has the greatest potential to finish their original major: they must like what they do AND be able to perform at a high level.

First, we have to break down what the words “proclivity” and “performance” mean. Proclivity is someone’s tendency to choose a particular subject or field. Performance is how well someone does within that particular subject or field. When a student shows overlapping proclivity and performance that exceed the minimum requirements for a specific career, such as Mechanical Engineering, this entire map of course requirements must be brought to the student and the student’s parents’ attention. Moving backward from the end goal is a perfect way to set the student on the right path. This is also a great way to be proactive and to prepare for the possible speed bumps along the way.

If a student performs well in mathematics but doesn’t feel as confident, it is advantageous for the student to work with a tutor from a young age. This will ensure that there are no changes in major later on when the student is facing upper level calculus courses, for example. It is also a great way for kids to see the bigger picture.

Children don’t like being lied to. Whether the road ahead is difficult or not, they like knowing what the path looks like.

Testing and Analysis

Observation and Automation

Proclivity testing is exciting and easy for the students; it will always come first. A series of questions with vivid pictures and multiple choice answers will be given yearly to a student. These questions will have answers that are directly correlated to the intelligence types (Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences). Each question answered will add one point to the correlating intelligence. If a teacher is very involved, the absolute best way to do this is to explain each of the intelligences and have the students rate them, 1-9.

The Proclivity stat spread should focus on the top 3 intelligences that the child leans towards. On the other hand, Performance charts should be focused on the lowest performance points in each category. This way, when they are laid atop minimum requirements for a job, it will be easy to tell whether a worker will be capable of performing the necessary duties.

The absolute best way to test and assess for either of these charts is to have a very involved set of instructors teaching and observing a very small class. We keep our classes at or below 5 students for this reason. An involved group of instructors should be able to sit down and discuss what the performance levels of each student are. Each instructor can rate the student on a scale of 1-9 for each of the 9 intelligences, and the average score can be used as the grade.

Here is an example of Proclivity vs Performance charts:

Once the student has a complete set of scores for Proclivity and Performance, the overlapping of the two charts will reveal the career choice that the student will have the most success in while remaining happy with what they do for work.

This is invaluable information, especially when we take a look at the amount of people in the workforce that either love what they do but are not good at it, or are great at what they do but don’t like it. Our society would function much more efficiently if we had a workforce that not only loved what they did, but also performed at the highest level.

-Mr. S and Mr. K

Proclivity vs Performance In The World's Job Market