Zurn-Birkhimer, S., & Fredette, E. (2019, June), Understanding How Female Students Navigate through Undergraduate Engineering Programs via an Examination of Their Intended and Declared Majors   Paper presented at 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Tampa, Florida. 10.18260/1-2--33478

\bibitem{asee_peer_33478}
  Zurn-Birkhimer, S., \& Fredette, E. (2019, June), \emph{Understanding How Female Students Navigate through Undergraduate Engineering Programs via an Examination of Their Intended and Declared Majors }
  Paper presented at 2019 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition , Tampa, Florida.
  10.18260/1-2--33478

Suzanne Zurn-Birkhimer and Emily Fredette.  "Understanding How Female Students Navigate through Undergraduate Engineering Programs via an Examination of Their Intended and Declared Majors ".  2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Tampa, Florida, 2019, June.  ASEE Conferences, 2019.  https://strategy.asee.org/33478 Internet.  08 Jun, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_33478}
  Suzanne Zurn-Birkhimer and Emily Fredette.
  "Understanding How Female Students Navigate through Undergraduate Engineering Programs via an Examination of Their Intended and Declared Majors ".
  \emph{2019 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition , Tampa, Florida, 2019, June}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2019.
  https://strategy.asee.org/33478 Internet.  08 Jun, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_33478
author = "Suzanne Zurn-Birkhimer and Emily Fredette"
title = "Understanding How Female Students Navigate through Undergraduate Engineering Programs via an Examination of Their Intended and Declared Majors "
booktitle = "2019 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition "
year = "2019"
month = "June"
address = "Tampa, Florida"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://strategy.asee.org/33478}
number = {10.18260/1-2--33478}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Some engineering students find choosing a discipline to study in college a challenge while others seem to have a clear cut path toward their degree. How strongly students believe they are in the right major will affect their perceived ability to succeed, and the likelihood they will stay in engineering. Students may be introduced to engineering majors in high school or early college, and proper introductions can help students make informed choices on their chosen majors, but if students do not receive timely and appropriate introductions to majors, they may find themselves in the ‘wrong’ major, with respect to their interests or goals. Students feel pressure to choose the ‘right’ major very early in their academic career, due to possible negative consequences of switching.

Prior research with the MIDFIELD database has done a thorough job of examining how engineering students navigate to their degrees by studying major pipeline, pathways, and most recently ecosystems. This study, however, drills down to a specific cohort of students - female students in their first semester of a First-Year Engineering (FYE) program. It has been estimated that roughly one-half of these students enter into a major their sophomore year different from what they initially planned at the beginning of their freshman year. This longitudinal study examines the intended and declared majors of five cohorts of female students as they progressed through FYE, into an engineering discipline, and finally to their earned bachelor degree. Two types of students: Dedicated and Unsure, and three categories of majors: Confident, Middle Ground, and Unknown have been identified and defined. Results will be used to better understand the ‘major pathway’ that female students take through engineering and to develop timely and impactful interventions to aid student as they come to decision points along their pathways.

AU  - Suzanne Zurn-Birkhimer
AU  - Emily Fredette
CY  - Tampa, Florida
DA  - 2019/06/15
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Understanding How Female Students Navigate through Undergraduate Engineering Programs via an Examination of Their Intended and Declared Majors 
UR  - https://strategy.asee.org/33478
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--33478
ER  -