Factors Associated with the Choice of College Major in Utah

NACTA Journal, Jun 2004 by Tarpley, Rudy S, Miller, Rhonda L

Abstract s

This study identified variables that differed between students planning to major in agriculture and students not planning to major in agriculture within the state of Utah. This information was identified as being critical to the future recruitment efforts of the College of Agriculture. Variables included in the study were taken from the 2002 ACT Assessment registration booklet that lists 177 questions in the Student Profile Section, Interest Inventory factors, and demographic information. The population of this study consisted of 18,177 students who completed the registration booklet, chose a specific college major, and went on to take the 2002 ACT Assessment in Utah. Analysis included a stepwise multiple regression with the choice of either agriculture (n = 465) or non-agriculture (n = 17,712) major as the outcome variable and the remaining Student Profile, Interest Inventory, and demographic factors as the predictor variables. Results yielded 19 variables which explained 3.3% of the variance in choice of college major. As a result of the relatively low amount of variance explained, results should be interpreted with caution. The variables could be used to target potential agriculture majors in Utah. The most critical areas to focus upon while recruiting included stressing the natural sciences, hands-on applications, and noting participation in community organizations such as FFA and 4-H. Recruiters should recruit potential agriculture majors regardless of gender, race and academic level.

Introduction

Recruitment and retention of agriculture students at the university level has been historically important. McCarthy (1992) stressed this and noted the role of funds within colleges of agriculture directed at recruiting. "Creative recruitment ideas must be developed, implemented and periodically evaluated in order to ensure long-term program enrollment stability" (p. 36). One such idea was advanced by Cole and Fanno (1999). They wrote that high school counselors should be made aware of the science-based nature of university agriculture programs.

Cole and Thompson (1999) found that gender was a significant factor to consider when recruiting agriculture majors. More women were entering Oregon State University while men were more likely to attend a community college and then transfer. Other factors to consider when recruiting agriculture majors were FFA / 4-H involvement, recommendations from agriculture teachers & extension agents, and community size. Significantly more agriculture students came from rural areas. However, metropolitan areas should not be ignored when recruiting agriculture students.

Recruiting efforts to attract underrepresented groups should be sought by agricultural colleges (Talbert et al., 1997). Educational barriers and group perceptions lead many in these groups to pursue careers outside of agriculture. Factors found to be significant when differentiating between students who chose agriculture majors and students who chose non-agriculture majors were listed by Tarpley and Taylor (1992). By utilizing a stepwise multiple regression analysis of 1991 ACT Assessment information, the authors found that agriculture majors had lower grade point averages, came from smaller communities, received more athletic and organizational awards, took more Spanish and fewer English courses, and had higher Interest Inventory percentile ranks in Technical and lower Interest Inventory percentile ranks in Arts and Business Operations. Donnermeyer and Kreps (1994) also noted that diverse factors must be recognized by recruitment programs and found that community size was a significant factor when describing agriculture majors.

The ACT Assessment was also used by Fowler (1995) to determine differences between groups. Fowler utilized the ACT Assessment student profile section information to identify factors associated with student preference for college and university types. Additionally, the ACT Assessment was also used by Cobb (1997) to compare students who had a musical background to those without musical backgrounds.

As for the assessment itself, ACT scores tended to be good predictors of student graduation and GPA variables. ACT scores and high school GPAs are significant predictors of retention (Cambiano et al., 2000). Further, the self-reported information in the registration booklet tended to be reported accurately by students taking the test regardless of academic background (Laing et al., 1988; Ormsby & Maxey, 1972). Sawyer et al., (1989) compared the self-reported courses and grades from the ACT Assessment with their actual school records. The researchers concluded, "In general, the findings suggest that the accuracy of student reporting of courses taken and the grades received at the time of registration for the ACT Assessment is sufficiently high to be useful in many contexts" (p. 298). Therefore, ACT information can be considered accurate in predicting group membership and the accuracy of the self-reported information can be used in research studies such as this one.