Does Departmental Recruiting Influence Major Selection

Engineering students at the University of Arkansas enroll in a common, first year program before declaring a discipline-specific major during the spring semester of their freshman year. One of the objectives of the Freshman Engineering Program is to introduce students to the various College of Engineering disciplines so that students can make an informed choice of their major. The primary forum for introducing students to the disciplines is through a series of departmental information sessions held during the fall semester and through recruiting sessions held during the spring semester. In this paper, we investigate the influence of recruiting on major selection and present an assessment of students’ perceptions associated with the information and recruiting sessions held during the 2013-2014 academic year.