GOOD AND BAD REASONS FOR CHANGING A COLLEGE MAJOR: A COMPARISON OF STUDENT AND FACULTY VIEWS.

COLLEGE majors; COURSE selection (Education); HIGHER education; RETENTION of college students; UNIVERSITY faculty

Very little research examines how students and faculty members view the appropriateness of a variety of reasons for changing majors. In this study, we surveyed 260 students and faculty members from a large, public US university about their perceptions and beliefs about the appropriateness of changing an academic major for a wide range of reasons. Results showed that prior major-changing experience among both students and faculty was unrelated to perceptions of the appropriateness of changing majors. Students reported having changed academic majors at both a higher rate and with greater frequency than faculty when they were students. In addition, faculty and students differed in their perceptions about grades-related factors as appropriate reasons when changing academic majors. Compared to faculty, students reported that changing majors for a variety of reasons was more likely to lead to later regrets. Finally, contrary to expectations, students were similar to faculty in disagreeing that work or effort-related factors within a major are good reasons for changing an academic major. We discuss several implications of the results for the phenomenon of changing majors and for future research on this topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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