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1、 “Decided,” “Undecided,” and “In Transition”: Implications for Academic Advisement, Career Counseling, & Student RetentionJoe CuseoIntroduction The objective of this article is twofold: (a) to critically review research on how students process of decision making with respect to selecting college maj
2、ors and careers relates to their persistence in college, and (b) to tease-out practical implications of this research for improving the academic advisement, long-range planning, and retention of first-year students. The majority of new students entering higher education leave their initial college o
3、f choice without completing a degree (Tinto, 1993), and national attrition rates have been increasing since the early 1980s at two-year and four-year institutions, both public and private (Postsecondary Education Opportunity, 2002). At all types of higher education institutions, including highly sel
4、ective colleges and universities, the most critical period or stage of vulnerability for student attrition continues to be the first year of college (“Learning Slope,” 1991). More than half of all students who withdraw from college do so during their first year (Consortium for Student Retention Data
5、 Exchange, 1999), resulting in a first-year attrition rate of more than 25% at four-year institutions, and approximately 50% at two-year institutions (ACT, 2003). Retention research suggests that student commitment to educational and career goals is perhaps the strongest factor associated with persi
6、stence to degree completion (Wyckoff, 1999). Given the increasing trend of new students to report that their number-one goal for attending college is “preparing for an occupation” (Astin, Parrot, Korn, & Sax, 1997), it becomes understandable that difficulty finding or committing to long-term goals w
7、ill increase their risk for attrition. Furthermore, if students develop a viable plan for identifying a college major and related career that is compatible with their abilities, interests and values, then their overall level of satisfaction with college should increase. In turn, student retention at
8、 their chosen college should be increased, because there is a well-established empirical relationship between students level of satisfaction with the postsecondary institution they are attending and their rate of retention at that institution (Noel, Levitz, & Saluri, 1985), i.e., college satisfactio
9、n is a “primary predictor” of student persistence (Noel & Levitz, 1995). “Decided” and “Undecided” Students: Myths & Realities A commonly held assumption in higher education is that students who are undecided about a college major are at greater risk for attrition than students with a declared major
10、. As Diane Strommer notes, “Being undeclared is generally presumed to be an aberrant condition that needs fixing” (1997, p. 72). However, this prevalent belief is not well supported by empirical evidence. For example, Lewallen (1993) gathered data on a representative national sample of more than 18,
11、000 first-year students from over 400 colleges and universities, while controlling for confounding variables known to affect student retention (e.g., academic preparedness and socioeconomic status). He discovered that knowledge of whether students were decided or undecided did not have any significa
12、nt effect on predicting or explaining their retention. In a subsequent study, Lewallen (1995) examined a national sample of over 20,000 decided and undecided students at six different types of postsecondary institutions, and he found that undecided students actually displayed higher levels of academ
13、ic achievement (average GPA) and were more likely to persist to graduation than decided students. These findings are consistent with earlier research reported by Baird (1967), who conducted a large-scale study of college-bound seniors and found very few differences between undecided and decided stud
14、ents with respect to ACT scores and high school grade-point average. However, he did find that, relative to decided students, undecided students were more likely to emphasize intellectual development as a goal for attending college, and less frequently emphasized the goal of vocational or profession
15、al training. The mistaken belief that undecided students are necessarily “at risk” students may have evolved from a misinterpretation of early research on student retention, which indicated that students who have low aspirations or lack commitment to educational and occupational goals are more likel
16、y to leave college (e.g., Astin, 1975; Noel, Levitz, & Saluri, 1985). Over time, these findings may have metamorphosed into a common conception that undecided (undeclared) students are uncommitted students who lack long-term academic plans, career goals, or sense of direction; thus, they are at risk
17、 for attrition. In fact, the term “undeclared” has acquired such a negative connotation that a TV sitcom about college students was created with that very name. (Although I have never seen a single episode of the sitcom, “Undeclared,” I would still be willing to bet that it focused on college studen
18、ts who were academically clueless and directionless “party animals.”) The prevalent belief that being “undecided” equates with being “at risk” may also have evolved from an erroneous overgeneralization emanating from research findings which indicate that prolonged indecisiveness is empirically assoc
19、iated with increased risk for attrition (Raimst, 1981; Janasiewicz, 1987). However, the assumption that undecided students are indecisive students and prone to decisional procrastination, is both groundless and gratuitous. Students may be undecided for a variety of reasons, many of which are psychol
20、ogically healthy, and which have nothing to do with absence of direction, lack of goal-orientation, or propensity for procrastination. As Virginia Gordon points out, “There are as many reasons for being undecided as there are students” (1984, p. 75). For instance, students may be undecided because t
21、hey have diverse interests and are excited about multiple fields of study. Their indecision may simply reflect a high level of motivation for learning and active involvement in the productive process of critically evaluating and prioritizing their varied academic interests. Other undecided students
22、may simply be deliberate, reflective thinkers, whose decision-making style predisposes them to gathering more information (e.g., by gaining first-hand experience with different academic disciplines) before making any long-term commitments. Empirical support for this contention is provided by a 25-ye
23、ar longitudinal study conducted at Ohio State University, involving over 19,000 students who were undecided about a major or career at college entry. Only 22% of these students indicated that they were “completely undecided,” 31% said they were “tentatively decided,” and 43% had “several ideas but w
24、ere not ready to decide” (Gordon & Steele, 2003). While the foregoing types of students have been generically categorized as “undecided,” their healthy suspension of judgment and mature decision-making process suggests that the term “exploratory” or “investigative” would be a more accurate classific
25、atory label. As J. R. R. Tolkein succinctly states in his influential trilogy, Lord of the Rings: “All who wander are not lost.” (Fittingly, the National Academic Advising Association has established the Commission for “Undecided/Exploratory” Students, a.k.a., CUES, to provide a national forum for d
26、iscussion of issues relating to this student subpopulation.) In contrast, some decided and declared students may be at greater risk for attrition than undecided students. James Powell, former president of Oberlin and Reed College, once said: “The kids who worry me are the ones who are so darn sure t
27、hey know what theyre going to be doing” (quoted in Pope, 1990, p. 180). These students might indeed be a legitimate source of concern (and potential attrition) because they may have made a decision that is (a) prematurereflecting lack of careful planning and forethought; (b) unrealisticresulting fro
28、m lack of self-knowledge (e.g., accurate awareness of personal aptitudes), or (c) uninformedresting on insufficient knowledge about the relationship between academic majors and future careers. Furthermore, students early decisions may be driven entirely by extrinsic factors (e.g., pleasing parents o
29、r maximizing income) rather than by careful introspection and choice of a major or career that is congruent with their intrinsic interests, abilities, and values. Upcraft, Finney, and Garland (1984) point out that early decisions about majors and careers may result from, “Students being pushed into
30、careers by their families, while others have picked one just to relieve their anxiety about not having a career choice. Still others may have picked popular or lucrative careers, knowing nothing of what theyre really like or what it takes to prepare for them” (p. 18). Major Changers Students who cha
31、nge majors have also been classified under the generic rubric, “undecided,” and they, too, are commonly deemed to be at risk for attrition. However, research has not demonstrated that risk for college withdrawal is associated with doubt or indecision about an initial major and eventual change of tha
32、t major. In fact, some studies demonstrate that students who change majors actually display higher rates of retention (persistence to graduation) than non-changers. For instance, research reported by Micceri (2002), based on student tracking of major changers in the Florida State University System,
33、revealed that students who change majors at least once during their college experience proceed to graduate at a rate ranging between 70-85%, while students who hold on to their original major display a retention rate of 45-50%. These findings replicate earlier research conducted by Anderson, Creamer
34、, & Cross (1989), who found that major changers attempt and complete more credit hours than “decided” students. These findings suggest that changing decisions about a major is not necessarily a negative phenomenon, but may represent student discovery of other academic fields that stimulate greater p
35、ersonal interest or that are more compatible with their personal aptitudes and abilities. Also, major changing may reflect an underlying process of cognitive maturation among college students, and their natural progression to more advanced developmental stages of decision-making. As Tinto notes, “Mo
36、vements from varying degrees of certainty to uncertainty and back again may in fact be quite characteristic of the longitudinal process of goal clarification which occurs during the college years. Not only should we not be surprised by such movements, we should expect, indeed hope, that they occur”
37、(1993, p. 41). Naturally, there is a downside to changing majors, if the change takes place at a late juncture in the college experience. This can result in delayed time to graduation because of the need to complete additional courses required by the newly chosen major. So, while changing majors may
38、 contribute positively to the outcome of persistence to graduation, it may adversely affect the outcome of time to graduationif the change occurs after a sizable number of credit hours have been accumulated in a previous major. Shadow Majors “Shadow” majors may be defined as students who are decided
39、 on a major, but have not yet been accepted or admitted to the major of their choice. Certain majors, because of their popularity, are oversubscribed or “impacted” (e.g., business, engineering, pre-med, and allied health sciences), so departments may attempt to control their enrollment by limiting a
40、ccess only to students who have achieved superior grades in highly competitive (“killer”) prerequisite courses, or by admitting only students who have achieved a certain grade-point average in all pre-major courses. In effect, shadow majors are students who have already met the universitys admission
41、s standards, but have yet to meet the standards of “second-tier” admission into their intended field of study. These students may eventually transition into their major of choice, or they may be shutout of their intended major if they fail to meet the specific standards imposed by its department. Wh
42、en the latter happens, these already “decided” majors often resist the prospect of changing majors, because “they may feel they are letting someone down or shattering a lifelong dream” (Gordon & Steele, 1992, p. 24). As a result, they may end-up “drifting along without an academic home, semester aft
43、er semester, making satisfactory progressbut not toward a degree” (Strommer, 1993, p. 14). Although there is little empirical evidence available on the retention rate of shadow majors who have been denied entry into their “decided” field of study, it is reasonable to expect that they may be at risk
44、for attrition due to loss of their long-term goal and, perhaps, loss of commitment to the process (higher education) which represented their path to that goal. Even if rejected shadow majors eventually accept the reality of their rejection, proceed to an alternative major, and persist to graduation,
45、 their delayed change to an alternative major may delay their graduation because of the need to fulfill additional courses required by their late choice of a new major. Implications for Future Research & Assessment The foregoing research reviewed in this article suggests that historic interest in th
46、e question of whether students are decided or undecided about a major may be less important than questions about when and how students decide on a major. Looking toward future research and assessment on the academic decision-making process, it appears as if not much more is to be gained from the tra
47、ditional approach of categorizing students as either “decided” or “undecided” and computing correlations between this dichotomous variable and student retention. As Lewallen notes, “Because few differences have been found between decided and undecided students, it appears that undecided students rep
48、resent more a microcosm of the college population than a highly distinguishable group” (1994, p. 12). It may now be time to engage in research on the process of how students go about deciding on a major (or deciding to remain “undecided”) and move toward longitudinal assessment of when students reac
49、h these decisions during their college experience. Admittedly, this is a challenging task that will require the use of more time-consuming, labor-intensive qualitative research methods, such as: (a) focus group interviews with decided and undecided students at different stages of the college experience, and (b) narrative analysis of advisors notes (written or electronic) on their meetings with adviseesto detect thematic patterns in how, why, and when stud
