Engineering Disciplinary Interests by Gender and Parental Level of Education

Abstract

This research category work-in-progress paper uses cross-sectional data, collected in the fall of 2017, to understand first-generation and continuing-generation college students' intended choice of an engineering major. Data for this analysis came from a large-scale survey of 3,711 first-year engineering students from 32 U.S. institutions of which 790 students identified as first-generation college students and 2,072 identified as having one or more parent(s) with a bachelor's degree or higher (continuing-generation college students). A Welch's t-test was used to examine the differences in engineering major selection between and within groups. Results from the within-group comparison show that men and women, who are first-generation college students, have similar disciplinary interest as reported in the ASEE Engineering by the Numbers. Most notably women first-generation college students were more likely to choose biomedical, chemical engineering, and other STEM-related degree compared to men first-generation college students. When analyzing the data by gender and examining college generation group differences, we found that women first-generation college students were more likely to choose, civil, computer, construction management, electrical engineering, computer science and, information technology compared to women in the other group. While men first-generation college students were more likely to choose construction management, electrical engineering compared to men in the other group. Enrollment trends of first-generation college students in engineering are difficult to determine, this study provides a first step towards understanding the fields that attract these students.