Factors Influencing Students’ Decisions to Pursue Agricultural Degrees at Non-Land-Grant Colleges of Agriculture

Abstract

Recently, enrollments at numerous American universities have been trending downward. Such occurrences have led to an increasingly competitive atmosphere for attracting new students, thus creating the need to better understand why students ultimately attend their chosen institution. Prior research has explored factors that influence students to pursue agricultural degree programs at Land-Grant Universities with limited research addressing why students opt to study agriculture at Non-Land-Grant Colleges of Agriculture (NLGCAs). The purpose of our study was to describe the factors influencing students’ decisions to pursue agricultural degrees at our NLGCAs. We distributed a valid and reliable instrument to all first-semester students enrolled at our NLGCAs. Regarding enrollment factors, we found that: (1) students most frequently used degree program information on a university website to help make their enrollment decision; (2) cost of attendance was most frequently cited as an Influential or Very influential university-related factor; (3) career opportunities available for graduates was most frequently cited as an Influential or Very influential major selection-related factor; (4) a parent or guardian was most frequently cited as an Influential or Very influential individual-related factor; and the (5) availability of student organizations was most frequently cited as an Influential or Very influential social interaction-related factor.