WHY DO FRESHMAN STUDENTS AT THE WENTWORTH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY CHOOSE THE BACHELOR OF ELECTROMECHANICAL ENGINEERING MAJOR?

On the 2004, 2006, and 2009 final exams for Introduction to Engineering, the students were surveyed about the three reasons why they chose the BELM major along with stating the main reason.121 students responded.The largest segment of respondents cited genuine interest in electromechanical engineering as their reason for choosing it as their major (48.8% vs. 59% in the literature).Interestingly, a large segment listed financial aspects as their main reason for choosing the major (17.4% vs. 7% in the literature).More study is required to determine why financial aspects are more important to electromechanical engineering students than non-electromechanical engineering students in the literature.Several of the respondents had been positively influenced because they had relatives who were engineers.