"Why Do They Come, Why Do They Not Return"

Declining interest in engineering in high school students exacerbated by traditionally high student dropout rates in engineering have led to steep enrollment decreases in many engineering programs.While there is substantial research evidence to the contrary, many engineering faculty members continue to view the attrition positively, believing that most students who leave engineering do so either because of poor academic preparation, a lack of commitment to engineering rigor, or both.While considerable research suggests that academically successful students are more likely to leave engineering than do students who lack the necessary academic preparation 1 , such research often tends to be discarded or characterized as irrelevant to a particular campus demographic.In this preliminary research, we obtain university specific data through three simple post card surveys.One survey queries students who elected not to continue their engineering course of study and a second survey queried first year students as to their rationale for final university selection.Survey results are analyzed and compared to the literature research as well as to campus baseline data.In addition, survey results for discontinuance are analyzed and compared to overall student performance and academic preparation prior to discontinuance.