“Poor performance in STEM courses, low focus on STEM coursework in first year contributes to students switching majors” …
http://www.newswise.com/articles/one-third-of-college-stem-majors-switch-fields-by-graduation
@Dave_Berry, that is an odd article and study. It basically says students quit because STEM prep is difficult. The bottom line is this…STEM programs ARE difficult. There is no way around that. Calculus and Physics are Calculus and Physics, period. They are basically the closest we get to universal truth. You can’t water them down or change them without losing their effectiveness and utility.
Maybe we can point to college readiness or teaching quality as the culprits, but at the end of the day, STEM is hard.
Cal Poly Mechanical Engineering is a great example. With an acceptance rate right around 10% they attract very bright, motivated students. Their curriculum is widely hailed as a model of the “new” way, more hands on and project based from the get go, even though they’ve done it that way since their inception in the early 1900s. Still, they are one of the highest major exporters on the campus. Why? Becasue it’s hard.
We are all fond of saying “It isn’t Rocket Science.” Well, in the case of engineering, it basically is rocket science. It’s difficult. If you want to lay the blame on anyone, put it at the feet of the middle schools and high schools.
How is this news? Is anyone surprised that students drop out because they are performing poorly? The sky is blue! Water is wet! Students who perform poorly give up more often! Those are all equally obvious statements.
http://www.jotse.org/index.php/jotse/article/view/136/150 is the study.
Figures 3 and 4 indicate that other major categories like humanities, business, education, and health professions have higher rates of departing the major than the STEM category. Social studies had a slightly lower rate of departing the major.
Other figures and tables indicate the unsurprising result that low performing students depart their majors more than high performing students (low performing students depart college entirely at much higher rates).