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The cohort of
first-time freshmen who entered in the Fall of 1992 has
been examined in order to quantify changes in majors, and
graduation and retention rates by major. The results
include three different views (Tables 1, 2, and 3) of how
students progress in their academic careers. It is
recognized that a significant number of students change
their majors at least once in their undergraduate career.
This research note provides a quantitative description of
these changes by major. It also gives two views of
graduation rates by major. The first is the graduation
rate by major for students who declared only one major
and did not change it. The second is the annual
proportion of all degrees conferred, by major, that were
completed in four years (by the cohort examined). The
"sum" of these views becomes a starting point
for understanding better how student declaration and
change of majors interacts with the complexity of
academic offerings and policies.
Table 1, "Fall 1992 Majors in Fall 1996: Changes,
Graduated, and Continuing," lists majors by college
and contains a count of majors declared in Fall 1992 and
Fall 1995. It also contains counts of the number of
students who did not change majors from Fall 1992 to Fall
1995, the number of majors lost, the number of majors
gained, the net gain or loss, the number of majors
graduated in 1995-96, and the number of majors continued
into Fall 1996.
JMU enrolled 2,042 first-time college
students on the Fall 1992 census. Of these 2,042
students, 927 (45%) did not declare a major and the other
1,115 students (55%) declared a total of 1,184 first and
second majors. Between Fall 1992 and Fall 1995, the
College of Arts and Letters retained the highest
percentage of students who did not change majors (53.5
percent or 247 of the 462 total in Table 1, Fall 1992).
It is followed by the Colleges of Education and
Psychology (50.0 percent), Integrated Science and
Technology (47.0 percent), Business (39.3 percent) and
Science and Mathematics (37.9 percent).
By Fall 1996, 1,228 students in this
cohort (60%) graduated with 1,303 majors declared. An
additional 397 (19%) continued to work toward their first
degree with 436 majors declared. The College of Arts and
Letters had the greatest number of completed majors
(N=569 for 44%) and Fall 96 continuing majors (N=155 for
36%).
Table 2, "Four Year Graduation Rate by Major:
Students Who Did Not Change Majors," is the best
measure of graduation rates by major that may be
generated. A graduation rate by major is complicated by
the fact that students may change their major and may
declare double majors. To control for this, Table 2
includes only members of the Fall 1992 freshman cohort
who declared only one major and did not change it.
Nine hundred ninety-four members of the
Fall 1992 entering freshman cohort declared only one
major and remained in it until 1995-96. This figure
includes students who were undeclared in Fall 1992 and
declared a single major prior to graduation. They
represented 48.7% of the 2,042 beginning cohort total.
Seven hundred forty-two of these students graduated in
four years or less, resulting in a four year graduation
rate of 75% for students who did not change majors. The
College of Education and Psychology had the highest rate,
graduating 104 out of 129 unchanged majors (81%).
Table 3 contains the "Proportion by Major of
Annual Degrees That Were Completed in Four Years or Less:
Students Entering JMU as First-Time Freshmen in Fall 1992
or Earlier." This table was generated to help
address the concern among parents, faculty, and
administrators about how long it takes students to
complete a specific major. The table includes graduates
who changed majors, but does not include transfer
students or students who entered JMU as freshmen after
Fall 1992.
By September 1996, a total of 1,303
majors were completed by 1,228 members of the Fall 1992
entering freshman cohort in four years or less. Between
December 1995 and August 1996 a total of 1,775
undergraduate majors were completed by students who began
their college education as first-time freshmen at JMU
(majors completed by transfer students were not
included). This means that 73% of the majors completed by
students who entered JMU as first-time freshmen were
completed in four years or less. The College of Education
and Psychology had the highest proportion of four year
completion in 1995-96 (77%).
Additional questions about this study
can be addressed to the Office of Institutional Research at
ask-oir@jmu.edu.
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