Analysis of First-year Engineering Student Essays on Engineering Interests for Institutions of Different Carnegie Classifications

Analysis of First-Year Engineering Student Essays on Engineering Interests forInstitutions of Different Carnegie ClassificationsAt the 2011 ASEE meeting, a study was presented investigating the factors that motivatestudents’ initial pathway into engineering. Results showed that while common themesem...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAssociation for Engineering Education - Engineering Library Division Papers p. 25.185.1
Main Authors Benjamin Emery Mertz, Atwood, Sara A
Format Conference Proceeding
LanguageEnglish
Published Atlanta American Society for Engineering Education-ASEE 10.06.2012
Subjects
Colleges & universities
Engineering
Engineering education
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Summary:Analysis of First-Year Engineering Student Essays on Engineering Interests forInstitutions of Different Carnegie ClassificationsAt the 2011 ASEE meeting, a study was presented investigating the factors that motivatestudents’ initial pathway into engineering. Results showed that while common themesemerged, there were differences in motivation between genders and amongst disciplines.As a follow-up to this study, we investigated responses of freshman engineering studentsto the same question at two new institutions: a large state university and a small regionalliberal arts college. We hypothesized that incoming students at these different types ofinstitutions would be interested in engineering for different reasons. As part of an in-class assignment for the