Jane Christiansen
Research in the Disciplines
Professor Goeller
Research Proposal
17 October 2017
Working Title: The Underlying Causes and Long Term Effects of Undecided College Majors
Topic:
The topic I will be looking into is the path of “undecided” students in college and the potential positive and negative effects that it has on an individual’s academic career. Additionally, I would like to explore how these undecided students perform later in life in their careers. The current conversation regarding this topic is whether or not the “undecided path” is beneficial or not. On the affirmative side, it is argued that taking introductory courses and core requirements before picking a course of study ensures that a student wants to pursue that discipline over another one. Introductory courses can introduce students to different topics that they may have not been exposed to in high school and find interest in. The exposure to these new subjects result in most students deciding to switch their major at some point in their college career. However, the benefit to entering undecided has the potential ability to allow a student to find their intended major and stick to it rather than switch. It is also argued that a specific major will have little impact on an individual’s career because most individuals take jobs that are not correlated with their major. Therefore, the importance of picking a major isn’t as pressing as some may think. On the other side of the debate, it is argued that entering college undecided will end up costing the student more money and time because they will most likely waste credits taking classes that are not required for their future major. Students who are undecided often have little direction in their lives, which can possibly result carry over into their adulthood and career exploration. This topic is strongly connected to the privatization of higher education because universities today are more focused on their business than meeting individually with students to discuss their major and what courses they need to fulfill the requirements. With the rising cost of a college tuition, it can be detrimental to a student to decide their major later in their education because it will take longer to fill the requirements and cost them more.
Research Question:
Can entering college “undecided” be detrimental to an individual’s future? What are the underlying factors that push a student into indecision?
Theoretical Frame:
While reading several sources, two recurring terms were “undecided” and “indecisive.” The difference between the two is that undecidedness relates to career decision and indecisiveness is about decision making in general. Indecisiveness has ties to mental health and self-esteem issues. Understanding the difference between these two key terms will be important in my analysis because they are similar and can easily be mistaken for one another and used in the wrong context. The National Academic College Advising Association defines undecided students as “Student unwilling, unable or unready to make educational and/or vocational choices” (Lepper). In my research, I would like to look into how undecided majors perform post-graduation. Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa use the term “emerging adults” in their book, Aspiring Adults Adrift: Tentative Transitions of College Graduates, to describe graduate students who partially transition into traditional adult roles after college due to their lack of career motivation. This term is an optimistic way of saying “delayed adulthood.” These adults are highly positive about their future endeavors despite their lack of a job at the moment because they are confident of their college education. This time of “emerging adulthood” is very interesting because these adults may be extending the liminal period of college into their adult lives. There are many contributing factors to an individual’s choice to be undecided. Another key word that that relates to this is emotional intelligence, which describes a person’s ability to perceive, access and generate emotions. Throughout all scholarly articles regarding the undecided student, a common cause of indecision is thought to be anxiety, "Of all the correlates of indecision in the research literature, the variable found most often associated with indecision has been anxiety" (Lewallen 8). These theories about indecision will be helpful while looking at case studies to determine the causation of indecision of an individual. In “Decided, Undecided and In Transition: Implications For Academic Advisement, Career Counseling and Student Retention” by Joe Cuseo, he quotes, “Among first-year students who enter college with a major in mind, less than 10% feel they know ‘a great deal about their intended major’” (Qtd. In Cuseo 5). This shows that although students may know which major they would like to pursue, they have little background information or experience with the topic. This can help explain why many students switch or change their major during their undergraduate education.
Case Study
In the book, Aspiring Adults Adrift: Tentative Transitions of College Graduates, there is a chapter entitled “Data, Methods, and Statistical Analyses” that I will use to help provide evidence to my arguments. On page 154, there is a table that displays summary statistics for post-college outcomes. This evidence can help me answer my question on the impacts that an undecided has on an individual’s future. On page 161, there is a table that includes descriptions of post-college outcomes of students.
Working Bibliography
Arum, Richard, and Josipa Roksa. Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses. The University of Chicago Press, 2011.
Arum, Richard, and Josipa Roksa. Aspiring Adults Adrift: Tentative Transitions of College Graduates. The University of Chicago Press, 2014.
Bullock-Yowell, Emily, et al. “Decided and Undecided Students: Career Self-Efficacy, Negative Thinking, and Decision-Making Difficulties.” NACADA Journal, vol. 34, no. 1, 2014, pp. 22–34., doi:10.12930/nacada-13-016.
Freedman, Liz. “The Developmental Disconnect in Choosing a Major.” The Mentor, dus.psu.edu/mentor/2013/06/disconnect-choosing-major/.
Gordon, Virginia N. The Undecided College Student: an Academic and Career Advising Challenge. Charles C. Thomas Publishers, Ltd., 2015.
Lewallen, Willard C., et al. Issues in Advising the Undecided College Student. 1994.
Onink, Troy. “Bad College Advice.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 8 Oct. 2012, www.forbes.com/sites/troyonink/2010/12/16/bad-college-advice-the-undeclared-major/.
Tinto, Vincent. “Taking Retention Seriously: Rethinking the First Year of College.” NACADA Journal, vol. 19, no. 2, 1999, pp. 5–9., doi:10.12930/0271-9517-19.2.5.
Vesper, Nick, et al. Going to College: How Social, Economic, and Educational Factors Influence the Decisions Students Make. Mason Crest Publishers, 2003.
This looks very promising. I like the idea of applying Nathan's term "liminality" to understanding how undecided majors extend the period of transition to adulthood. In some ways, this can be positive for them and allow for transformation. But when you calculate the real cost of each year of college -- including the missed opportunity to earn a full time wage, the costs of tuition, and the long term costs of any debt accrued -- you see that students who can make up their minds more quickly about their majors and then transition quickly to the job market upon completing a degree will have the greatest monetary success.
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