Georgia Tech continues its efforts to enhance academic advising through a renewed focus on major selection protocols and how students select and change majors. Georgia Tech students declare a major before admission, and academic advising is primarily major specific. Since undecided/general studies students do not exist on campus, major selection and major change protocols significantly impact the student experience. We are exploring practices that would allow students to shift from one major to another through a more comprehensive set of exploratory activities that focus their academic and career aspirations.
Evaluation Plan and measures:
Assessment activities will focus on establishing and evaluating the impact of workshops and services that support students as they identify a best-fit major and shift from one major to another.
KPIs:
Institutional student success metrics (e.g. retention, graduation rate, and time to graduation)
Baseline measure (for each KPI):
Current success metrics of students changing majors disaggregated by time in pre-major change degree pathway (e.g., semester enrolled in prior major)
Current/most recent data (for each KPI)
Goal or targets (for each KPI):
- Develop programming for students regarding major selection/exploration and processes for migrating students from one major to another through the category; ongoing.
- Compare success metrics for students changing majors through the exploratory experience with metrics for students changing majors without these supports or not changing majors at all; ongoing.
Time period/duration:
Ongoing, began in fall 2022
- Initial discussions with the Enrollment Management, Undergraduate Advising and Transition, and the Student Regulations Committee are in progress.
- Undergraduate Advising & Transition hired two exploratory advisors in spring 2023 to support students who are interested in exploring other majors and/or changing majors.
- Academic Success & Advising created a semester-long drop-in success series for first-year and transfer students; two sessions focused on changing major.
- In alignment with Strategic Enrollment Management planning, the Academic Advising Council, academic advisors within Colleges and Schools, and the Student Regulations Committee, study the creation of an exploratory major.
- Office of Admission and Undergraduate Advising and Transition will partner to offer workshops for admitted students regarding how to see if their selected major is the right fit and discuss change-of-major processes in their first year.
- Change management related to Georgia Tech’s major-centric academic advising model
- Student resistance to changing majors
- Adequate personnel to manage the exploratory advising load outside of the major-specific, Colleges and Schools based structure
