College Choice Report: Class of 2013

A PROFILE OF 2013 ACT-TESTED HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATESCollege Choice ReportPart 3Persistence and Transfer ACT is an independent, nonprofit organization that provides assessment, research, information, and program management services in the broad areas of education and workforce development. Each year, we serve millions of people in high schools, colleges, professional associations, businesses, and government agencies, nationally and internationally. Though designed to meet a wide array of needs, all ACT programs and services have one guiding purpose—helping people achieve education and workplace success.A copy of this report can be found at www.act.org/collegechoiceThe College Choice Report is an annual report series that follows an ACT-tested high school graduating class from high school through the second year of college. It focuses on an alternating set of student characteristics, preferences, and college search behaviors to assist enrollment managers, admissions personnel, and other college administrators with student recruitment, enrollment, and persistence. This College Choice Report is part of a report cycle that focuses on a particular ACT-tested high school graduating class. Other reports in this cycle are The Condition of College & Career Readiness, which highlights the academic readiness of high school graduates to enter college or career training, and The Reality of College Readiness, which highlights the relationships among readiness, college enrollment, and retention. © 2015 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. The ACT® college readiness assessment is a registered trademark of ACT, Inc., in the USA and other countries. National Student Clearinghouse® is a registered trademark of the National Student Clearinghouse.3381 3College Choice Report: Persistence and TransferThis College Choice Report series follows the ACT-tested high school graduating class of 2013, focusing on students’ selection of a college major or program of study. This is an important topic for enrollment managers and admissions officers to consider, as students’ choices of major have a number of implications for postsecondary institutions. For example, colleges can use information about students’ choices of planned major in both anticipating the demand for and reallocating the supply of seats within and across individual programs of study at an institution. Colleges can also use information about students’ choices of planned major to help them find programs of study that are a good fit with their interests, which in turn may help to increase student persistence rates and decrease the overall time to degree.Part 1 of this series, Preferences and Prospects (released November 2013), covers such topics as students’ choice of planned major, certainty of planned major choice, request for assistance with educational and occupational plans, Interest-Major Fit, best-fitting major, and selection of major as the most important factor in choosing a college.Part 2 of this series, Enrollment Patterns (released July 2014), focuses on the college enrollment of these ACT-tested high school graduates and addresses topics such as the consistency of college major choice between ACT® college readiness assessment registration and the first year of college and changes to Interest-Major Fit among students who declared majors outside of their planned major areas.Part 3 of this series, Persistence and Transfer (released April 2015) focuses on consistency of college major choice between ACT registration and the second year of college and student persistence within majors between the first and second year of college.Key Findings from Part 3The following key findings are summarized in this report:• Many college students declare a major that is consistent with their reported plans on the ACT.• Achievement, certainty, and fit are important indicators of consistency between planned and declared major.• Student flow from planned to declared major areas results in big gains and losses for some areas of study.• Most students persist within the same major area between the first and second year of college.How to Use This ReportMore than half (54%) of the graduating class of 2013 took the ACT during high school. Whether you are searching for prospective students locally or in other parts of the country, a better understanding of the preferences and college choice behaviors of ACT-tested students can improve your marketing and recruitment strategies. The information presented in this report (and in the accompanying online charts and maps) can provide insights and inform discussions on your campus about the desired characteristics and locations of prospective students and your strategies for recruiting them. For colleges that participate in the ACT Educational Opportunity Service (EOS), this information can help you to establish or refine your selection criteria to create more efficient student searches. Over time, the report can also help you gauge the effectiveness of