Breaking Up Is Hard To Do What to do when students realize their major isn’t ‘The One’ Stephanie Elliott Amy Treboni Danielle Whitaker

The Bachelor Before you stand 175 eligible majors You have in your possession 12 red roses In the next 2 minutes your task is to give your 12 roses away to the majors you find the most attractive at this time! Don’t over think it! 's Degree

Who we are and what we do Who are we? We are a group of professionals who want to assist incoming and current students who are undecided in their major. Who are our students? University Exploration students identify themselves as undecided for a multitude of reasons, but we typically serve 4 types of students: those who want to learn about the 170+ majors offered, those who have narrowed their choices but who want time to confirm, those who have chosen a major but need to fulfill the entrance requirements and those who started in one major and are “re-deciding”. What makes us unique? We have a bouquet of outstanding services to help students flourish during their first years at Ohio State. Our program has been designed to walk students through the process of finding a major, and we’re devoted to helping them from the first to last day in Exploration

By the numbers Re-Deciding

The number of freshmen starting in EXP has ranged from 10% to 15% or more of the incoming class for the past several years. 38% of this year’s NFYS cohort changed majors at some point between the time they applied to OSU and when they left orientation. Over 60% of EXP’s NFYS cohort from Autumn 2013 had a 3.0 or higher GPA in their first term of enrollment. EXP first year retention rates continue to increase, despite a slight drop in first year retention institutionally in Autumn Our freshmen get ‘from the source’ information on majors during their survey class: Exploration /H New First Year Students

EXP four and six year graduations are near equal to university averages for students who START their OSU career in EXP. Students who start elsewhere and move to EXP later have lower graduation rates—as much as 25% under the university’s averages. We even have a small number of students who start in EXP and graduate in under 4 years from each cohort. EXP students are admitted into all major programs across the university* and have graduated in all disciplines. Just under half of our students go to majors in areas like Arts and Sciences, while the others are spread across the university. Less than 2% of students who start in EXP return to EXP. About half of our students declare in the first year and the remainder declare during their second year—they are limited to 3 or 4 semesters total in EXP depending on affiliations. Long Range

University Exploration has a set of 10 student learning outcomes that we assess. The SLO adhere to CAS and NACADA standards for advising. Academic Success Planning Workshop Students on probation or special action probation Participants have more significant GPA increases than non-participants Support from Start Developing strategies for better resource referral and usage with new students Piloted AU13, collecting data with hopes of building predictive model in future Assessment & Support

The Re-deciding Exploration Experience What we do when you refer

What led to “The Break Up” Re-deciding by choice – What led them to their initial major? – Why and how have their interests changed? What did they like about previous major? What didn’t they like about previous major? Program dismissed – What led them to their initial major? – What has been impeding their success? What is working? What isn’t working?

The Dream Date Goals: “What do you want to do after you graduate?” – Career – Grad/Professional School – Travel – Helping others – Etc. Interests: “What do you love?” – Academic areas of study – Hobbies – Passions

Recognizing Their Best Features Re-deciding students frequently have the benefit of an established academic record at Ohio State. They often don’t recognize their own strengths – Particularly if they don’t think society values their particular strength – Identity foreclosure We use this record to inform the conversation about majors – What classes have they chose and why? – What classes have they done well in? – What classes have they struggled with? The goal: use the information about their goals and interests in conjunction with information about their academic strengths to narrow down the major options.

Values Matter in Any Relationship Major Exploration Values – Time to degree – Career-directed/Broad-based – Flexibility – Job Placement/Internships – Faculty contact Career Values – Work/Life balance – Prestige – Income potential – Relocation – Helping others – Helping the environment

What You Can Do To Help Use existing online resources Educate yourself about re-deciding best practices Packet of Resources Visit ____ for more interesting literature and videos! What can we do to help you help them? Questions

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