Major movement data from the 2016 to 2019 freshman cohorts show that most students do not change majors from freshman year to graduation, and those who do usually stay within the same college. We examined data from the beginning and end of their first fall semester through sophomore year, which is when the majority of major changes occur. At Kent Campus, the analysis included retained students enrolled in all majors except Exploratory, who are expected to change majors at least once. These are significant findings because major changes affect time to degree.
According to the findings, 62% of retained students do not change their major during their first year. Furthermore, 30% change only once, and 16% remain at their original college. In total, 93% of new freshmen stick with their first major or change majors only once. Therefore, out of 15,110 students (all freshmen except Exploratory majors), only nine students changed their major four times and two students changed their major five times. Changes in colleges are similar: three students changed colleges three times, while one student changed five times.
With the exception of Exploratory, the most frequently changed majors are Biological Sciences, Pre-Fashion Design & Merchandising, Pre-Nursing, General Business, Nursing and Computer Science. On the other hand, students switch to Psychology, Nursing, Fashion Merchandising, Criminology and Criminal Justice Studies, and Marketing.
Explore our Major Movement Report to learn more about changes within other cohorts and/or specific colleges.