Exploring the Relationship Between Matriculation Model and Time to Enrollment in Engineering Graduation Major

The Multiple-Institution Database for Investigating Engineering Longitudinal Development (MIDFIELD) is used to explore when engineering students matriculate into the engineering majors from which they will graduate and expands the literature by evaluating the impacts of matriculation models. MIDFIELD records are used to determine each student's graduation major and the semester they first enrolled in that major. We additionally identify the matriculation model that each student matriculated under – a first-year engineering program or direct matriculation. Our results indicate that students who graduate from direct matriculation institutions enroll in their graduation majors 1.02 semesters after matriculation whereas students who graduate from institutions with first-year engineering programs have an average time to enrollment in graduation major of 2.34 semesters after matriculation. However, considering the time that students spend in first-year engineering programs, students at those institutions enroll in their graduation more quickly after their first opportunity than students at direct matriculation institutions.