Sophomore Yossra Hamid began her Duke career in the Pratt School of Engineering. But during the first semester of her freshman year, she found herself worrying about a lack of flexibility in her course schedule.
“When I was looking on the websites and seeing pretty much 90 percent of the classes I would be taking, no matter what field of engineering I chose, already planned out for me…at that moment I was like, ‘This is not what I want,’” Hamid said.
After her first semester, Hamid transferred to the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, where she now plans to major in computer science.
About 20 to 30 percent of Pratt students switch into Trinity every year. The transfer rate is higher among female students, with 30 to 40 percent making the switch.
There are a number of reasons commonly cited for the transfer. Some students choose to switch out of Pratt because they want more flexibility, and others because they find another major that they simply like more, said Linda Franzoni, Pratt associate dean for undergraduate education.
For some students, the transfer is a matter of realizing that they just do not really like engineering, said Lupita McMillian, Pratt assistant dean for undergraduate affairs.
Franzoni offered a hypothesis for the greater amount of female students transferring.
“There’s probably a perception if you’re female and you’re good at math and science, your chances of getting into Duke are better if you apply to engineering,” Franzoni said. “There may be more females in high school that are on the fence, they don’t really know what engineering is, but they knew this was a strategy for applying.”
She said the department is talking to female students in an attempt to figure out the high transfer rates. No student to date has ever said she was uncomfortable as a female engineer, Franzoni noted.
“We are troubled by the differential between genders transferring,” she wrote in an email Friday. “And we need to delve into the reasons first before we try to ‘fix’ the problem.”
Michael Gustafson, associate professor of the practice of electrical and computer engineering, said that the 70 to 80 percent Pratt retention rate does not concern him too much because there are some students switching out who never wanted to be engineers to begin with or who changed their minds over the summer before freshman year.
“For [the] others, it’s important to do as much as possible to figure out why,” Gustafson said. “And to make sure that we’re putting information out there and teaching our classes in such a way that students are making that decision with the best possible information they have.”
With all of the opportunities Duke offers, some students will naturally want to change their majors, Gustafson said.
“If you leave engineering, you’re changing schools,” Gustafson noted. “I would be interested to know how many students came in thinking they were going to be in natural sciences and ended up in humanities, or in the social sciences and ended up in natural sciences, because divisonally within Trinity that would be similar to looking at a shift in schools.”
Hamid said one of the reasons for her transfer was that she found Pratt to be very restrictive in terms of allowing her to become fluent in Spanish and study abroad, both of which she knew she wanted out of her college experience.
“They only give you a couple of humanities classes to take,” Hamid said. “I figured this was the one time in my life where I could just take a random class on philosophy or environmental studies just because I’m interested in it, so I wanted to take advantage of it.”
Junior Stefan Gorham, on the other hand, chose to switch out of Pratt as a biomedical engineer. Gorham said he was originally interested in genetically engineering cells and tissues that could be used in research settings but decided the major was not for him after taking the introductory engineering course in the first semester of his freshman year.
“Every time if there was a test, and I was studying for it and going over the material, I was just like, ‘This is not me. I don’t like it,’” Gorham said. “I’m not a hands-on, engineering type of person—I’m definitely more of a biology person.”
Conversely, around 20 to 30 students also switch into Pratt from Trinity every year. Sophomore Zach Ford, who formerly planned to major in math and physics, said he realized that his previous majors were too theoretical for his taste, and he wanted to apply his knowledge more as an engineer. He also liked the more structured schedule Pratt offered.
“I went on the website and the schedule was laid out for me,” Ford said. “I liked it because I know I have to be taking this class and I’m on the right track for graduation.”
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