Who enrolls in electrical engineering? : a quantitative analysis of U.S.A. student trajectories

Electrical Engineering (EE) is one of the largestengineering disciplines. Analysis of the student populationspecifically within EE provides insights into a large segment ofthe undergraduate engineering population. Using a datasetfrom universities in the United States of America that includesover 70,000 students who majored in engineering, this workconsiders the subset of that population matriculating in EE.The rates of EE matriculation and six-year graduation vary byrace and gender. The relevant findings are that males outnumber females at all levels of undergraduate EE. EE is themost popular choice for Asian and Black males atmatriculation and the second choice (after ME) for Hispanicand White males. EE is much more popular for Asian andBlack females than Hispanic and White females atmatriculation and graduation. In fact, more Black femalesgraduate in EE than in any other engineering discipline. Thesix-year graduation rate of EE matriculants is higher than thatof students of other engineering disciplines. These findingssuggest the importance disaggregating by engineering subdisciplineand examining how such information is useful inimproving recruitment and retention overall.