Open Option Advising at Iowa State University: An Integrafed Advising and Career Planning Model

Abstract

? ajF Scietrer ~trd HumsrtirEezr, raw St&? Lfnimtp S~C F 1973, slcldcnls aL bwa Starc UnivasPy have Ben dowed to enter thc College of k k n c b ~l l d Hutrmnitie~ (.Wl) without declaring a major. Ihiz undeclared popul~tion (Open Qptic>o)increawd rrrrtlr five percent in 1971 lo I4 percent m I%O. Irprepmfmiod sttldcnts 0-c., law, medicine. vdetirrary nlrdicinr) who enter without declaring majors arc adder1 14 this population, tlie perctmtage for 1' 3%) jumps L o 47 percent. Ihe grnwin~ perccrrlag Orsludttrrc c h m i~l g Oprn Clplion forced [he S H ckllege to rc.evdude its arlvisillg scniot* rilr Opet~ Oplion studcrrts.The resulL% of a study conducted in 1977 indcrtlcd prvhlcms 10 the e[rec(ivm~ or ad~silrg far Ope41 Option studenl!. To impwe the advising rrf Opch 0ptiu11 studmls, khe C'oHegr of Sierrcec a11d Hurnsnitia devdoped nn tiv vising cnrtcr snd catcer plan15t~nrla1mh muwe. 'This paper describes the devd~pmcnt and rral~~rliun orthe calrer arid tlre c o t l r~. DE'I'ELOPMEWT OF THE OPEN OPTIIIN ADi#ISINO h'l<lUEt The 19'17 riudy conduded in (he WH CoUtge forused ulwn Bur t i r e s : I. %emw sltrclcbfg sbmll as Qxn Oplion. ? i L,kacsmcn of advising r~r Opcn O p~b n studert(~, 3. ~m w s Qpcn Oplbn students ussd ru xkcc majo15. 4. Cumpluison ui the ntlmbcr of chen~cs in majors T a r Open Oplbl~ slurknls with sir~lcnts in dalarcd majors. Rctwccn ~m u a r i 1971 and Irrta~ 1977, qlratlmm&m wwe giuetr all =I1 s(!rdents who c h s n d or dcslarcd rni~jors (N = 619. Rmrils from thequaunnna'r~ showed llrd[ 4? perccnl OT (b e sll!rlnrscnlercd without tnajors bq$ti% competidg intcresfs made i(dilfimll fur t l r m lb pinpuinl a inpte majot; 211 p e r m t ~lrlcred u~~bwlarcd becau~c lhcy Ixkcd informnlbn a h i t maim, thu~, 75 f)ecccnl ~f~hcsesn~dmls mkued they r r e d a l w$stanm in cmwr phnning before ~dcetLig a tliafor. Adwiring nf Open Opiion studnb in i9f7 was denc by two grvclpuCadv*rs (1) peofessiand advisors in Ore kart's Omc: snd[2) Facuiiy adviws in dqwrtrrrn~j \which had 8 g d to advise rhcx studawi. The ~ludentz' assmml of lltz e f f c c~i~~~~e s or rhtsead-vi9rlr~ (tlre aer,*nrl pwl ar the study), produced o dcslr disdnction: 9G percen! sf the

Factors affecting student selection of industrial education and technology as a new major

“…A study was conducted that examined the number of changes in majors made for open option students compared with students in declared majors in the College of Sciences and Humanities (S&H) at ISU (Beatty, Davis, & White, 1983). Of the 610 subjects in the survey, Beatty et al found that 88% of the changes in major were by students who had declared their major while only 12% of the changes were made by the open option students.…”