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Our analysis gave us a clue as to which, if any, activities during the academic year
were related to satisfaction (or dissatisfaction). We found that students who are involved
in academic enrichment activities and counseling or mentoring felt that the program had a
lot to offer, their peers were supportive and that they were part of a community, and that
teams worked well. On the other hand, satisfaction with lab work, with engineering
clinic, or with coursework was not dependent on involvement in extra-curricular
activities. Nor was satisfaction with faculty-student relations. Apparently the faculty
reach out to students even if they are not involved in extra-curricular or organizational
activities.
Students’ satisfaction with many aspects of the program gives us a clue about how
committed a student is to staying in the major and in the career. There was a significant
relationship between a student’s engineering self-confidence and their confidence with
how the program is structured, how hard the coursework is, the program applications
(especially lab work and teamwork), and their satisfaction with their peers. Students who
have lost confidence over the course of the year are also more disenchanted with the
program itself. So satisfaction can give us a clue as to what the student’s frame of mind is
about staying in engineering.
As to gender differences in satisfaction, according to our results, the program, its
delivery and the interpersonal climate are indeed female friendly: female students are as
satisfied or more satisfied than the male students with the programmatic elements of
choice and opportunity, classwork load, with the delivery of lab work, teamwork, and the
Engineering Clinic, and with peer and student-faculty relationships. However, this does
not mean that the males are dissatisfied. Especially notable is the lack of gender
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