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5) pre-college academic preparation, including both formal high school
instruction in science and math and extra-curricular activity in these fields;
6) initial self-confidence that they belong in engineering or can see
themselves as an engineer, and that they belong in college and can see
themselves succeeding in college.
Once they have entered the undergraduate engineering program, and during their time in it,
students are exposed to and presumably influenced by the program and school they are in and to
which they react. Such influences include:
1) the curriculum (such as the extent of laboratory work and interdisciplinary
emphases):
2) the pedagogy (such as the extent of group work):
3) the administration of the program:
4) the interpersonal climate with faculty and peers;
5) opportunities for extra-curricular activities both on and off-campus, both during
the academic year and in the summer.
The student’s input into the process predisposes them for their orientation to themselves as a
student, as an engineering student in particular, and themselves as an engineer in terms of the
long-term career, and thus affects their experience of the program and its surrounding
characteristics.
The interaction of their input factors with the school influences results in engineering
outcomes at every stage of the program as well as engineering outcomes at the end of the
program. During the undergraduate program, these outcomes include such factors as
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