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engineering self-confidence. We consider whether it is easier for some students to do well
academically than others based on the characteristics they bring with them into Rowan.
In their first semester at Rowan, the input characteristics the students bring with them into
Rowan account for about 28% of the variance in the students’ overall grade point average
(GPA) 21 and in their engineering grades specifically 22 (Table IIC-1). In a multiple regression in
which fall GPA is the dependent variable, the only statistically significant effect of family
background was father’s occupational prestige, which reflects the student’s social class as well as
how professional their father’s occupation was (the higher the father’s occupational prestige, the
higher the fall grades). Of the high school background factors, high school math grades are
related significantly to the students’ academic achievement in the first semester. The students’
initial engineering self-confidence is not related to their actual academic performance in the first
semester. Thus, even students who lack engineering self-confidence may perform well
academically (and indeed, as we show below, women’s engineering self-confidence is lower than
men’s, but their academic performance equals or exceeds that of men).
Interestingly, father’s occupational prestige has a significant relationship with overall GPA in
the first semester, but not with engineering grades per se. High school math grades are
significant predictors of both overall and engineering grades in the first semester, but not the
spring semester.
As might be expected, by the end of the first year, the input characteristics have even less
relationship with academic performance, and only 12% of the variance is explained by these
characteristics. None of the regression coefficients of input characteristics predicting spring
21 Fall and Spring GPA’s are taken from official transcripts of the students’ grades.
22 Engineering GPA was self-reported and referred to the fall semester. For many of the
first-year students, the only engineering class they had at this stage was engineering
clinic.
IIC-96