Deciding to stay: The intersection of sex and race/ethnicity

While much of prior research has focused on understanding the reasons students leave engineering, and therefore talk to those students who switched out of an engineering major, this study contributes the new perspective of students who seriously considered leaving but ultimately decided to stay in their engineering major. The qualitative analysis suggests that about one-third of students seriously considered leaving engineering but ultimately decided to stay. The reasons students decided to stay in engineering fell into eight main categories, with the most common reasons being the rewards that will come with an engineering degree; enjoyment of engineering; or an aversion to quitting or desire to prove that you can do it. Differences in rationales were discovered between males and females, between different race/ethnicity groups and at the intersection of sex and race/ethnicity.