Early Declaration of a College Major and Its Relationship to Persistence

As college completion rates are a top priority for institutions and other stakeholders, understanding college student persistence is important. Some perceive students making an early decision about a major as necessary for success in college, arguing that enrolling as undeclared contributes to student attrition. Previous research about undeclared students and persistence, however, is limited, conflicting, and dated. For this longitudinal study, logistic regression analyses were conducted using institutional records for 4,489 first-time in college, full-time enrolled students from the Fall 2010 cohort at a large research university in the Western United States. The results show no difference in persistence between students who matriculate as declared versus undeclared majors, which has implications for advising practice.