Changes in freshman engineers' attitudes-a cross institutional comparison: what makes a difference?

The Freshman Engineering Attitude Instrument, developed at the University of Pittsburgh, was administered to the 1995-96 freshman engineering classes at two campuses at the beginning of the year (the pre-survey). The survey was then repeated later in the first year (the post-survey). This paper discusses the results and demonstrates the potential effectiveness of the survey instrument for evaluating freshman engineering programs. This study serves as a pilot for a larger, more comprehensive national survey.