Entry pathways, academic performance, and persistence of nontraditional students in engineering by transfer status

This study uses longitudinal, student record level data from eleven public research universities in the United States over a period of twenty-eight years to investigate nontraditional and traditional undergraduate students who ever declared engineering as a major. A nontraditional student is defined as a person who is older than 24 years of age or attends college part-time for at least part of the academic year. A traditional student is defined as a student who matriculates into a baccalaureate degree program in the summer or fall after high school graduation, is younger than 25 years of age, and pursues college on a continuous, full-time basis during the academic year. The research questions addressed in this paper are: How do nontraditional students enter the engineering curriculum? Are there differences with traditional students' entry into engineering by transfer status? Are there differences in precollege academic preparation? Is the collegiate academic performance of nontraditional students different than traditional students by transfer status? Is there a difference in the graduation or withdrawal rates between nontraditional and traditional students by transfer status? Nontraditional students are very similar to traditional students. Once students choose engineering as a major, there are no differences in mean engineering grade point average (GPA) or final cumulative GPA between nontraditional and traditional students. Nontraditional and traditional students have similar SAT scores, similar high school GPAs, choose an engineering major in similar patterns, and have similar six-year graduation rates. Being a transfer student plays a larger role than being a nontraditional student.