Abstract
The present study was undertaken to determine the relationship between declared major of entering college freshmen and measured interests in terms of clustered occupational activities. The sample consisted of 336 entering college freshmen who took the COPSystem Interest Inventory as part of a college orientation program and who had declared their major. The cluster representing declared major and the peak measured interest clusters were determined for each student.
A test of goodness of fit of the observed to expected frequencies for these clusters gave chi-squares which were significant at the .01 level in all cases. When the three highest interest groups were examined, 71% of the students would have had a correct prediction of the cluster containing their declared major. Ninety-two percent had interest scores greater than those of 50% of the norm population in the cluster determined by their declared major. Analyses of data in the present study demonstrate that declared college major upon entry to college is meaningfully related to and thus predictive of measured occupational interest clusters. The declared major of students is more likely to be classified within one of their three highest interest clusters as measured by the COPSystem Interest Inventory than within any other cluster. Results of the present study support the use of the instrument as a tool to help entering college students select an appropriate major.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.