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A growing trend in engineering education is to infuse entrepreneurial minded learning (EML) into design-based courses across the curriculum. This educational approach supports students in developing an entrepreneurial mindset by the time they graduate and enter the workforce where such a mindset will be vital for their success. We posit that the infusion of EML in the first year of engineering education sets students on a trajectory to develop an entrepreneurial mindset by graduation, along with enhancing their motivations to succeed in the field and developing their identity as engineers. To investigate the impacts of EML, motivation, and identity, we surveyed first- and fourth-/fifth-year engineering students across five different institutions representing variation in academic setting, approach to EML, and maturity of their EML program. Through our multi-method analysis. we did not find evidence of major differences across the five institutions as we anticipated. However, we found noteworthy differences in the impact of one particular program at one site compared to the other sites, including higher average scores for all EML student outcomes at this site. We also found differences between male and female students and students in different educational years. We observed a positive relationship between EML and motivation across all sites. Based on our analysis, we believe the practice of using EML in engineering education holds promise for supporting students' success as engineers in the field. However, additional research into the nuances of EML experiences is needed to identify what makes them successful as our work did not show as many unique findings across sites as were anticipated. We attribute the lack of patterns to the variability between and within site EML implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In understanding undergraduate students' success in college, their choice of career path must be fully understood. Different paths are appropriate for different students, and even a student may not fully grasp what will work best for them. Understanding the mechanisms behind a successful choice in college major is important for several reasons. Retention is necessary for the continued health of engineering programs. One of the earliest steps in this career path is selecting a major. Research has been done investigating major selection across all majors, and even focusing on STEM careers. This research has frequently overlooked the broad variety present in engineering majors with very limited research conducted that distinguishes between one engineering major and another. This paper seeks to address this absence by surveying engineering students from several different majors at three different institutions. The d ata for this paper was gathered using surveys of first year engineers at three dissimilar institutions. The survey data examined were open-response questions. These questions asked students to describe how they viewed specific engineering career paths. It is the goal of analyzing these responses to gain better insight into the student perception of various engineering majors. The data was coded through an inductive coding process. This coding process resulted in nine unique codes. The codes were analyzed to allow broader trends to surface. The results of this analysis have shown that no t only do students in different engineering majors view these disciplines differently, but also that students at these different institutions view engineering differently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]