Jessie Carduner’s article, Exploratory Honors Students: Academic Major and Career Decision Making, was published in the latest edition of the NACADA Journal, Spring 2011, Volume 31, Number 1. In this qualitative study, Carduner and her co-authors, Gary M. Padak and Jamie Reynolds, investigated the academic major and career decision-making processes of honors college students who were declared as “exploratory” or undecided students in their freshman year at a large, public, midwestern university.
The researchers found that participants used both rational-choice procedures (matching world-of-work with likes and interests) and alternative models (emotions, experience, chance and influence of others) to make major and career decisions. The majority of participants selected combinations of programs–double majors, majors with minors or concentrations and majors that allowed a lot of flexibility so that they could use multiple talents and not shut off their interests.
The NACADA Journal is a biannual refereed journal of the National Academic Advising Association. It exists to advance scholarly discourse, about the research, theory, and practice of academic advising in higher education. NACADA members receive subscriptions as part of their membership benefits. Journal articles can be obtain through Kansas State University Libraries by making an Interlibrary Loan Request.
Jessie Carduner is an Assistant Professor of Spanish at Kent State University. She received her certificate in academic advising from Kansas State University in 2006. When contacted about her article she said, “I am especially thrilled that I could use what I learned in the NACADA/K-State Certificate Program for publications as well as in my own practice.”
Kansas State University Academic Advising Graduate Programs 