Abstract

The decline in IS enrollments since 2002 have been a cause of serious concern for IS departments. Many programs have closed IS departments, reduced in size or merged with other departments. IS faculty and associations have taken numerous steps to stem the tide of declining enrollments such as redesigning the IS curricula, forming partnerships with alumni and IS professionals, improved marketing and information dissemination to alleviate myths and stereotypes as well as apprise students of the global opportunities available in IS. An understanding of the IS student will help us better target programs and approaches to reduce the enrollment decline. This study seeks to answer this question about the academic standing, demographic profile and satisfaction levels of the IS student by analyzing the 277,238 exit surveys of which 13,910 are from IS majors from 344 US business schools for the period 1999 – 2007.

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Who are our students? A profile of IS majors

The decline in IS enrollments since 2002 have been a cause of serious concern for IS departments. Many programs have closed IS departments, reduced in size or merged with other departments. IS faculty and associations have taken numerous steps to stem the tide of declining enrollments such as redesigning the IS curricula, forming partnerships with alumni and IS professionals, improved marketing and information dissemination to alleviate myths and stereotypes as well as apprise students of the global opportunities available in IS. An understanding of the IS student will help us better target programs and approaches to reduce the enrollment decline. This study seeks to answer this question about the academic standing, demographic profile and satisfaction levels of the IS student by analyzing the 277,238 exit surveys of which 13,910 are from IS majors from 344 US business schools for the period 1999 – 2007.