Chapter 1

The Problem and Its Background

Introduction

Choosing a college course is huge part of a senior high school student’s

life. The course that students choose affects how they will live the rest of their

lives. Many factors influence the student’s choice of college course. Identifying

these factors would give parents, educators, and industry an idea as to where

students place most of their trust in the course selection process. It would also

allow students to examine processes they use for course selection.

Senior high school students choose their future job fields for much reason.

The factors that affect their decision include family, passion, salary and

experience. Another thing that plays a big role in a student's decision of what

field to study is the people around them or role models in his or her life. These

role models can include a parent, teacher or friends. They choose the course

even if they are not knowledgeable enough about it. Students often rely on the

person around them.

A student’s choice of career is affected by a number of family-related

factors such as the marital relationship of the parents, the socio-economic status

of the family, the atmosphere of the home (whether parents are warm or hostile),

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the environmental condition, occupational status of the parents and the number

of siblings in the family. (Bollu-steve & Sanni, 2013)

According to Robertson (2014), career choice is a significant issue in the

developmental live of youths because it is reported to be associated with positive

as well as harmful psychological, physical and socio-economic inequalities that

persist well beyond the youthful age into an individual's adult life.

Younger children are more likely to offer answers about their ideal career,

which may represent their envisioned utopia, and phenomenal perceptions about

what they want to do when they grow up. (Howard and Walsh, 2011)

The researcher will conduct the study in Sacred Heart Academy (SHA) of

Santa Maria, Bulacan. SHA is a private, non-sectarian educational institution

located in Santa Maria, Bulacan. Founded by Carlos “Ka Carling” N. Santos Sr.

in 1963. It is the oldest private education institution in Santa Maria, Bulacan.

Today, SHA stands proud as one most prestigious and competitive schools in

Bulacan in terms of academic performance of the students.

This research study was develop to investigate the perceived factors that

influence senior high school students’ choice of course in college. The main

objective of this research is to distinguish the factors that student may encounter

when they enter in college.

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 The purpose of this research is to help senior high students to determine

some factors that can influence their choice of course in college and to make

them ready for the college.

Statement of the Problem

This research aims to determine the perceived factors that influence

senior high school students in choosing their course in college in Santa Maria,

Bulacan. Specially, the study seeks to answer the following questions:

1. What is the perception of students in the influence of the selected

factors:

1.1 Family/peer influence

1.2 Personal choice: and

1.3 Job opportunity?

2. What factor influenced the most; what factor influenced least?

Scope and Delimitation

This study focused on factors that influence the STEM student’s choice of

course in college. The factors was delimited to family/peer influence, personal

choice and job opportunity.

This study was limited to one (1) private school in Santa Maria, Bulacan.

This school is Sacred Heart Academy (SHA). The grade 11 STEM students

served as the respondents of the study.

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 This study will be conducted to give knowledge and information of how the

factors (family/peer influence, personal choice and job opportunity) influence the

choice of STEM students’ choice of college course.

Significance of the Study

This study will be greatly important to the following:

Students. This research can help the students know the factors that might

influence their choice of courses in college and with the help of this research;

they can easily determine what courses they should take when they enter

college.

Parent. This research may help the parents to have some knowledge

about the courses that their child may take and also to give their support and

motivate their child.

School. This research can help the schools to have an idea about the

program that they can make to help their grade 12 students to know the

important thing they need to do when choosing their courses in college.

Teachers. The benefits of conducting this study to the teachers is that

they will know what level of awareness they will teach on students. They will

know what kind of barriers that the student may encounter and the teachers will

have preparation for the lesson that are suited for them.

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 Future Researcher. The future researcher will gain knowledge and help

them decide whether a choice of an approach for specific decision-making

context was the right one would acquire further research and perhaps consensus

criteria. They can also use our research as their basis.