What to do about the undecided?

There has been a fabulous discussion on LinkedIn (which of course now I can't locate) about the proportion of students at our various institutions who are undeclared or undecided about their education goals when they join us.

One dilemma is what to do about their data for our reporting and analysis of educational intent.  In the current higher education environment at the federal and state level, much of the discussion is about success in the form of degree completion.  This predicates the collection of a stated educational goal, or intent, from the student at their entry so that we can then measure whether or not we supported them in achieving it.

Another issue is the integrity of our data.  We wonder if some students are just being entered as undecided if they don’t immediately self-identify with a specific program or major goal.

Our third challenge is with blanks.  As we say around here, blank is not data.  Was the field skipped?  Was the student undecided?  Is it an error in data retrieval?  Even worse are fields with only a space.  They look like blanks but read like data to our system.

Those are the nerd issues.  Then there are the academic ones.  Should we require the students to make a decision/commitment?  Some research indicates this might help retention.   

What if they are genuinely undecided?  Can we leave a space for that exploration in an environment in which our ability to serve them rests on how many we can get to degree or certificate completion?  What is best for the student in the long and short term?

We are still mulling these questions…comments are welcome.