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The purpose of this study was to consider factors that graduate students in master's degree programs in student affairs identify as influential to their decisions to enter the student affairs profession. A total of 300 master's students from 24 randomly selected graduate programs participated in the study. Relatively few differences were found between men and women or between traditional-age and older graduate students.
As higher education environments have become increasingly complex, there has been increased interest in attracting high quality students into graduate programs in student affairs (Komives & Kuh, 1988; PhelpsTobin, 1998). Further, as student bodies become increasingly diverse (El-Khawas, 2003), the student affairs profession has placed increasing importance on attracting a greater diversity of students to graduate preparation programs (Komives & Kuh; Phelps Tobin). Understanding what influences persons to enter the student affairs profession is important in recruiting high quality students to student affairs and in diversifying the profession.
The decision to enter the field of student affairs is not well understood. Student affairs has been called a "hidden profession" (Richmond & Sherman, 1991, p. 8) because no undergraduate major leads directly to graduate study in student affairs and because so few individuals are aware of the field as a career possibility (Brown, 1987; Komives & Kuh, 1988; Young, 1985). According to Brown, "people enter student affairs careers by accident or by quirk, rather than by design" (p. 5). Evans (1983) observed that "master's students [in student affairs] . . . often have an unrealistic picture of the profession and only a vague idea of their reasons for pursuing a degree in student personnel" (p. 15).
Limited published research exists on factors influencing the decision to pursue a career in student affairs. Forney (1994) found that students enrolled in 16 student affairs master's programs gave as their reasons for choosing the profession "working with students, contributing to students' development, and the attractiveness of the college atmosphere" (p. 340). A qualitative study of master's degree students in one large student affairs graduate preparation program identified six themes related to the students' decision to enter the profession; of these six themes, four were factors that influenced their decisions: encouragement by those in the field, critical incidents (including employment in a student affairs area while...