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Advance to and Persistence in Graduate School: Identifying the Influential Factors and Major-Based Differences
Abstract
Structured within an expanded econometric theoretical framework, this study uses national data sources to identify the critical factors that influence college graduates' advance to and persistence in graduate education and to compare the systematic differences between students in the STEM and non-STEM majors. The findings indicate that there is a high attrition rate from graduate education in both STEM and non-STEM majors. Male, Caucasian, and students who received their bachelor degree at a traditional (younger) age are more likely to attend and complete graduate education, regardless of academic major. Major-based differences are apparent in the impact from variables including parents' education, total undergraduate debt, institution selectivity, and student's academic background measured by SAT/ACT scores and cumulative GPA in undergraduate major.
... Previous studies found significant heterogeneity among master's degree students (O'Donnell et al., 2009;Jung and Li, 2021). On the one hand, demographic and background characteristics such as gender, race and age of the students, as well as their area of residence, influence their enrolment in master's degrees (Perna, 2004;Schapiro et al., 1991;Xu, 2014;Allison and Ralston, 2018;Jung and Lee, 2019). For instance, the underrepresentation of women, as well as racial and ethnic minorities in STEM education has been analysed by numerous studies (Espinosa, 2011;Batsheva and Boards, 2019;McKinney et al., 2021). ...
... In general, the satisfaction of students with higher education is determined both by the perceived institutional performance and the perceived outcomes of institutional performance (Hartman and Schmidt, 1995). Moreover, it has been found that the type of university influences the transition from bachelor's to master's as students from research Schapiro et al. (1991), González andDávila (1998), Jiménez andSalas-Velasco (2000), Perna (2004), Jung and Lee (2019), DeBacker and Routon (2021) Educational debt Schapiro et al. (1991), Weiler (1994, Xu (2014) Participation in the labour market Jung and Lee (2019), Zamfir et al. (2021) University characteristics Quality Schapiro et al. (1991), Hartman and Schmidt (1995), Kallio (1995), Zhang (2005) universities are more likely to pursue master's degrees than those from teaching-oriented universities (Jung and Lee, 2019). Previous research indicates a significant relationship between the field of study and the decision to pursue a master's education. ...
... The results of this study are in line with recent educational choice models that include individual, institutional and economic characteristics among factors shaping decisions of enrolment in master education (Perna, 2006;English and Umbach, 2016). Consistent with Bourdieu's (1977) theory, we found that parent education and academic performances predict the propensity towards master education, confirming the results of previous studies (González and Dávila, 1998;Latiesa, 1989;Jiménez and Salas-Velasco, 2000;Mullen et al., 2003;Perna, 2004;Xu, 2014). Also, according to our results, university performances shape the intentions of students to pursue master's degrees, supporting conclusions of other studies (Schapiro et al., 1991;Hartman and Schmidt, 1995;Kallio, 1995;Zhang, 2005). ...
This article studies educational decisions, focusing on intentions of enrolment in master’s education of STEM bachelor students. Integrating human capital theory with concepts of cultural and social capital, we propose a two-level model for the choice of pursuing master’s degrees. First level (individual) includes factors covering individual habitus and organisational habitus (higher education institutions of bachelor students), while the second level (local) reflects the local business innovation environment. The proposed model was empirically tested on data collected from a sample of STEM and non-STEM bachelor students enroled in 10 public universities located in Romania. The results show that STEM students display a higher propensity to enrol in master's education, and the gap between STEM and non-STEM majors varies across regions. We find that educational decisions related to master’s degrees are shaped by local circumstances reflecting the business innovation intensity as more innovative business contexts are less conducive for enrolment of students in master programmes. In addition, the findings of the study show that local circumstances are not independent of the field of study when shaping students’ educational choices, highlighting the complex way in which individual and local levels factors interplay and shape educational decisions. STEM students’ propensity to enrol in master’s degrees is more influenced by the innovative business environment than other students. This study has implications for higher education policy and practice aiming to support longer educational careers in STEM.
... Um grupo mais recente de trabalhos tenta conciliar e contemplar as contribuições das abordagens sociológica e econômica, sugerindo modelagens econométricas que, por um lado, formalizam a decisão do indivíduo de maneira racional e maximizadora, segundo a teoria do capital humano, mas permitindo que tais escolhas sejam influenciadas pelo ambiente ou pelos valores pessoais ou coletivos (Perna, 2000;Paulsen;John, 2002;Perna, 2004;Paulsen;Toutkoushian, 2008;Malcom;Dowd, 2012;Xu, 2014;English;Umbach, 2016). Nessas formulações, as características de cada grupo de estudantes determinam padrões de comportamento distintos, sendo as decisões encaradas como específicas de cada contexto e decorrentes das circunstâncias nas quais esses grupos se encontram (Paulsen;John, 2002). ...
... O argumento central é que, em um sistema meritocrático, os alunos que obtiveram os melhores resultados durante a graduação devem ter maiores chances de prosseguir em seus estudos em níveis mais avançados (Zimdars, 2007). Além disso, o resultado acadêmico é considerado um indicador de aptidão ou preparo do aluno para os próximos níveis de ensino, incluindo a pós-graduação (Xu, 2014). Alon e Tienda (2007) apontam que essa identificação de meritocracia, de acordo com a pontuação obtida em testes e provas, emerge a partir da segunda metade do século 20, como resultado da concorrência crescente por vagas em universidades. ...
... a desigualdade no aCesso à Pós-graduação stricto sensu brasileira: análise do Perfil dos ingressantes de Cursos de mestrado e doutorado(Xu, 2014), o endividamento estudantil(Millett, 2003;Malcom e Dowd, 2012) e o custo ou tuition fee(Wales, 2013). ...
Este estudo investiga a desigualdade no acesso à pós-graduação no Brasil mediante comparação entre o perfil dos ingressantes dos cursos de mestrado e doutorado e o dos egressos da graduação, considerando cinco critérios: desempenho acadêmico prévio, sexo, raça ou etnia, renda familiar e unidade federativa do curso de graduação. Utiliza microdados identificados de bases distintas que permitem investigar as características dos alunos no momento do término da graduação. Conclui que: (a) os novos pós-graduandos, em geral, apresentam um desempenho acadêmico prévio elevado; (b) a participação feminina na pós-graduação é menor do que na graduação, sendo mais reduzida nas áreas de engenharias, ciências exatas e da terra; (c) a participação de alunos de etnia negra (pardos e pretos) também é inferior àquela observada entre os concluintes da graduação; (d) ingressantes no mestrado e doutorado, em geral, apresentam renda familiar mais elevada; e (e) não há um cenário claro acerca da concentração de desigualdade regional da pós-graduação. Os resultados apontam para a importância de futuras investigações que testem a hipótese de inequidade no acesso.
... The first stage is estimated using a conditional logit model, while a binary logistic regression model is applied to the second stage (Greene 2011). Based on recent publications showing that graduate choice and returns are affected by major or academic field (Altonji et al. 2016;Mertens and Röbken 2013;Bedard and Herman 2008;Xu 2014), graduate enrollment is estimated separately for each of the eight 'broad groups and academic fields' of the International Standard Classification of Education (UNESCO 1997). ...
... A recent group of studies attempted to combine both approaches by developing econometric models that employ the maximization decision process of human capital theory, but allowing tastes, preferences and costs to be influenced by students' values and 'habitus' (Perna 2004(Perna , 2006Paulsen and John 2002;Xu 2014;Malcom and Dowd 2012;Paulsen and Toutkoushian 2008;English and Umbach 2016;Perna 2000). Students' choices are analyzed in 'situated contexts', following a pattern dictated by characteristics of both individuals and groups to which they belong. ...
... Inequity in graduate education largely remains an open debate. Nevertheless, performance at the undergraduate level is generally accepted to be an important predictor of graduate enrollment in different countries (Heller 2001;Mullen et al. 2003;Zimdars 2007;Lang 1987;Zhang 2005;Xu 2014;Choy and Carroll 2000). The idea of equity as fairness discussed previously (OECD 2017;Santiago et al. 2008) suggests that it should be a key factor, as students that achieved better results during college are more likely to progress to a master's or Ph.D. program, also indicating their readiness for graduate education (Xu 2014). ...
This paper presents an assessment of the factors associated with access to master's degree programs in Brazil, investigating whether there is evidence of inequity arising from students' personal and socioeconomic characteristics. A rich and novel dataset comprising microdata on undergraduate college graduates and new master's students is used for the empirical analysis. Students' decisions to progress to graduate education are modeled as a two-stage process, and the parameters are estimated separately for each broad academic field using a conditional logit model for the first stage, and a logistic regression analysis for the second stage. The main findings are: (a) there is strong evidence of low mobility of students starting graduate education, and they are far more likely to choose a master's degree program in the same university or close to where they graduated from college; (b) academic performance and activities during undergraduate program in college are associated with an increase in the relative odds of progressing to graduate education; (c) in most broad academic fields, no evidence that women, black or brown students, economically disadvantaged students, foreigners and people with disabilities are less likely to start a master's program is found; and (d) a significant association between the odds of enrollment and parental education is not observed in nearly all fields. The study points to different recommendations and to further research questions to understand and improve graduate education in Brazil.
... Both Girves and Wemmerus (1998) and Hagedorn (1999) claimed that GPA is an indicator of persistence. Second, the findings about the important role of academic and social integration are also in agreement with many other studies (Cockrell & Shelley, 2011;Hagedorn, 1999;Liu & Liu, 2000;Lovitts, 2001;Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005;Tinto, 1993;Xu, 2015). In this study, academic integration was explored through the connection they build with their professors and support provided by the faculty members. ...
... About 78% of the participants were satisfied with their academic experience in the college's academic environment. Similarly, both Hagedorn (1999) and Xu's (2015) studies claimed that keeping a positive student-student and student-faculty interactions will lead to persistence. Lovitts' (2001) study stated that those who are engaged in strong professional relationships with a faculty member would persist in their graduate programs. ...
... This is evidenced that many students who dropped out had a poor academic advising experience. Indeed, academic advising is an important process for faculty and staff in helping students making decisions and executing actions to achieve their educational and career goals (Xu, 2015). ...
This study aimed to explore influential personal factors that could affect graduate students’ academic persistence. Data were collected with an online questionnaire and one-on-one interviews. The findings indicated that graduate students had integrated into the academic environment and established a positive relationship with advisors and program coordinators. Participants have limited social interactions with classmates. This factor decreased the importance of social integration on persistence. Data indicated that participants’ self-directed learning readiness was moderately high. This study suggests that these three personal factors are intertwined in influencing graduate students’ decision to persist in the academic programs.
... Another systematic quantitative study in Canada assessed influential socio-cultural factors determining graduate student dropout as outside colleges' direct administrative control, but recommends social support strategies (DeClou, 2016). A third study used logistic regression from archived datasets (collected in 2003) to predict graduate continuation and persistence of undergraduate completers, and identified significant influences of academic, financial, and social variables (Xu, 2015). ...
... This is one of very few systematic modeling studies across a multi-disciplinary graduate sample to include students' dropout intentions. Many published studies in graduate education present limitations that constrain generalizability, such as focusing in single disciplines (e.g., Dollarhide et al., 2013;Solem et al., 2011), only including doctoral students (e.g., Golde, 2000;Litalien & Guay, 2015;Mullen et al., 2010), using qualitative methods and very small local samples (e.g., Peters & Daly, 2013;Vekkaila et al., 2013Vekkaila et al., ), or defaulting to older (2001Vekkaila et al., , 2003 archived data sets (e.g., Barnes & Randall, 2012;Xu, 2015). While these large national data sets offer robust sampling, we argue they may present somewhat dated perspectives (a decade or more old) relative to current issues and needs in the rapidly-changing context of higher education (see also Choi, 2016;Levine, 2005;Manning, 2013). ...
Aim/Purpose: Dropout is a critical problem in graduate college programs across disciplines and institutions. Yet relatively little research has assessed graduate students’ motivations for dropping out across disciplines, or systematically modeled perceptions that contribute to dropout intentions. Background: Perceptions drive critical decisions that people make about their lives, and a core set of these perceptions consistently predict adults’ educational intentions and choices. This study investigates how a set of critical perceptions predict the strength of graduate students’ dropout intentions. Methodology: This study models their differential contributions using structural equation modeling, in AMOS®. Participants were 886 masters and doctoral students across programs and colleges in a Southwestern university in the United States. Findings: The best-fitting model demonstrated most significant influences on graduate students’ dropout intentions were predicted by: satisfaction with the overall graduate experience (not just program-of-study), self-efficacy for professional success (not just coursework), and the Perceived Graduate Experience Gap (expectations vs. experience in graduate school). Model fit was excellent for the whole group, and demonstrated some nuanced differences for subgroups, notably by degree type and point-in-program. Recommendations for Practitioners: These findings illuminate considerations useful to graduate faculty and program administrators concerned about improving retention and completion. They can inform policies and practice for preventing and reducing graduate student dropout.
... Regional quality assessment agencies have also studied student enrolment (Figuera Gazo & Torrado Fonseca, 2019a), and some studies have a wider scope (Figuera Gazo & Torrado Fonseca, 2019b;OECD, 2019). While such data are important, they cannot show differences beyond variables such as country, region and topic area, nor capture the particularities of transition processes, a topic that recent research has highlighted (Glazer-Raymo, 2005;Gordon, 2016;McPherson et al., 2017;Xu, 2014). In this article we ask to what extent variables such as students' profiles, motivations and satisfaction relate to the different types of master's degrees currently offered by Spanish universities. ...
... Thus a relationship has been found between satisfaction and teaching methods the type and quality of student-teacher relationships (Silva et al., 2019;Tinto, 2017). Other topics are the university's educational culture (Figuera Gazo & Torrado Fonseca, 2019a;Griffioen et al., 2018;Vela, 2015); the type of master's degree (face-to-face, blended or virtual: Figuera Gazo, Llanes Ordóñez, et al., 2019;Filak & Nicolini, 2018); and organizational aspects of the curriculum (Cassuto, 2015;Xu, 2014) and university facilities (Cruz et al., 2019;Gordon, 2016;Silva et al., 2019). Lastly, external factors such as class atmosphere, peer relationships (Figuera Gazo & Torrado Fonseca, 2019b;Rienties et al., 2014) and socialisation processes (Hardré et al., 2019;Tompkins et al., 2016), variables that are particularly important for international students (Hennebry & Fordyce, 2017), have also been investigated. ...
This study investigated the relationships between the motivations of master’s students and satisfaction with the programme. Participants included 978 students from two Spanish universities. The results showed that the characteristics of the master’s programme explained the differences in the reasons for choice and student satisfaction. We found a positive relationship between academic satisfaction and the reasons for self-realization and personal growth. The results allow us to reconsider the process of student guidance and counselling.
... Diverse subgroups of students may need additional supports to ensure successful completion. For example, racial minority and female students were less likely to complete their graduate programs than their male counterparts were (Xu, 2014). One factor influencing women noncompletion included fewer discussions with advisors than male students had. ...
... A review of the literature on the topic suggested the DCGP should expect to find an equity gap related to candidates' personal characteristics for noncompleters (Lovitts, 1996;Tinto, 1982;Xu, 2014). However, participants did not refer to personal characteristics, such as race, gender, or background experiences, as contributing factors to their noncompletion. ...
This study identified emergent themes from the interview data of at-risk-for-completion doctoral candidates (N = 13; 59%), from a diverse demographic, who participated in a successful dissertation completion intervention program. The findings revealed four major themes including extrinsic factors, socioemotional, formal structures of the program, and personal development. The findings highlight the need for conscious processes used by vital leaders to develop program design in four key areas of leadership within a framework of open vital systems. Vital leadership acts as proxy agents to influence development of formal structures in the university leading to equity in educational opportunity for all students. Conclusions and parsimonious explicit implications are provided for doctoral program redesign focused on improving graduate student retention and completion rates for diverse student populations.
... Across disciplines, graduate student attrition research typically focuses on the ways in which sociological, psychological, or structural factors in graduate students' lives contribute to attrition. Oft-cited reasons for attrition include financial and nonfinancial costs, socialization experiences, and student-advisor relationships (Ampaw & Jaeger, 2012;Ehrenberg, Jakubson, Groen, So, & Price, 2007;Lovitts, 1996;Pauley, Cunningham, & Toth, 1999;Xu, 2015). Several studies highlight tension between the expectations of faculty related to productivity and commitment to the discipline (Barnes, 2010;Lovitts, 2001;Maher, Wofford, Roksa, & Feldon, 2017). ...
... While many causes of attrition likely transfer across disciplinary settings (e.g., student-advisor relationships), the context of engineering motivates a disciplinary perspective. For example, two common themes in attrition literature for social science and humanities students are related to lack of funding (Ampaw & Jaeger, 2012;Ehrenberg et al., 2007;Lovitts, 1996;Pauley et al., 1999;Xu, 2015) and lengthy time to degree completion (Gardner, 2008(Gardner, , 2010. In contrast, upward of 80% of engineering graduate students are fully funded, and engineering is a fast-and high-completing discipline (Crede & Borrego, 2013, 2014Gardner, 2009). ...
Background
Graduate engineering student attrition is prevalent, but most literature that studies graduate attrition is accomplished in disciplines outside of STEM or engineering, yielding an incomplete understanding of either attrition or persistence.
Purpose/Hypothesis
The purpose of this article is to investigate the relationships between motivators of attrition for engineering graduate students.
Design/Method
Data were collected using an online Web‐scraping “bot” that mines data from the online forum Reddit. The anonymous textual forum threads collected were qualitatively analyzed through open‐coding methods.
Results
The emergent themes reveal the interconnectedness between the roles of the advisor, student perception of cost, their support network, goals, their perceptions of how others perceive them, and quality of life and work. Our model is flexible in that it illuminates underlying combinations of factors that can influence student attrition.
Conclusion
This study provides a framework by which various stakeholders can approach the support and education of graduate students, including mentoring students both toward or away from graduate school per the student's goals.
... As a result, some graduate students do not receive a graduate degree. These students do not persist on graduate education and are called nonpersistent students (Berger, Blanco Ram ırez, & Lyon, 2012;Davidson, Beck, & Milligan, 2009;Litalien & Guay, 2015;Spaulding & Rockinson-Szapkiw, 2012;Xu, 2014). Different terms are used in the literature for this type of process including departure (Lovitts, 2001), college dropout (Tinto, 1975), and college withdrawal (Pascarella & Chapman, 1983). ...
... Personal factors including age, semester, and past performance predicted intention to leave. In the literature, age (Castell o et al., 2017;Fike & Fike, 2008;Lott et al., 2009), semester (Bank, Slavings, & Biddle, 1990;Ishitani, 2003), and past performance (Aulck, Velagapudi, Blumenstock, & West, 2016;Cabrera et al., 1993;Ishitani, 2006;Kahn & Nauta, 2001;Seidel & Kutieleh, 2017;Xu, 2014) were linked to student attrition. In this aspect, this study gave compatible results with the literature. ...
Students in graduate education have a desire to hold a degree because of contributions of graduate education such as opportunity to become faculty member, professional development, and promotion. Despite these benefits of graduate education, there are students who do not persist on gaining a graduate degree. This study aims to develop and test a model to determine the role of personal and organizational factors on student attrition from graduate education and to investigate graduate student attrition from the lenses of students and faculty. The design of the study was mixed-model research. Through a three-staged clustered random sampling and purposeful sampling, respectively, 653 and 36 participants were selected. Results of the correlational analysis indicated that intention to leave graduate education was predicted by personal factors, while the phenomenological part of the study pointed out that personal factors were more visible in student attrition than organizational factors.
... Por otra parte, tenemos evidencias del aumento del abandono de estos estudios: los datos para el conjunto del sistema español (cohorte 2009-10) ofrecen unas tasas globales de abandono de estudio del 24.9% (un 19.3% en el primer año), pero en la actualidad no disponemos de información sufi ciente que permita la comprensión del proceso de transición que está teniendo lugar en los másteres (Cohen, 2012;Gordon, 2016;Xu, 2014). Así pues, podemos confi rmar la ausencia de investigaciones relativas a las transiciones en este nivel formativo, a pesar del incremento de ese tipo de población. ...
... Nuestra investigación pretende indagar sobre los determinantes de la satisfacción y la motivación para los estudios, relacionando las metas perseguidas y su valor con la percepción de las experiencias de los estudiantes. Entre los determinantes de la satisfacción en los estudios de máster, se subraya la infl uencia de las variables contextuales, relacionadas con el tipo de disciplina o campo de estudio (Xu, 2014), así como la orientación profesional e investigadora de la formación en un campo determinado (Cassuto, 2015), o las diferencias entre las especialidades de la misma formación. ...
This article presents the results of a research aimed at analysing the motivations and academic satisfaction in the transition to master’s studies in Social and Legal Sciences. 453 students from 8 master’s degrees from the University of Barcelona and Autonomous University of Barcelona have participated. The results show differences between the typology of master and reasons for choice and satisfaction with studies and the relationship between academic satisfaction and the motives of choice. The specificity of the transition processes to these studies and the importance of establishing guiding actions are confirmed.
... When institutions desired higher completions in their doctoral programs, several researchers encouraged candidacy evaluations prior to admission (van de Schoot et al., 2013) as high GRE scores (Gardner, 2010;Stock & Siegfried, 2014;Sutton, 2014), high ACT/SAT and undergraduate GPA (Gardner, 2010;Xu, 2014), especially from selective undergraduate programs (Xu, 2014), were predictive of high completion rates. Attrition was also increased by candidates matriculating from lower quality undergraduate institutions (Sock & Siegfried, 2014), and other researchers noted students admitted to doctoral programs were not sufficiently prepared to write at the expected level (Moak & Walker, 2014;Sutton, 2014) or lacked necessary research skills (Bates & Goff, 2012;West et al., 2011). ...
... When institutions desired higher completions in their doctoral programs, several researchers encouraged candidacy evaluations prior to admission (van de Schoot et al., 2013) as high GRE scores (Gardner, 2010;Stock & Siegfried, 2014;Sutton, 2014), high ACT/SAT and undergraduate GPA (Gardner, 2010;Xu, 2014), especially from selective undergraduate programs (Xu, 2014), were predictive of high completion rates. Attrition was also increased by candidates matriculating from lower quality undergraduate institutions (Sock & Siegfried, 2014), and other researchers noted students admitted to doctoral programs were not sufficiently prepared to write at the expected level (Moak & Walker, 2014;Sutton, 2014) or lacked necessary research skills (Bates & Goff, 2012;West et al., 2011). ...
Almost universally, residential doctoral programs have reported attrition rates of up to 50% for face-to-face programs and 50-70% for online doctoral programs. The purpose of this critical review was to explore current literature for doctoral attrition and persistence to explore reasons and attributes for improved persistence to completion. We analyzed a final sample of 79 studies for context with doctoral attrition and persistence and, following coding, pattern matching, and synthesis, four final constructs emerged: (a) chair agency and chair-candidate relationship; (b) candidate socialization and support systems; (c) candidate preparedness; and (d) financial considerations. These constructs indicated that internal factors from within the doctoral program have affected attrition and we encourage doctoral educational leadership to implement strategies to improve dissertation chair practices through professional development, increased candidate support and socialization opportunities, creation of clearer pathways from academic to dissertation research coursework, and improved financial opportunities and support for candidates. We recommend quantitative explanatory studies to further examine the four factors within the doctoral program to examine the effects on doctoral candidate completion.
... The multiple regression models were used to identify the relationships between department supports and doctoral degree completion and time-to-degree (Tarling, 2009). Extensive research has shown that doctoral completion and time-to-degree were different by fields of study (Baird, 1990;Golde, 2005;Kim & Otts, 2010;Stricker, 1994;Sowell et al., 2008Sowell et al., , 2015Xu, 2014). Therefore, to clarify if the relationship between doctoral completion and time to doctoral differs by disciplines, a separate set of multiple regression models was conducted in STEM and non-STEM fields. ...
... Examining the relationship between department factors and doctoral completion is important for both academic and administrative perspectives. Findings from this study suggested that department supports influence doctoral completion and time-to-degree differently by disciplines, as Xu (2014) suggested that there were major-based differences in the factors that related to graduate student persistence between STEM and non-STEM fields. In addition, different types of financial support and academic supports had different impacts on doctoral completion and time-to-degree. ...
This study examined department supports that influence doctoral completion and time-to-degree among 5,001 doctoral programs at 212 universities in the United States. Multiple regression models were used to determine the relationships between financial support and academic support and doctoral retention and how these relationships vary across STEM and non-STEM fields. Analyzing the American National Research Council’s data, we found that a department’s financial support significantly predict doctoral completion and time-to-degree. However, no overarching relationship was found between department academic support and doctoral completion and time-to-degree. These findings provide a better understanding of how department supports are associated with doctoral student success. The article concludes with implications for theory, practice, and future research.
... This study centers on understanding possible barriers for undergraduates within science, technology, engineering or mathematics programs (STEM) to enter graduate school. Researchers have postulated that a combination of factors influence a students' decision to attend graduate school in general or in non-STEM disciplines including the status of the economy [4], their academic standing [5], a desire to develop more skills prior to entering the workforce, and many other motivations [6,7]. Although these factors, among others, may still exist for the student, the lack of financial resources and support may becoming a more significant barrier [8,9]. ...
... Although these factors, among others, may still exist for the student, the lack of financial resources and support may becoming a more significant barrier [8,9]. It has been suggested that STEM students accumulating loan debt as undergraduates were less likely to pursue advanced study immediately upon graduation, a difficulty that is particularly relevant for STEM students of color [7,10]. When asked why they choose not to pursue graduate study and immediately enter into the workforce, participants cited fear of accumulating more debt as the primary hindrance [8]. ...
Although many factors exist as to why students choose not to pursue graduate study, one significant barrier is the lack of knowledge regarding financial resources available to pursue such study. To explore this, we developed and launched a pilot survey that probed student career plans, current and perceived financial resources, perceptions about the application process for graduate school and the role of finances in their decision to pursue an advanced degree. We also interviewed three undergraduate respondents to further elucidate their views of the utility of graduate degrees in their field and how they went about gathering knowledge about the financial support available for graduate studies. The findings confirmed that most undergraduate students begin to consider graduate school as juniors and seniors. While the participants most often selected financial factors as influencing their graduate school decisions, interviews showed that students amassed financial knowledge from their acquaintances within industry or from graduate students in other disciplines.
... Finally, it is worth noting that of the nine participants, seven were White, and two were students of color. Considering that racial minority students are less likely to complete their degrees compared to their White counterparts (Xu, 2014), future studies may consider exploring how a predominantly White learning environment impacts the competence development and researcher identity of minority students. ...
We explored the dissertation experiences of doctoral candidates with an “all-but-dissertation” (ABD) designation for an extended period. Nine participants’ lived experiences were examined through a transcendental phenomenological approach. The findings reflected the challenges associated with their status as long-term doctoral candidates, personal and environmental barriers to dissertation completion, the nature of support they needed to complete their dissertations, and the meaning of dissertation and degree completion. Implications for dissertation chairing and research training are provided.
... Donde es la función logística que asume valores estrictamente entre cero y uno , para todos los números reales z; es una constante (intercepto), es un vector de coeficientes de regresión asociados a , con y es el término de error. 4 A diferencia de investigaciones previas (Chachashvili-Bolotin et al., 2016;Niu, 2017;Xu, 2014), en este trabajo la variable sexo no se considera en la regresión. Nótese que, dada la especificación del modelo, si la variable sexo se incluye y el coeficiente resulta significativo, se afecta la probabilidad de escoger una carrera STEM. ...
La proporción de mujeres que ingresan a la universidad en Costa Rica ha aumentado en los últimos 20 años. Sin embargo, esta población continúa estando subrepresentada en los campos de las ciencias, tecnología, ingeniería y matemáticas, conocidas como disciplinas STEM (por sus siglas en inglés). Se utilizan los datos de la encuesta del “Observatorio Laboral de Profesiones” del 2019 para estimar un modelo logit que explora los determinantes de la elección de una carrera STEM y el rol que juega la expectativa de ingresos futuros en esta escogencia en los hombres y las mujeres. Los resultados sugieren que el contexto del hogar de procedencia de los individuos es fundamental para las mujeres. Asimismo, se encontró que la expectativa de ingresos únicamente influye en la elección de carrera de los hombres; mientras que la influencia de familiares y amigos tiene un efecto positivo en la decisión de ambos sexos.
... According to Zhou and Okahana (2019) and Xu (2014), student completion rates in doctoral programs across the US are as low as 60%. While these numbers are staggering, several factors play a role in the low completion rates, including the design of doctoral programs, influences from student integration, and the supportiveness of faculty and advisors (Ali & Kohun, 2007;Hanson et al., 2022;Jairam & Kahl, 2012). ...
Aim/Purpose: Our study explores the factors contributing to the Imposter Phenomenon among doctoral students in the United States. Background: Many studies show that Imposter Phenomenon impacts women doctoral students and students from minority groups, especially if they are enrolled in Predominantly White Institutions. Our study focuses explicitly on contributing factors to the Imposter Phenomenon among doctoral students in the United States. The study also explored how Imposter Phenomenon is related to doctoral students’ academic goals and achievements. Methodology: We utilized a qualitative phenomenological research design and conducted semi-structured interviews (45-90 minutes) in person and via Zoom. This study was conducted at a public research university in mid-western United States. A total of 14 (3 male and 11 female) doctoral students participated in the study. These students self-identified as White (9), African American (1), South Asian (2), mixed race (1), and Latina (1). Of the 14 students, 4 were international, and 10 were domestic. These students were from various disciplines, such as Education, Economics, Anthropology, Biology, Plant Sciences, and Engineering. Contribution: The study contributes to the field of psychology and higher education and helps us better understand doctoral students’ conceptions and experiences of the Imposter Phenomenon. The study provides empirical support to some of the previous claims by researchers and provides new insights related to the Imposter Phenomenon. Findings: In our study, participants did not consider the Imposter Phenomenon merely a personal or internal feeling or mental condition as presented in previous studies. We found there are multiple layers of the issue, and sociocultural factors play a contributing role to the Imposter Phenomenon. In our study, we found that relations with family, siblings, peers, and faculty played a significant role in shaping our participants’ sense of self and impacted how they responded to challenges in their academic life. We also noted that institutional culture impacts doctoral students’ self-concept and academic performance. Female doctoral students mentioned institutional culture and prevalent sexism in STEM fields as contributing factors to the Imposter Phenomenon. Overall, gender, race, age, and mental health emerged as major contributing factors to the Imposter Phenomenon among doctoral students. Recommendations for Practitioners: We recommend that higher education institutions should help doctoral students, especially students from underrepresented groups, by providing social, emotional, and economic support. To mitigate the challenges of institutional sexism, racism, and ageism, higher education institutions should consider creating peer support groups and try to foster a healthy and supportive environment for doctoral students. These groups could build on ontological inquiries to bolster student resiliency and self-perception. Also, there is a dire need for easily accessible mental health services on campuses, especially for graduate students. Recommendation for Researchers: Doctoral students, if successful, can play a significant role in society’s future growth. However, doctoral completion rates are currently staggeringly low, and the degree program is long. The situation is exacerbated due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This impacts doctoral students’ emotional, psychological, and economic well-being, and may affect their health and family relationships. Incomplete doctoral degrees can be costly for individuals and society. Higher education institutions must provide better mental health and economic support to help doctoral students succeed in their programs so they can positively contribute to society and the world. Impact on Society: Doctoral students, if successful, can play a significant role in society’s future growth. However, doctoral completion rates are currently staggeringly low, and the degree program is long. The situation is exacerbated due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This impacts doctoral students’ emotional, psychological, and economic well-being, and may affect their health and family relationships. Incomplete doctoral degrees can be costly for individuals and society. Higher education institutions must provide better mental health and economic support to help doctoral students succeed in their programs so they can positively contribute to society and the world. Future Research: We plan to expand our study to better understand the Imposter Phenomenon among doctoral students from cross-cultural perspectives to see if the same factors exist there.
... Each year, about half of the 3,000 first-year students enroll in a general physics, chemistry, biology, and/or earth science course and laboratory course attendance is mandatory. Unlike studies published in other countries which have documented large drop-out rates from introductory science courses (Xu 2014;NCES 2014), at Hankuk University very few students drop their courses or even fail to graduate from the university. Because hands-on science has not been a focus for the Korean national curriculum, most students have had few chances to conduct laboratory activities during their K-12 education. ...
This study examines and describes how various online remote laboratory courses, necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, were implemented at Hankuk University in Korea in 2020. We compared four general undergraduate laboratory courses, one each for physics, chemistry, biology, and earth science, and two major-level laboratory courses taught during the spring and fall of 2020. Employing a sociocultural perspective, we examined how the changes in structures at the macro-, meso-, and micro-levels shaped the responses of educational authorities and impacted the agency of university instructors. Instructors implemented various remote laboratory courses in each content area dependent upon availability and access to material resources, including access to video of laboratory activities, and also based on the nature of experimental data associated with each content area. Drawing from survey responses and in-depth interviews with instructors and students, we share findings about how instructor practices impacted the interactions of students, the processes for evaluation, and student learning. We discuss how the global pandemic has re-ignited the debate about the role and value of experimental laboratory activities for undergraduate science majors and about the significance of hands-on versus minds-on science learning. Implications for how universities approach laboratory coursework in the post-COVID-19 are discussed, and questions for university science instruction are raised for future research.
... With student completion rates in university doctoral programs across the US as low as 40% (Xu, 2014;Zhou & Okahana, 2016), researchers continue to seek ways to address this concern. Research has identified various factors that play a role in the low completion rates, including the design of doctoral programs, influences from student integration (Tinto, 1988), and supportiveness of faculty and advisors (Ali & Kohun, 2007;Barnett et al., 2000;Hanson et al., 2020;Jairam & Kahl, 2012;Stallone, 2011). ...
The doctorate in educational leadership at XYZ University prepares leaders to make positive changes in
their communities and organizations. An important aspect of the program requires students to complete
a Dissertation in Practice related to a problem identified within their educational setting. Students begin
work on the dissertation during their first semester and solidify the focus during the second semester, when
they are matched with a chairperson. This type of academic endeavor can lead to feelings related to
imposter syndrome, including anxiety and fearfulness related to their academic abilities. Faculty at XYZ
University have implemented an innovative active learning experience, a poster presentation and gallery
walk, to mitigate imposter syndrome and foster initial relationships between students and their
dissertation chairperson. In a survey of participants, students confirmed that the gallery walk experience
decreased feelings related to imposter syndrome and left them feeling supported and confident in their
capabilities to complete a dissertation.
... Unfortunately, for 50% of doctoral students, this time-honored process results in the dubious title of ABD (all but dissertation) for a very long time and, unfortunately for many, permanently. This designation is even more pronounced in females and students of color (Xu, 2014). We don't believe that any student of color enters a doctoral program intending to be stalled at ABD or leave the program prematurely. ...
In the United States, doctoral students of color do not complete their programs at the same
rate as White doctoral students. The coursework is not usually the issue. The common point of
the delay is almost always the time spent at all but dissertation (ABD). This autoethnographic
study is of three university faculty––all women of color––their experiences navigating their
individual doctoral programs and ABD statuses, and how they now parlay those experiences
into culturally constructing how they advise their doctoral students of color to persist until
completion. The review of literature is woven among their stories to bring forth a collection of
emergent themes and discussion points to reconsider best practices of advising doctoral students
of color. Ultimately, the goal of this work is to equip departments to better recruit, retain, and
serve doctoral students in general and to enhance the skill set and cultural competency of faculty
advising particularly the dissertation processes of doctoral students of color.
... Even after graduation, women in STEM are often compelled to look for job positions and workplaces that accommodate family responsibilities (Grant et al., 2000). In addition to the unique role gender plays in career prospects, it is worth noting that having a child under six has a significantly greater effect on doctoral students' probability of enrolling in and completing a doctoral program than that of raising older children (Wolfinger et al., 2008;Xu, 2014). To account for the complex nature of marital and parental status (and child age), we created a composite measure of six categories (e.g., single without children or married with children under the age of five or younger). ...
This study examines how primary funding sources during doctoral program including loans, RAships, TAships, fellowships, and
personal/family support, are associated with career outcomes
among STEM doctoral graduates. Using the 2013 Survey of
Earned Doctorates (SED) data commissioned by the NSF, we
conducted a series of logistic and multinomial models and
found that primary funding sources with different debt levels
have distinct effects on career prospects among recent STEM
doctoral graduates. Implications for theory, policy, and future
research are discussed.
... In prior studies examining undergraduate origins of doctorate recipients, researchers have found a strong connection between undergraduate institutional prestige/selectivity and the likelihood of continuing on to graduate study (Wolf-Wendel, 1998;Xu, 2014;Zhang, 2005). Several of these studies showed that attending a more selective undergraduate institution increased the likelihood of being admitted to a more prestigious doctoral program (Eide et al., 1998;Zhang, 2005). ...
Focusing on census data of U.S. doctoral recipients during the last 10 years, we examined PhD production and undergraduate origins with a particular emphasis on institutional selectivity. Specifically, this study had three overarching goals: (1) examining STEM PhD production with an emphasis on the selectivity of doctoral programs; (2) examining the selectivity of undergraduate origins among STEM PhDs from highly selective doctoral programs; and (3) examining whether the patterns of STEM PhD production and undergraduate origins differ by race/ethnicity. This study found significantly different patterns in PhD production overall versus PhDs from top 10 doctoral programs and in the selectivity of undergraduate institutions that produce the number of PhDs overall versus PhDs from the top 10 doctoral programs. We further found that PhD production across varied selectivity of doctoral program and its association with the undergraduate origins differ significantly across different racial/ethnic groups. Implications for policy, programs, and future research are discussed.
... The amount of college debt has an impact on graduate school aspiration for many students, specifically for students of color (Millett, 2003;Xu, 2014;Zhang, 2013). Black and Latinx students were more likely to take out loans for both undergraduate and graduate students (Pyne & Grodsky, 2020). ...
Data provided by the Physical Therapy Central Application System (PTCAS) suggests
that despite the large numbers of applicants to Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) programs on an annual basis, a gap remains between the number of White and Black and Latinx applicants who are offered admission to DPT programs. Efforts made by DPT programs to increase the diversity of their incoming cohorts include the use of holistic review processes and enrichment programs to recruit more diverse classes. However, research suggests that the undergraduate experiences of students of color have an impact on their aspirations to graduate and professional schools, and determine their success in the graduate application process.
The purpose of this study is to explore the experiences of Black and Latinx students as
they navigate the Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) admissions process. This study investigates the ways Black and Latinx students navigate the DPT admissions process, to better understand the recruitment and admissions processes of DPT programs. This qualitative study examined the Black and Latinx student experience of the DPT admissions process through a Critical Race Theory (CRT) framework using phenomenological methods.
Five main themes emerged from this study that describes how Black and Latinx students
experience the DPT admissions process: overcoming challenges, seeking support, race and access, program choice, and, growth and leadership. These findings are discussed in relation to existing literature and CRT. Implications and recommendations for admissions professionals are provided.
... The omission of cultural competency in doctoral mentorship is particularly glaring as differences in mentorship by identity are common. Prior scholarship has also shown that social class, nationality, and age impact students' experiences (Xu, 2014). In particular, the impact of international status, race, and gender on doctoral education is well-documented by empirical literature. ...
Aim/Purpose: Multiple barriers exist within doctoral education in the United States that can undermine the success of students, particularly for students with marginalized identities. While mentorship can provide an important form of support, it must be done in an intentional way that is mindful of issues of equity and power. Background: By applying a power-conscious framework to current practices of doctoral mentorship in the U.S., we propose key considerations to help support doctoral students and shift power imbalances. Methodology: As a scholarly paper, this work draws upon a comprehensive review of existing research on doctoral mentorship in the U.S. Contribution: As a relatively recent development, the power-conscious framework provides an important tool to address issues of inequity that has not yet been applied to doctoral mentorship to our knowledge. Such a framework provides clear implications for mentorship relationships, institutional policies, and future research. Findings: The power-conscious framework has direct applicability to and possibility for reshaping doctoral mentorship in the U.S. as well as elsewhere. Each of the six foci of the framework can be integrated with research on doctoral students to help formal and informal mentors enhance their practice. Recommendations for Practitioners: Throughout our analysis, we pose questions for mentors to consider in order to reflect upon their practice and engage in further exploration. Recommendation for Researchers: Research on doctoral mentorship should explicitly engage with broader dynamics of power, particularly as related to understanding the experiences of marginalized student populations. Impact on Society: The demanding nature of and precarity within U.S. doctoral education leads to high rates of departure and burnout amongst students. By re-envisioning mentorship, we hope to begin a broader re-imagining of doctoral education to be more equitable and supportive of students. Future Research: To examine these claims, future research should explore doctoral student mentorship relationships and how power dynamics are contained therein both within the U.S. and in international contexts.
... While attrition is difficult to quantify, because of the way attrition is counted or reported by different universities, studies estimate that forty to sixty percent of doctoral students leave their program in some disciplines [1]. Within engineering, factors such as academic culture [2], academic capabilities [3], and race and gender [4]- [6] have all been attributed to attrition and persistence. While some studies offer recommendations for addressing this issue [7]- [9], attrition remains complex, with many different factors that affect each individual's decision. ...
... In addition to the causes, there are some negative consequences of student attrition. Xu (2014) emphasized the economic, social, and emotional costs of student attrition. Lovitts (2001) put emphasis on both personal and labor market consequences of PhD attrition. ...
Graduate education leads students to follow a career in their expertise fields. In this respect, graduate education is attractive to students. However, in graduate education, there are several factors affecting the students’ degree completion. This study aims to check the student attrition rates for master’s and doctoral education and to investigate the role of organizational factors on the degree non-completion in graduate education. This study was designed as a correlational study using secondary data. The non-completion rate was the criterion variable, while the university type, the students per faculty member, and the articles published per faculty member were the predictors. Descriptive statistics and Simultaneous Multiple Regression Analysis were performed to achieve the purpose of the study. The findings of the current study showed that the student attrition rates for master’s education were higher than those for doctoral education. Furthermore, the articles per faculty member predicted the non-completion both in master’s and doctoral degree, while the university type predicted only the non-completion in master’s degree. It was recommended that the performance of the academic staff should be taken into consideration to increase the degree completion rates.
... Published research has identified differences according to discipline or field of study [29,32], and the fact students may be pursuing a professional-skills-or a research-focused curriculum within a given field [33,25] and according to modality (online vs. face-to-face). Figuera and cols. ...
This research addresses the profile and motives for enrollment of online master’s students in three different fields of knowledge (humanities, social sciences and experimental sciences) at an online university. The data has been collected through an ad hoc questionnaire; the sample, obtained of 253 UNIBA master’s students, has been analyzed using a descriptive methodology and a factor and comparative analysis of the investigation dimensions. The results include the different access profiles of the students that have been identified based on a set of sociodemographic variables. Furthermore, the differences between their motives for enrolling and the latent factors that can be identified. These results are discussed, and compared to traditional, face-to-face, master’s degrees, which have had an extremely increase on enrollment in the last few years. The importance of guidance and tutoring are examined as tools to guarantee quality standards and support student’s perseverance and overall success.
... Since dropping out of school can be modeled as a contagion [15,16], this suggests that a threshold model of dropping out would assign different thresholds to different ethnic groups. Similarly, graduate students have a much higher drop out rate than other students at selective institutions [17], indicating that threshold-based contagion models of dropping out would assign a lesser threshold (to drop out) to graduate students than to undergraduates. As a final example, treating depression as a contagion [18], women are more likely to become depressed from their friends' depression than men [19]. ...
We consider the problem of inferring the local transition functions of discrete dynamical systems from observed behavior. Our focus is on synchronous systems whose local transition functions are threshold functions. We assume that the topology of the system is known and that the goal is to infer a threshold value for each node so that the system produces the observed behavior. We show that some of these inference problems are efficiently solvable while others are . NP-complete, even when the underlying graph of the dynamical system is a simple path. We identify a fixed parameter tractable problem in this context. We also consider constrained versions of threshold inference problems where the input includes a set of equality or inequality constraints (which specify pairs of nodes which must have the same threshold value or different threshold values). We present algorithmic and complexity results for several constrained threshold inference problems.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) is defined as the highest achievable degree and represents the completion of a specialized mentored project. Concerningly, graduate programs are structured in ways that can lead to inequities that exclude graduate students based on race, class, gender, ability, and additional intersecting social locations. Drawing from Yuval-Davis' framework on the politics of belonging and Porter et al. 's institutional critique methodology, the goal of the qualitative study was to examine how a chemistry graduate program fosters the professional development of its students through the graduate student milestones (admissions, preliminary exams, coursework, candidacy exam, seminar, and dissertation defense). The data comprised of documents such as the 2019 graduate student handbook and information from the departmental website, along with interviews involving faculty ( N = 5), staff ( N = 3), and administrators ( N = 2) who served as policy agents. Findings highlight how misalignment within the admissions, preliminary exam, and candidacy milestones can create boundaries for belonging. In contrast, the seminar milestone had alignment that contributed to belonging while the coursework and dissertation defense milestones had ambiguous alignment that contributed to belonging. After gathering and analyzing the data, I collaborated with a team at the university's Department of Chemistry to revise the preliminary exam and candidacy exam milestones, aiming to enhance their inclusivity. Overall, this study offers implications for structuring chemistry graduate programs and STEM programs broadly.
Purpose
Historically, graduate education’s goal was to prepare academics; now most science, technology, engineering and/or mathematics (STEM) graduate students (GSs) go on to nonacademic careers. STEM GSs must be equipped for success regardless of career aspirations, which can be done by strengthening GSs’ professional identities. This study aims to explore an interdisciplinary partnership designed to strengthen STEM GS professional identity.
Design/methodology/approach
The STEM Partnership Project (SPP), asked STEM GSs to serve as disciplinary experts and teach STEM content to elementary teacher candidates (TCs) so the TCs could design and teach an elementary science lesson. GSs also enrolled in a one-credit course to support SPP participation and activities. Over five semesters, the authors collected data from 28 STEM GSs across different disciplines and degree programs in the form of course assignments, surveys and interviews.
Findings
The SPP supported the development of a professional identity by having GSs serve as and feel like experts; increasing GSs’ sense of belonging in their field; increasing GSs’ self-confidence that they could (learn to) teach a wide variety of audiences; and raising GSs’ awareness of their ability to serve others via their field.
Originality/value
The SPP’s outcomes were consistent across STEM disciplines, did not require GSs to take on large amounts of coursework, nor did it cost much beyond materials for the various lessons. Furthermore, the key components that strengthened GSs’ professional identities could be adapted for different contexts and institutions.
Background
While attrition from the PhD has been attributed to many high‐level causal factors, such as funding, advisor relationship, and “fit” into a department, few studies have closely examined the mechanisms of attrition or why and how graduate engineering students begin to consider attrition from their doctoral programs.
Design/Method
This study analyzed interviews with current and former doctoral engineering students at research universities across the United States, collected through two closely‐related studies on graduate engineering experiences and attrition consideration. We used critical event analysis as a methodological approach to understand the experiences of a subset of 13 participants, who, at some point in their graduate career, experienced a singular event that caused them to question whether to persist in their PhD program.
Purpose/Hypothesis
The purpose of the present paper is to investigate how graduate engineering students begin to question whether they should remain in their PhD programs of study.
Results
We categorized the environments in which critical events occurred into four quadrants along the lines of University and Nonuniversity Settings and Routine versus Unexpected Contexts, mapping critical events and supporting events to themes from prior literature. The findings demonstrate how seemingly mundane experiences for faculty can be cataclysmic in the eyes of the student; how critical events serve to magnify other issues that had been accumulating over time; and how students may not self‐reflect on their rationale for pursuing a PhD until a critical juncture occurs.
Conclusions
Critical events are one mechanism by which students may begin considering departure from their engineering PhD programs. Some critical events masquerade within mundane contexts, like conversations or conferences (although, in retrospect, students can identify other relevant features contributing to dissatisfaction). From this work, we provide implications geared toward administrators, advisors, and graduate students on how to address and potentially mitigate critical events or their effects, including engaging in conversations about leaving.
Some graduate engineering students, returners, have spent many years in industry before returning to school. Others, direct pathway students, complete a master’s degree along with the undergraduate degree or go back to school fairly quickly after their undergraduate degree has been obtained. The focus of this study was to investigate the differences and similarities in direct pathway and returners. Differences include the rationale for obtaining a degree, the assumption that teamwork is essential to success, and specific self-efficacy statements. Those who have spent time in industry change disciplines more often. Similarities include no difference in graduate grade point averages (GPAs), while undergraduate GPAs are different for the two groups, and there is no difference in the calculus concept inventory.
University plays a vital role in the social development of students, and, in line with this premise, the main foundations for the creation of the European Higher Education Area are based on the social perspective for its promotion. The introduction of the Spanish university system into the European Higher Education Area has had an impact on initial teacher training. In order to maintain a balance from the social perspective, this work analyses the student's perception of a bachelor's degree in early childhood education and primary education and a master's in secondary education on the implications of the European convergence process for their initial training. It is a descriptive study that uses an "ad hoc" scale as an instrument for data collection, addressed to students from two Spanish universities (n=682). Results show the positive evaluation of the student towards the practicum, understood as a complement to their academic training, as well as the coherence between the theoretical and practical contents in the different subjects, among other aspects. However, it also criticizes the development of subjects taught by several professors, as well as the lack of information disseminated by the university on the implications that this European process has generated in the teaching-learning process. These perceptions are more favorable in master's students than in undergraduate students. This allows the identification of the potentialities and limitations of the European process for the initial teacher training.
Excerpt] The plan of this study is as follows. In the remainder of this chapter, some background data are presented on the academic labor market and new Ph.D. production in the United States. Chapter 7 describes a schematic model of academic labor supply and indicates the underlying trends since 1970 in a number of variables that contribute to projections of shortages of faculty. In Chapter 8, a general model of occupational choice and the decision to undertake and complete graduate study is sketched. This framework, available data, and the prior academic literature are then used to address students' choice of college majors, decisions to undertake and complete graduate study, decisions on the time it takes to complete Ph.D. programs, and decisions on choices of sectors of employment for new and experienced Ph.D.s. Chapter 9, addresses issues relating to the age structure of the faculty and retirement policies as well as minority and female representation in academe. Finally, Chapter 10 considers whether a shortage of American Ph.D.s would really matter and/or could be eased by increased reliance on foreign students trained in the United States, faculty currently employed in foreign institutions, and faculty without doctorates. It also briefly summarizes the implications of the study for both future research needs and public policy.
Most large-scale secondary data sets used in higher education research (e.g., NPSAS or BPS) are constructed using complex survey sample designs where the population of interest is stratified on a number of dimensions and oversampled within certain of these strata. Moreover, these complex sample designs often cluster lower level units (e.g., students) within higher level units (e.g., colleges) to achieve efficiencies in the sampling process. Ignoring oversampling (unequal probability of selection) in complex survey designs presents problems when trying to make inferences—data from these designs are, in their raw form, admittedly nonrepresentative of the population to which they are designed to generalize. Ignoring the clustering of observations in these sampling designs presents a second set of problems when making inferences about variability in the population and testing hypotheses and usually leads to an increased likelihood of committing Type I errors (declaring something as an effect when in fact it is not). This article presents an extended example using complex sample survey data to demonstrate how researchers can address problems associated with oversampling and clustering of observations in these designs.
The concept of cultural capital has been increasingly used in American sociology to study the impact of cultural reproduction on social reproduction. However, much confusion surrounds this concept. In this essay, we disentangle Bourdieu and Passeron's original work on cultural capital, specifying the theoretical roles cultural capital plays in their model, and the various types of high status signals they are concerned with. We expand on their work by proposing a new definition of cultural capital which focuses on cultural and social exclusion. We note a number of theoretical ambiguities and gaps in the original model, as well as specific methodological problems. In the second section, we shift our attention to the American literature on cultural capital. We discuss its assumptions and compare it with the original work. We also propose a research agenda which focuses on social and cultural selection and decouples cultural capital from the French context in which it was originally conceived to take into consideration the distinctive features of American culture. This agenda consists in 1) assessing the relevance of the concept of legitimate culture in the U.S.; 2) documenting the distinctive American repertoire of high status cultural signals; and 3) analyzing how cultural capital is turned into profits in America.
Curricula in U.S. colleges and universities have historically evolved around two ideal types: arts and science fields (A&S), and vocational fields. Using the National Educational Longitudinal Study, 1992–1994, we find that high socioeconomic status (SES) students are more likely to choose A&S fields than are low-SES students. The Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study, 1993–1997, shows that vocational majors are employed at higher paying jobs than are A&S majors 4 years after college graduation, while arts and science majors are more likely to enroll in graduate school during these years. We conclude that these distinct educational trajectories reinforce the relationship between parents' and their children's social class.
Institutional prestige is an inherent part of higher education in the U.S., resulting in rankings that often become the rationale for resource allocation. Interviews with 38 faculty members and 60 doctoral students led to a better understanding of how prestige-seeking influenced their views of doctoral education at one institution.
This exploratory article forms the background for an empirical study for the Health Education Authority on children, young people, health, well-being and social capital. In terms of morbidity, children tend not to exhibit clear health problems, but obviously engage in activities that have important implications for their health and well-being (West & Sweeting, 1996), and these activities may be influenced by, as well as impact upon, children's social capital. Social capital is an elusive concept and has been defined in various ways, and refers to sociability, social networks and social support, trust, reciprocity, and community and civic engagement. The paper contrasts three interpretations of the concept, by Coleman (1988, 1990), Putnam (1993, 1995) and Bourdieu (1986). It concludes that the concept is currently poorly specified as it relates to children, and that the use of the term is inherently problematic, and needs to be carefully critiqued and empirically grounded before it can usefully be applied in social policy formulations. One possible way forward might be to conceptualise social capital not so much as a measurable ‘thing’, rather as a set of processes and practices that are integral to the acquisition of other forms of ‘capital’ such as human capital and cultural capital (ie qualifications, skills, group memberships, etc).
This article examines the use and interpretation of logistic regression in three leading higher education research journals from 1988 to 1999. The journals were selected because of their emphasis on research, relevance to higher education issues, broad coverage of research topics, and reputable editorial policies. The term logistic regression encompasses logit modeling, probit modeling, and tobit modeling and the significance tests of their estimates. A total of 52 articles were identified as using logistic regression. Our review uncovered an increasingly sophisticated use of logistic regression for a wide range of topics. At the same time, there continues to be confusion over terminology. The sample sizes used did not always achieve a desired level of stability in the parameters estimated. Discussion of results in terms of delta-Ps and marginal probabilities was not always cautionary, according to definitions. The review is concluded with recommendations for journal editors and researchers in formulating appropriate editorial policies and practice for applying the versatile logistic regression technique and in communicating its results with readers of higher education research.
Examined how students' enrollment responses to college costs--both in college choice and persistence decisions--vary by social class. Found substantial class-based patterns of enrollment behavior in response to prematriculation perceptions of college costs and actual postmatriculation costs, consistently restricting postsecondary opportunities for lower-income relative to higher-income students. (EV)
This is the book that has forever changed the debate on affirmative action in America. The Shape of the River is the most far-reaching and comprehensive study of its kind. It brings a wealth of empirical evidence to bear on how race-sensitive admissions policies actually work and clearly defines the effects they have had on over 45,000 students of different races. Its conclusions mark a turning point in national discussions of affirmative action--anything less than factual evidence will no longer suffice in any serious debate of this vital question. Glenn Loury's new foreword revisits the basic logic behind race-sensitive policies, asserting that since individuals use race to conceptualize themselves, we must be conscious of race as we try to create rules for a just society. Loury underscores the need for confronting opinion with fact so we can better see the distinction between the "morality of color-blindness" and the "morality of racial justice."
The influence of attending a women's--versus a coeducational--college on early career attainments of women was assessed through a national sample of college students. When controlled for individual background traits and aspirations and for college selectivity and size, the net impact of attending a women's college on five measures of attainment was reduced to nonsignificance.
While student loans provide college opportunity for many, undergraduate student debt resulting from typical and heavy borrowing hinders future investments in human capital. Propensity score matching analysis of the NSF’s 2003 National Survey of Recent College Graduates demonstrates that debt negatively affects the graduate school enrollment of bachelor’s degree holders in STEM fields, where debt is measured by a student’s cumulative undergraduate debt relative to the mean debt of his or her baccalaureate graduating cohort. The findings support recent changes in financial aid policy that seek to reduce undergraduate borrowing by increasing means-tested grant aid.
This study uses the Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study 1993/94 of the National Center for Education Statistics to examine the relationship that student background characteristics, collegiate performance, and financial indebtedness have with the decisions of recent bachelor's degree recipients to apply to and enroll in a graduate or first professional school.
There is growing interest in the heterogeneity of earnings among college graduates. This study examines earnings differentials across both individual and institutional characteristics. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, it can be seen that graduates from highly or most selective colleges and universities earn significantly more than graduates from less selective institutions. Additionally, graduates from graduate degree granting and research universities, and private universities earn more than their counterparts from liberal arts colleges and public institutions. There is, however, variation across racial and gender groups in the returns to individual and college characteristics. These findings are important in an educational environment where the (market) value of a liberal arts education is under scrutiny, and where the higher costs of private versus public colleges and universities are being questioned.
While Income inequality among college graduates is well documented, inequality in occupational status remains largely unexplored.
We examine whether and how occupational specificity of college majors is related to college graduates' transition into the
labor market and their subsequent occupational trajectories. Analyses of NLSY79 indicate that occupationally specific degrees
are beneficial at the point of entry into the labor market but have the lowest growth in occupational status over time. Students
earning credentials focusing on general skills, in contrast, begin in jobs with low occupational status but subsequently report
the greatest growth. These findings illuminate specific ways in which educational and occupational systems interact and provide
a novel approach for understanding inequality in labor market outcomes among college graduates.
There appears to be a recruitment process in which recruits tend to look at people much like themselves, proceed with an uncertain feel for what defines a desirable candidate (while emphasising considerations of personal style over indicators of analytical-technical competence), and concentrate efforts among those who have received a prestigious degree. Analysis of one American business school's recruiting procedures produces evidence that simply by being admitted to this school students ensure themselves of the opportunity to be considered for “fast track” positions in the corporate world, and, once entered into the contest, compete among themselves on the basis of their ability to convey a personal style in line with prevailing norns of “executive” behaviour at particular companies.
A survey was sent to 106 African American doctoral recipients in sport and exercise science disciplines. Of these, 74, or 69.8% responded. Data analysis indicated that most respondents were extrinsically motivated to enroll. Persistence was influenced by institutional factors like financial aid and academic support services. (SM)
This paper examines the process by which students arrive in graduate school by estimating a causal model incorporating measures of socioeconomic background and undergraduate institutional characteristics and experiences. The student''s background was found to influence strongly the initial choice of undergraduate institution, but the direct impact of background became nonsignificant as the student progressed through the educational process. However, background variables do affect decisions to enroll in graduate school, although indirectly, through intervening variables. Primary direct influences on graduate school attendance were found from variables associated with the undergraduate experience. Although both academic and social integration are significant for men and women, academic integration has greater influence for men, whereas for women, social integration has a slightly larger effect.
The topic of how prices influence graduate student persistence has seldom been examined. Using the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study of 1987 to examine the influence of prices on within-year persistence by graduate students, this analysis indicates that graduate students, especially those enrolled in public institutions, are responsive to tuition charges in their persistence decisions. The major implication of this finding is that universities should examine the potential impact of price changes on graduate student persistence when they consider tuition increases each year.
This study represents a further examination of the relative importance of social origin and educational measures in the occupational status attainment of former college students. The study is longitudinal and is based on a causal model that incorporates multiple measures of students'' precollege characteristics, the undergraduate institutions they attended, and their performance and experiences within these institutions. Separate analyses were performed for those employed in professional and nonprofessional occupations. The results suggest a basic distinction between the characteristics of undergraduate institutions and students'' performance and experiences within those institutions that are most influential in the occupational status attainment process for those employed in professional and nonprofessional positions. Occupational status attainment in professional careers appears to be influenced more by cognitive attributes of the college attended and the students'' educational performance, whereas the attainment process in nonprofessional careers appears to be influenced more by affective attributes of the collegiate experience.
There is growing interest in the heterogeneity of earnings among college graduates. This study examines earnings differentials across both individual and institutional characteristics. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, it can be seen that graduates from highly or most selective colleges and universities earn significantly more than graduates from less selective institutions. Additionally, graduates from graduate degree granting and research universities, and private universities earn more than their counterparts from liberal arts colleges and public institutions. There is, however, variation across racial and gender groups in the returns to individual and college characteristics. These findings are important in an educational environment where the (market) value of a liberal arts education is under scrutiny, and where the higher costs of private versus public colleges and universities are being questioned.
During college many students switch from their planned major to another, particularly so when that planned major was in a Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics (STEM) field. A worrying statistic shows that persistence in one of these majors is much lower for women and minorities, suggesting that this may be a leaky joint in the STEM pipeline for these two groups of students. This paper uses restricted-use data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen (NLSF) and the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88) to examine which factors contribute to persistence of all students in STEM field majors, and in particular the persistence of women and minorities. Although descriptive statistics show that a smaller percentage of women and minorities persist in a STEM field major as compared to male and nonminority students, regression analysis shows that differences in preparation and the educational experiences of these students explains much of the differences in persistence rates. Students at selective institutions with a large graduate to undergraduate student ratio and that devote a significant amount of spending to research have lower rates of persistence in STEM fields. A higher percentage of female STEM field graduate students positively impacts on the persistence of female students. However, there is little evidence that having a larger percentage of STEM field faculty members that are female increases the likelihood of persistence for women in STEM majors. These results suggest that the sorting of women and minorities into different types of undergraduate programs, as well as differences in their backgrounds have a significant impact on persistence rates.
The Review of Higher Education - Volume 24, Number 2, Winter 2001
Women continue to receive fewer doctoral and first-professional degrees than men, even though women receive more bachelor’s degrees. The underrepresentation of women holds even after allowing for time to complete an advanced degree. For example, women received 55% of the bachelor’s degrees that were awarded in 1994–95 but only 44% of the doctoral degrees and 45% of the first-professional degrees that were awarded five years later in 1999-00 (NCES,2002).1 African Americans also represented smaller shares of doctoral and first-professional degree recipients in 1999-00 than of bachelor’s degree recipients in 1994–95 (5.0% and 6.9% versus 7.5%, NCES, 2002). Hispanics represented a smaller share of doctoral degree recipients (2.9%) but a comparable share of first-professional degrees (4.8%) in 1999-00 than of bachelor’s degrees in 1994–95 (4.7%, NCES, 2002).
Previous research on the demand for graduate study has not focused on the effect of undergraduate indebtedness on individual decisions to pursue a graduate degree. In this article, a modified version of the approach typically used to analyze the transition from high school to college is used to study this effect. Estimates indicate that the level of undergraduate debt is not a significant factor in determining a student’s choice of whether to enter the labor market or continue his or her education. However, this result is subject to qualifications related to the way choices facing students had to be specified, given available data.
Using a nationally representative sample of baccalaureate graduates from 1993, we examine the effect of college quality and undergraduate majors on a variety of graduate education outcomes including graduate school enrollment, graduate degree attainment, and the quality of graduate programs. Other things being equal, college quality has a significant effect on graduate education. More importantly, because part of socioeconomic factors has been crystallized into academic performance and educational credentials, socioeconomic factors exert significant direct and indirect effects on graduate education.
A model where choice of occupation is sequential is applied to college graduates from the National Longitudinal Study of High School Class of 1972 to investigate how higher moments of occupational earnings distributions influence initial field of work. Individual specific life-cycle earnings projections that incorporate option values of occupational mobility are generated, and the relationship between these pay measures and choice of initial occupation is explored within a multinomial logit framework. The findings indicate a strong positive relationship between these earnings predictions and the likelihood that college graduates enter an occupation. Copyright 1997 by University of Chicago Press.
This paper examines whether race and sex play significant roles in the choice of college major for entering freshmen. Of particular interest is whether women and minority students are more or less likely, holding other things constant, to choose to major in science, engineering, or math (SEM). Using data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study: 1988-94 (NELS:88), results indicate that, even controlling for individual, family, and school characteristics, females are less likely, and Asians and Blacks are more likely, to choose SEM majors. However, including expected returns in the estimation eliminates the significance of being female and Asian (but not Black) on SEM major choice.
Do gender differences in college majors and qualifications account for gender differences in labor market outcomes? For the overwhelming majority of men and women, The Baccalauarate and Beyond Longitudinal Study data suggest that the answer is no. Within the majority of majors and occupations, men earn more than women in first jobs. The exception to this is for science and humanities majors, were men do not obtain a wage advantage over women. However, even within the sciences, women are more than twice as likely as men to end up in clerical first jobs, which are considered by students to be among the least satisfactory jobs.