TY - JOUR
T1 - The impact of an Undergraduate research Program on students' attitudes toward and pursuit of graduate studies - A follow-up study
AU - Carpinelli, John D.
AU - Perna, Angelo J.
AU - Hirsch, Linda
N1 - Funding Information:
Opportunities for undergraduate students to participate in research projects have increased over the last decade in part with the initiation of federally funded programs such as Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU), sponsored by the National Science Foundation16, and the Ronald E. McNair Post-baccalaureate Achievement Program17, sponsored by the US Department of Education. Much research has been conducted on the benefits of these programs, particularly within the engineering education community, and have been found to improve students’ research skills, as well as skills in teamwork and communications18-21. Attitudinal surveys and other instruments have been developed to evaluate the effectiveness of individual undergraduate research programs with generally positive results including increased enrollment in graduate programs but no strong conclusions as to why some participants chose not to pursue graduate studies have been formulated22-27. Many evaluations focus on the impact providing research skills has on changing students’ negative attitudes toward the research requirements for graduate studies and whether students feel prepared to be successful in graduate school. Few studies focus on other factors that may impact students’ decisions to pursue graduate studies. One study that did investigate the factors that influence engineering students’ decision to enroll in a PhD program27 (not conducted in the United States) did not offer strong conclusions and suggested that interviews with students would offer more insight and provide a more complete picture of students’ attitudes.
Funding Information:
The Attitudes toward Graduate Studies survey was developed for research supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0552483. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Publisher Copyright:
© American Society for Engineering Education, 2017.
PY - 2017/6/24
Y1 - 2017/6/24
N2 - Undergraduate research experiences have been shown to have a positive impact on students' attitudes toward graduate studies, as demonstrated by results from pre- and post-research experience surveys. Results have shown that students gained confidence in their research abilities and increased their interest in continuing their education at the graduate level. However, there has been relatively little long-term follow-up with undergraduate research students to see if they actually did pursue graduate studies. The current paper examines three cohorts of students who participated in the Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program at the New Jersey Institute of Technology during the summers of 2010, 2011, and 2012. Students completed a ten-week research experience during the summer between their sophomore and junior years, and continued their research during their junior and senior years. Students' responses to the Attitudes toward Graduate Studies Survey administered before and after their respective summer research experience are compared to actual enrollments in graduate programs to determine whether the increased interest in pursuing graduate studies persisted and translated into increased graduate enrollments.
AB - Undergraduate research experiences have been shown to have a positive impact on students' attitudes toward graduate studies, as demonstrated by results from pre- and post-research experience surveys. Results have shown that students gained confidence in their research abilities and increased their interest in continuing their education at the graduate level. However, there has been relatively little long-term follow-up with undergraduate research students to see if they actually did pursue graduate studies. The current paper examines three cohorts of students who participated in the Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program at the New Jersey Institute of Technology during the summers of 2010, 2011, and 2012. Students completed a ten-week research experience during the summer between their sophomore and junior years, and continued their research during their junior and senior years. Students' responses to the Attitudes toward Graduate Studies Survey administered before and after their respective summer research experience are compared to actual enrollments in graduate programs to determine whether the increased interest in pursuing graduate studies persisted and translated into increased graduate enrollments.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85030571793&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85030571793&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Conference article
AN - SCOPUS:85030571793
SN - 2153-5965
VL - 2017-June
JO - ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings
JF - ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings
T2 - 124th ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition
Y2 - 25 June 2017 through 28 June 2017
ER -