Session S2H. Retention in Engineering and Where Students Go When They Leave Engineering RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

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1 Gender Trends In Engineering Retention Maura Jenkins 1 and Robert G. Keim 2 Abstract We know that fewer women than men choose to begin college in an engineering major, but is there a difference in the graduation rates of male and female engineering students? Is the average GPA of female students leaving engineering higher or lower than that of the male students? Are the critical semesters different for each group? Likewise, do the same relationships hold for minority vs. nonminority students? In this paper, we report on analysis of graduation data for four cohorts and retention data for six cohorts of engineering students. Statistical analyses were performed to determine significant differences between groups of students and which characteristics are most strongly correlated to retention in engineering. Gender and minority status were included in the analyses. The purpose of this study was to identify trends in female engineering student retention to guide future program development. Overall, the graduation/retention rates and GPAs of female students were found to be higher than those of the male students. Brief examples of how these findings can be applied are also offered. Index Terms Gender, Ethnicity, Retention, Benchmarking INTRODUCTION Numerous recent reports indicate that although incremental change has been effected by Women in Science and Engineering initiatives, the science, math, engineering, and technology workforce is far from reflecting the makeup of American society [1]-[2]. From a review of last year s FIE Conference Proceedings, it is apparent that numerous creative approaches to increasing the representation of women in engineering are being implemented, some of which have grown to include a significant proportion of the female engineering student population at the programs home institutions [3]. We know that fewer women than men choose to begin college in an engineering major, and that generally the likelihood of receiving an engineering degree is greater among incoming male students [4]. What exactly are the differences in the graduation rates of male and female engineering students? Are the critical semesters different for male and female students? What is the average GPA of female students leaving engineering? Is it higher or lower than that of the male students? Likewise, do the same relationships hold for minority versus nonminority students? This paper is an attempt to begin discussion on these issues of retaining women and underrepresented minority engineering students. In it, we offer benchmarking values and initial data analysis. Similar data, if available, is included in the relevant sections. This is a preliminary attempt at analyzing a large dataset, so suggestions for future work were an anticipated result. METHOD Graduation data for the 1996 through 1999 cohorts and retention data for the 1998 through 2003 cohorts entering the University of Southern California s Viterbi School of Engineering were collected and analyzed. Abbreviations of the ten departments and programs into which freshmen are placed are listed in Table 1. In this study, cohorts were defined as all first-time, full-time freshmen with an engineering major during the third week of a given fall semester (after course schedules and initial major changes are finalized). Cohort sizes from 1996 through 2003 varied from 350 to 405 students. For each student in the 1998 and more recent cohorts, information on gender; ethnicity; high school rank and GPA; SAT verbal, math and composite scores; major changes; and GPA when leaving engineering were downloaded from the university s student information system and reformatted to enable statistical analysis. Effort was made to format the dataset so as to minimize skewing caused by differences in the length of time in college for each cohort (e.g. Retention rates would be expected to vary with cohort year, so columns were created to capture retention through each individual semester.). TABLE 1 ENGINEERING DEPARTMENTS AND ABBREVIATIONS DEPARTMENT OR PROGRAM ABBREVIATION Aerospace Engineering AE Biomedical Engineering BME Chemical Engineering CHE Civil Engineering CE Computer Science CSCI Computer Engineering/Computer Science CECS Electrical Engineering EE Industrial and Systems Engineering ISE Mechanical Engineering ME Undecided Engineering ENGR 1 Maura Jenkins, Retention Coordinator, University of Southern California Viterbi School of Engineering, Olin Hall 106, Los Angeles, CA , [email protected] 2 Robert G. Keim, Associate Dean, University of Southern California School of Dentistry, [email protected] S2H-13

2 Non-numerical measures were coded, and the data were imported to SPSS statistical software. Analyses were performed to determine significant differences between male and female students and which characteristics are most strongly correlated to retention in engineering. A oneway analysis of variance (ANOVA) compared the output measures for the various cohorts. Unfortunately, it was found that many of the cohorts differed from each other with respect to first semester retention, among other measures. Therefore, the cohorts could not generally be pooled into a larger data set. Independent samples t-tests were run on each cohort to determine whether any of the output measures differed significantly for various genders or ethnicities to help guide programs targeted to specific groups. Then, a stepwise linear multiple regression was performed to determine which descriptive measures are most strongly correlated to retention. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Incoming Student Population Freshmen entering USC s Viterbi School of Engineering select a major from one of seven degree-granting departments, one interdisciplinary program, or an undecided engineering major. (Over the past six years, an average of 25% of the incoming class chose the undecided option.) The percentage of female students beginning in each department during each of the past six years is listed in Table 2. The three departments with the highest percentage of female students are Biomedical Engineering, Civil Engineering and Chemical Engineering, while the lowest percentages correspond to Computer Engineering/Computer Science and Mechanical Engineering. The percentage of underrepresented minority students beginning in each department during each of the past six years is listed in Table 3. TABLE 2 PERCENTAGE OF FEMALE STUDENTS IN FALL COHORTS Six- Year Average BME 54% 43% 43% 49% 52% 45% 48% CE 65% 33% 45% 52% 37% 25% 44% CHE 27% 33% 33% 40% 41% 54% 36% ENGR 29% 27% 26% 22% 35% 31% 29% All 27% 24% 23% 26% 27% 24% 25% Majors ISE 33% 33% 0% 43% 20% 11% 24% AE 16% 25% 18% 27% 21% 27% 22% EE 22% 24% 21% 19% 20% 6% 19% CSCI 21% 12% 21% 19% 16% 12% 17% ME 7% 14% 14% 24% 18% 11% 14% CECS 11% 16% 8% 16% 17% 10% 13% Native American/Alaskan Native, Black or African American, Mexican/Mexican-American/Chicano, or Other Spanish-American/Hispanic/Latino were included in the count of minority students. In the four most recent cohorts, 27% of minority students listed Black or African American, 66% listed Mexican/Mexican-American/Chicano or Other Spanish-American/Hispanic/Latino, 3% listed Native American/Alaskan Native, and 4% listed multiple underrepresented groups. The three departments with the highest percentage of minority students are Civil Engineering, Chemical Engineering, and Industrial and Systems Engineering while the lowest percentages correspond to Computer Science, Undecided Engineering and Biomedical Engineering. The departmental distributions for both women and minorities are similar to those published by an engineering education consulting firm [5]. Retention in Engineering and Where Students Go When They Leave Engineering To normalize the dataset for differences in graduation rate between the cohorts studied, each student was placed into one of four categories: (1) retained in original engineering department, (2) retained in engineering but in a different major, (3) retained within the university in a non-engineering major, or (4) left the university directly from engineering. A stepwise linear multiple regression was run to determine which characteristics, if any, could predict the extent to which a student would be retained. The resulting model described only 5% of the variation in the retention categorization described above. Three factors were identified: SAT Math Score (β = -.004) High School GPA (β = -.464) SAT Composite Score (β =.001) Although the relationship is very tenuous, it does reflect the usual engineering admission emphasis on strong math TABLE 3 PERCENTAGE OF MINORITY STUDENTS IN FALL COHORTS Six- Year Average CE 37% 14% 48% 40% 0% 25% 31% CHE 21% 39% 27% 27% 15% 15% 25% ISE 13% 30% 13% 0% 22% 22% 18% CECS 33% 25% 8% 11% 13% 8% 18% EE 24% 16% 18% 14% 21% 9% 17% AE 15% 15% 24% 6% 15% 23% 17% All 20% 17% 14% 15% 15% 15% 16% Majors ME 22% 12% 12% 9% 19% 19% 16% CSCI 15% 16% 10% 19% 20% 6% 15% ENGR 13% 12% 6% 12% 17% 19% 13% BME 19% 15% 8% 18% 2% 12% 12% S2H-14

3 background and academic preparation. It should be noted that neither gender nor ethnicity entered into the model as characteristics that predict whether a student will be retained in engineering. Results presented later in this paper will provide justification for diversity programs. Semester that Students Leave Engineering Table 4 presents the percentage of male and female students from each cohort that left engineering by semester. In each case, this refers to the final semester in which a given student was listed as an engineering major. Numerical values were assigned sequentially (i.e. 1 = freshman year fall, 2 = freshman year spring, 3 = sophomore year fall). An independent samples t-test indicated that the difference between when male and female students leave engineering is significant for the Fall 1999 cohort only. For the entire dataset, the average semester during which male students leave engineering is 3.1 (fall of sophomore year), while the average for female students leaving engineering is 2.6 (spring or summer of freshman year). Similarly, Table 5 presents the percentage of minority and nonminority students from each cohort that left engineering each semester. An independent samples t-test was also performed on these data, but no significant difference was found between when minority and nonminority students leave engineering. The average semester during which all students who leave engineering do so is 3.0, or fall of sophomore year. The Consortium for Student Data Exchange (CSRDE) [4] reports graduation and retention rates for engineering and science students at highly selective schools (SAT > 1100). For freshmen entering in fall of 2000, the second year return rates (corresponding to 3 rd semester in Tables 4 and 5) were 73% for female students, 77% for male students, and 72% for minority students [4]. The values for male and female students match the numbers for USC students almost exactly. The retention rate for minority students is higher among consortium schools for the 2000 cohort but comparable to the five-cohort USC average of 73%. GPA of Students Leaving Engineering Table 6 presents the average GPA of male and female students leaving engineering during semesters one through six. (Very few students left engineering after the sixth semester.) A similar study of GPA and engineering retention reported that the majority of students leaving engineering have GPAs in the range of [6], which is reflected in the results presented here. Of the 27 semesters for which results are reported, there are only six instances in which the GPA of the female students is not higher than that of the male students. Most of these instances occurred among the earlier cohorts. That is to say that for the past three freshman cohorts, women leaving engineering did so invariably with higher GPAs than those of the male students. (When taken to three decimal places, the second semester average GPA of females in the 2002 cohort is higher than that of the males.) TABLE 4 RATES OF RETENTION IN ENGINEERING BY SEMESTER AND GENDER (CUMULATIVE) Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Fall % 96% 86% 87% 78% 79% 76% 75% 74% 72% 70% 69% Fall % 89% 78% 82% 74% 77% 69% 71% 68% 67% 66% 65% Fall % 92% 81% 83% 72% 77% 68% 71% 66% 68% 63% 65% Fall % 93% 82% 82% 73% 76% 67% 65% 67% 66% N/A N/A Fall % 89% 78% 83% 76% 79% N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A Fall % 95% N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A TABLE 5 RATES OF RETENTION IN ENGINEERING BY SEMESTER AND MINORITY STATUS (CUMULATIVE) Minority Non Minority Non Minority Non Minority Non Minority Non Minority Non Fall % 95% 88% 86% 76% 79% 70% 76% 65% 75% 63% 71% Fall % 90% 81% 82% 72% 79% 65% 74% 62% 71% 59% 69% Fall % 92% 77% 83% 67% 77% 63% 71% 60% 69% 63% 78% Fall % 94% 77% 83% 69% 77% 69% 80% 69% 74% N/A N/A Fall % 89% 78% 86% 80% 84% N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A Fall % 94% N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A S2H-15

4 TABLE 6 AVERAGE GPAS OF STUDENTS LEAVING ENGINEERING BY GENDER Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Fall Fall Fall Fall N/A N/A Fall N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A Fall N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A An independent samples t-test of each cohort indicates that the difference between the GPAs of male and female students leaving engineering is significant for the Fall 2000 and Fall 2001 cohorts only. The fact that the more recent cohorts did not exhibit a significant difference may be due in part to the fact that these students have not been at the university as long as students in the other cohorts. Table 7 presents the average GPA of minority and nonminority students leaving engineering during semesters one through six. With the exception of just a few semesters, the average GPA of minority students leaving engineering is lower than that of nonminority students leaving engineering. An independent samples t-test of each cohort indicates that this difference is significant for the 1998, 1999, 2001, and 2002 cohorts. It should be noted that in the first semester the GPA is higher among minority students than nonminority students for the 2002 and 2003 cohorts. This suggests that perhaps special programs during the first semester or year should focus on community-building, mentoring and engineering exposure, rather than academic support alone. A stepwise linear multiple regression was also run on the entire dataset to determine which characteristics could predict a student s GPA just before leaving engineering. The resulting model predicted 20% of the variation in GPA. Three factors were identified: High School GPA (β =.851) SAT Composite Score (β =.001) Minority Status (β = -.213) Since the data field for GPA upon leaving engineering was coded as missing data for students that were retained, this model is based only on students that left engineering or the university. This model suggests a link between ability (as measured by high school GPA and SAT score) and students GPAs when they leave engineering. Students of greater initial ability and/or nonminority students tend to leave engineering with higher GPAs. Earlier regression analyses including all variables suggest a stronger relationship between where students go when they leave engineering, the semester that they leave engineering, and their cumulative GPAs just before leaving. Relationship between When Students Leave Engineering, Where They Go, and their GPAs just before Leaving Table 8 lists for each semester the number of students moving to non-engineering majors, the number leaving the university directly from engineering, and the average GPA of all students leaving engineering. It is apparent that over time there is a shift from students with higher GPAs leaving engineering in favor of other majors to students with lower GPAs leaving the university altogether. These relationships were verified with a χ 2 analysis (p <.01), which indicated significant relationships between retention category and semester left retention category and GPA before attrition (The relationship between retention category, or where students go when they leave engineering, and GPA is to be expected because academic disqualification is by definition based on low GPA.) TABLE 7 AVERAGE GPAS OF STUDENTS LEAVING ENGINEERING BY MINORITY STATUS Minority Non Minority Non Minority Non Minority Non Minority Non Minority Non Fall Fall Fall Fall N/A N/A Fall N/A 2.97 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A Fall N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A S2H-16

5 TABLE 8 NUMBER AND GPA OF STUDENTS LEAVING ENGINEERING BY SEMESTER Final Semester in Engineering Students Moving to Non-engineering Major Students Leaving University from Engineering Average GPA Graduation Rates Table 9 lists four-, five-, and six-year graduation rates for male and female students in the 1996 through 1999 cohorts. In most cases, female students exhibit a higher graduation rate than male students. An independent samples t-test verifies that the differences between males and females are significant for the four-year and five-year graduation rates of the 1998 cohort and the four-year rate for the 1997 cohort. However, the test did not reveal a significant difference between whether male and female students graduated in engineering or in another major. The Consortium for Student Data Exchange (CSRDE) [4] reports a six-year university graduation rate of 70% for female and 62% for male engineering freshmen entering highly selective colleges in The six-year graduation rate in engineering was higher for male students than females (47% versus 42%). For both the 1996 and 1997 cohorts in Table 9, the graduation rates are slightly higher in all categories. Table 10 lists graduation rates for minority and nonminority students. In every case, the graduation rate of minority students is lower than that of nonminority students. The independent samples t-test indicates significant differences in the four-, five-, and six-year university graduation rates of minority versus nonminority students as well as whether the students graduate in engineering, for all cohorts studied. CSRDE reports a 32% minority graduation rate in engineering and 54% minority graduation rate from the highly selective university within six years [4]. Again, the rates in Table 10 are slightly higher. Applying Findings to Women in Engineering Programs The higher average GPA of female students leaving engineering points to some combination of lower self-esteem of female students and loss of interest in engineering. Therefore, direct academic support (e.g. tutoring) per se may not be the most vital component of a retention plan for women in engineering. Nauta and coworkers [7] suggest that instead, focus should be on activities which help women develop self-enhancing attitudes, which focus on effort rather than ability or unpredictable external factors (e.g. instructors). The authors suggest several methods of changing students attitudes: using peer testimonials to illustrate self-enhancing and self-defeating attitudes, focusing feedback on effort as a key to success, grading exams and assignments by identifying specific concepts that were misunderstood (versus a low percentage of perceived overall comprehension), and initiating mentoring programs and study groups [7]. TABLE 9 GRADUATION RATES BY GENDER (CUMULATIVE) Four-Year Graduation Rates Five-Year Graduation Rates Six-Year Graduation Rates From Engineering From University From Engineering From University From Engineering From University Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Fall % 37% 55% 48% 51% 51% 78% 67% 52% 54% 81% 73% Fall % 29% 58% 40% 57% 46% 76% 65% 57% 50% 76% 71% Fall % 30% 50% 35% 60% 55% 78% 65% N/A N/A N/A N/A Fall % 35% 54% 45% N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A TABLE 10 GRADUATION RATES BY MINORITY STATUS Four-Year Graduation Rates Five-Year Graduation Rates Six-Year Graduation Rates From Engineering From University From Engineering From University From Engineering From University Minority Non Minority Non Minority Non Minority Non Minority Non Minority Non Fall % 39% 36% 54% 39% 54% 55% 74% 43% 56% 62% 78% Fall % 37% 22% 50% 30% 53% 53% 71% 36% 56% 60% 76% Fall % 37% 24% 44% 41% 61% 59% 71% N/A N/A N/A N/A Fall % 40% 33% 50% N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A S2H-17

6 In December 2004, USC Viterbi School of Engineering will officially launch its Women in Engineering program. The results presented in this paper indicate that retention/graduation of women students may not be the most immediate challenge for the program. Since numerous engineering mentoring and academic support resources already exist on campus, Women in Engineering will initially serve as a clearinghouse for these undergraduate student opportunities. If the ultimate goal is to graduate more women in engineering, efforts may focus on recruiting female freshmen by bringing high school students to see the campus and experience engineering firsthand. Opportunities also exist for providing exposure to graduate students and developing support services for female graduate students. SUMMARY Data for eight cohorts of engineering students were analyzed. Each cohort consisted of students with an average of 25% female students and 16% underrepresented minority students. The average point at which male students leave engineering is during the fall semester of sophomore year, while females leave during spring or summer of freshman year. The difference was only statistically significant for the Fall 1999 cohort. There was little difference between when minority and nonminority students leave engineering. The average GPA of female students leaving engineering each semester was higher than that of the male students. This difference was statistically significant for the Fall 2000 and 2001 cohorts. The difference between GPAs of minority and nonminority students leaving engineering was statistically significant for four of the six cohorts studied, with the GPA of minority students being lower in each case. Strong relationships were identified between where students go when they leave engineering, the semester that they leave engineering, and their cumulative GPAs just before leaving. Students who leave engineering in favor of a non-engineering major are more likely to do so during the first few semesters in college. Students who leave engineering later are more likely to leave the university altogether and to do so with a lower GPA. Graduation rates were also presented for the 1996 through 1999 cohorts. The graduation rates of the female students were slightly higher than those of the males. In a few cases, the differences in university graduation rates were found to be statistically significant. The graduation rates of minority students were found to be statistically significantly lower than those of nonminority students, both in terms of university graduation rates and whether the students graduate in engineering or another major. FUTURE WORK This study was successful in identifying relationships between where students go when they leave engineering, the semester that they leave engineering, and their cumulative GPAs just before leaving. A major limitation is that it could not identify characteristics that reliably predict whether a student will leave engineering. Future work should take into account attitudes and behaviors that have been wellestablished in the literature to be important factors in retention [8]-[9]. Similar analysis of results from other institutions would indicate whether these findings have wide application or are particular to the institution studied. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors wish to acknowledge Louise Yates for helpful discussions and Jason Giggles for assistance in literature searches and related administrative tasks. REFERENCES [1] Land of Plenty: Diversity as America s Competitive Edge in Science, Engineering and Technology, Report of the Congressional Commission on the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science, Engineering and Technology Development, September [2] Gibbons, M., Databytes: Diversity on Campus, ASEE Prism, November 2003, 19. [3] New Formulas for America s Workforce: Girls in Sciences and Engineering, National Science Foundation, NSF , [4] The Retention and Graduation Rates of Freshman Cohorts Entering Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Majors in 200 Colleges and Universities, Consortium for Student Retention Data Exchange, September [5] Undergraduate Discipline Choices Preferences by Gender, Minority Group, and Foreign Nationals, Engineering Trends, < [6] Ohland, M.W., Law, L.B., Crockett, E.R., Collins, R.E., Investigating a Relationship between Grade-Point Average and Selection of a Major for Students Leaving Engineering, NACADA 27 th National Conference on Advising, [7] Nauta, M.M., Douglas E.L., Waggoner, K.M., Perceived Causes of Success and Failure: Are Women s Attributions Related to Persistence in Engineering Majors? Journal of Research in Science, 36, 6, [8] Tinto, V., Dropout from Higher Education: A Theoretical Synthesis of Recent Research, Review of Educational Research, 45, 1, [9] French, B.F., Immekus, J.C., and Oakes, W., A Structural Model of Engineering Students Success and Persistence, 33 rd ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, November S2H-18