) working with writing centertutors, (2) creating (in-house) discipline-specific writing-intensive course, (3) building upsupport groups consisting of peers, advisors and writing specialists. For the purpose of thisstudy, I review below only first two areas of interest. For a fuller review of the currentlandscape of graduate-level writing support available in engineering, readers should refer toBatson [4].Working with writing center tutorsAs a university-wide service to students, employees and faculties who need professionalsupport for any kind of writing task, writing centers have long served as a default solution toproblems in writing. Engineering professors also commonly recommend the tutoring serviceat the writing center to those who struggle
experiences ofgraduate students, these studies less often distinguish between domestic and internationalstudents. International students experience additional unique challenges that further affect theirgraduate school experiences in comparison to their domestic peers [18]. Some of thesechallenges include differences in institutional culture leading to lower language, writing, andleadership self-efficacy, geographical separation and reduced social support from family andfriends, language barriers, and adjustment to climatic, cultural, and social differences [6], [7].These unique challenges result in isolation, disconnectedness, and lower self-confidence amonginternational students [6].However, studies examining peer mentorship programs designed to
significance level of 95 % confidence level to determine descriptive and inferentialstatistics. At the same time, thematic analysis was utilized for the qualitative data to reveal periodicthemes and distinctive strategies used by the participants. Results showed that participantsstruggled with writing methodology, logically integrating information, and articulating their ideaseffectively. Despite these challenges, they implemented various adaptive techniques, includingreviewing prior literature, utilizing online platforms like ResearchGate and YouTube, workingwith peers and mentors, enrolling in formal writing courses, and employing AI tools to enhancegrammar and structure. External motivation, such as awards and prizes, and maintaining supportivework
,indicating that such an environment contributes to verbal and written communication skills andlearning to facilitate difficult conversations (the three items in communication skills). In apositive peer climate, students might have a greater opportunity to receive feedback on theirpresentations or writing samples from peers, as well as being able to practice toughconversations and receive advice from students further along in their programs. It is unclear why advisor climate was
. Inrecent years, programs such as Michigan’s NextProf workshop and CU Boulder’s ACTIVEFaculty Development and Leadership Intensive, have emerged that bring together Ph.D. studentsand postdocs to network with peers as well as meet and learn from faculty at host institutionsregarding the job search. Any review of faculty application materials happens briefly duringthese events, which does not allow scaffolding for the participants or application materialrevision opportunities. Other programs focus their preparation on certain types of institutions(e.g., Stanford’s Preparing Future Professors and predominantly undergraduate institutions),disciplines (e.g., Rising Stars in Mechanical Engineering and the University of Chicago’s FutureFaculty Conference
Education, 2025 The Process of Applying to Graduate School as an Undergraduate: A Scoping Literature ReviewAbstractAs engineering graduate programs increasingly adopt holistic admissions strategies to fosterdiversity and equity, understanding the nuanced experiences of applicants and the evaluationpriorities of admissions committees becomes critical. This scoping literature review (ScLR)explores research published since 2000 to examine how the admissions and application processesfor engineering graduate school are structured, perceived, and evaluated. Through a systematicsearch across multiple databases, 16 peer-reviewed publications were selected and thematicallyanalyzed into three domains: admissions process
well as variations in familial and community understandings of neurodiversity [20].Existing literature shows a pattern of disparities in formal diagnosis rates and access to supportsbetween individuals from minoritized racial groups and their White peers [21]-[24].Additionally, neurodiverse women frequently receive a diagnosis of anxiety or depression, whileADHD or autism diagnoses are delayed or unrecognized [25], [26]. The demographic data of the31 participants are summarized in Table 1. Table 1: Summary of Demographic Information (Total N = 31) Field of Study N (%) Biology 5 (16.1%) Biomedical/Health Sciences
as a psychometrician, program evaluator, and data analyst, with research interests in spatial ability, creativity, engineering-integrated STEM education, and meta-analysis. As a psychometrician, she has revised, developed, and validated more than 10 instruments beneficial for STEM education practice and research. She has authored/co- authored more than 70 peer-reviewed journal articles and conference proceedings and served as a journal reviewer in engineering education, STEM education, and educational psychology. She has also served as a co-PI, an external evaluator, or an advisory board member on several NSF-funded projects. ©American Society for Engineering Education, 2023
, Blackstudents face a higher attrition rate compared to their peers of other races [4]. Given these starkstatistics, the retention of the Black population in graduate and undergraduate engineeringprograms becomes imperative for establishing a diverse and robust workforce [8], [10].The systemic and cultural racial biases inherent within educational institutions contribute to themarked dearth of Black students in engineering doctoral programs. Even as research begins tounravel the experiences of Black Ph.D. students in engineering – from motivations and persistenceto encounters with racial microaggressions – the disparity remains, underscoring the need fordeeper exploration. This group has additional heterogeneity [11], particularly overlooking
program was conducted with a larger group of students inthe summer of 2022. Thus far, our results indicate that this program will be beneficial to studentswell after regular programming resumes at full capacity. GREaT GradS was designed to servegroups of graduate students who are typically marginalized within science with an eye towardretention through support and mentorship. The overall goals were to provide (1) ResourceRecognition by introducing students to the various academic and personal resources available oncampus, (2) Personal Preparation through programming on subjects such as personal finance andmental health, (3) Career Preparation through writing workshops and curriculum vitae editing,and (4) Network Building by connecting students
individually or by funding sources) for research progress.Writing for Research. Theme: Lab/Research: In the next most frequently applied code,participants described the stress of writing, especially getting started with writing or makingconsistent progress. Participants described stress in receiving feedback and being critiqued,including informal critiques experienced when collaborating with coauthors. Participants alsodescribed experiencing stress when writing grant proposals, navigating the peer review process,and waiting for feedback from collaborators. This stress was particularly high for students forwhom English was not a native language and for students who had not yet published theirresearch. For some participants, this stress was grounded in
semester.Understanding and embracing the cultural dynamics in the United States requires internationalstudents to engage actively with faculty, peers, and staff from diverse backgrounds. In additionto regularly scheduled events such as attending classes, international students enhance theircultural experiences by participating in student organizations and multicultural events. Workingin teams in graduate courses also helps international students integrate into American culture,which helps them adapt to classroom dynamics.While international students must demonstrate English proficiency to be admittedunconditionally into most graduate programs in the United States, they sometimes hesitate toengage in conversation due to cultural background or speaking English as
, the Center developed ForwardFellows (FF), a funded, extended onboarding program, longer than a typical departmentalonboarding or orientation, designed to help new students develop self-efficacy in research, asense of belonging at the university, and a community of peers from multiple STEM disciplines.The FF program targets incoming STEM graduate students who would benefit from additionalonboarding (e.g. students from historically underrepresented groups, first generation students,students returning to academia after time in industry, etc.). We also intend FF to serve as anincentive to attract potential graduate students and, in the long term, to help retain studentsthrough the completion of their graduate degrees. Due to the type of funding
provide not only direction for futureinterventions, but a tool to assess the impact of ongoing and future interventions. This can aid toincrease the retention of engineering graduate students and their successful degree completion byproviding key areas of focus to support positive mental health experiences.IntroductionInstitutions of higher education have been struggling for over a decade to meet students’ mentalhealth needs admits a growing national mental health crisis [1]. Mental health problems areconsistently among the top cited reasons for students’ leaving their degree program. Graduatestudents specifically are known to be more likely to have or develop a mental health problemcompared to same age, highly-educated peers [2-3]. In addition
ourinstrument was guided by the research question: What influence does the instrumental andpsychosocial support that engineering graduate students perceive from their advisor haveon their thesis self-efficacy? Using SCCT as our theoretical foundation, this work focuseson the development and validation of the Advisor Support and Self-efficacy for Thesiscompletion (ASSET) instrument with graduate students pursuing master’s and doctoraldegrees in engineering disciplines.Our resultant construct of Thesis Self-efficacy measures the confidence that a student has in theirabilities to complete specific tasks that are key to the writing of their dissertation, thesis, orapplied project report, while our Advisor Support construct measures a student’s perception
passion for increasing Hispanic representation in STEM. She currently lives with her husband Andr´es, their two sons David and Sebasti´an, and their minia- ture schnauzer Lucca in Winter Garden, Florida.Esther Gonzalez Esther Gonz´alez, MPA, MBA, ABD is a PhD Candidate at University of Southern California’s Price School of Public Policy with subject matter expertise in organization behavior and diversity management. Her research is multidisciplinary and applies methods and fields in public policy and management. She is a published author in several peer reviewed journals with media mentions in Forbes. Previously, she served as Director on the Research and Innovation team at the Society of Hispanic Professional
board for WEPAN from 2012-2014. She earned her M.S. in Youth Development from the University of Nebraska and her B.S. in Family Studies at Kansas State University.Esther Gonzalez Esther Gonz´alez, MPA, MBA, ABD is a PhD Candidate at University of Southern California’s Price School of Public Policy with subject matter expertise in organization behavior and diversity management. Her research is multidisciplinary and applies methods and fields in public policy and management. She is a published author in several peer reviewed journals with media mentions in Forbes. Previously, she served as Director on the Research and Innovation team at the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE). She is a multifaceted
as they navigate the complexities ofSTEM education and careers. Through this literature review, we aim to identify gaps in currentmentoring approaches for minority graduate and undergraduate students in STEM fields anddevelop a new mentoring strategy that addresses their specific needs and challenges. Historically, academic mentorship has concentrated on learning rather than careerdevelopment or psychosocial needs (Ensher, 1997; Stromei, 1998). According to research,undergraduate students who are mentored had higher GPAs, greater retention rates, and moreunits finished each semester than their unmentored peers (Campbell and Campbell 1997).Mentoring addresses key aspects of student identification and social integration into
of ecological systems [26], Mondisa and colleaguesdeveloped a STEM Mentoring Ecosystem framework [13] to better understand what causes mentorsand mentees to use some resources, what patterns of mentoring exchanges are productive, and whatstructures cultivate mentoring interactions. According to the model, there are several interacting systems within mentoring in STEM[13]. Microsystems provide the most direct person-to-person encounters and for graduate students,these interpersonal or intragroup interactions can include peers, faculty, staff, and family.Mesosystems include the intergroup interactions between microsystems such as departments,colleges, or schools that serve to support or create conflict with each entity. Ecosystems
Flexibility IP SCAFFOLDING Zone of Learner Assistance Learner Assistance Towards Independence OF Proximal Instructor Active Learning Peer Learning PLP Project or Exam INSTRUCTION Development Weeks 1-4 Weeks 1-4 Week 5 Student: Faculty ASSESSMENT OF • Non-technical core competency • Formative & summative feedback on model PERFORMANCE AND • Improved understanding of • Feedback on student interactions
programs. However, after admission, the problem ofretention becomes salient for underrepresented minority groups (URMs) in academia 1 . As youngBlack engineers continue to enter advanced graduate studies, it becomes important to examine thefactors that impact how they enter and ultimately decide to leave the institution. In this work, weused the autoethnographic method to share our experiences and illustrate the issues faced by BlackPhD students at elite research institutions. We relate our experiences chronologically starting withthe expectations from peers once arriving on campus, moving into the expectation of solving auniversity’s equity problems, and ending with the mental burdens of coping with an unhealthywork environment. All of these
interactive approaches learned at the Stanfordd.school’s Teaching & Learning Studio. The stated learning objectives of the bootcamp are: ● Ability to formulate and test non-scientific hypotheses ● Ability to identify the broader impact of your research work ● Ability to apply these methods to grant writing, job search, and career development ● Develop an understanding of the NSF I-Corps program principlesAdditional objectives include networking skills development, personal reflection and actionplanning, and community building. The bootcamp is typically delivered in 3 half-day sessionsover a 3-day period, although a 2-day version has also been piloted. The advantage of holdingthe bootcamp over 3-days is that it provides additional time
institutions distinct fromstaff and undergraduate students. They are notably subject to elevated levels of stress associatedwith research, teaching, and publishing responsibilities as well as high levels of uncertainty withregards to advisor expectations, financial security, and career prospects [2]. The excessive levelsof stress and uncertainty around graduate school has contributed to a concerning mental healthcrisis, with one study identifying PhD students as nearly twice as likely to be experiencingpsychological distress than highly educated peers in the general public [3]. In graduate studentoriented spaces, negative aspects of academic culture are readily named and critiqued, especiallythrough online communities and anonymous online message
, evaluateprogress, advocate for their well-being, and connect them with relevant resources. They helpgraduate students navigate their programs and achieve their academic and career goals byoffering support, encouragement, and constructive feedback. This is why it is essential tocomprehend their opinion of the GRE as a graduate school application component for MS/Ph.D.programs.BackgroundNearly all studies on the GRE as an admissions component have focused on its predictivevalidity for graduate students’ success in terms of grades, time to degree completion, advisorrating, and peer-review publication ratings, among other graduate student success metrics.Kileger et al. [3] adopted a multivariate approach to measuring the predictive validity of the GREand
rigorous and aligned with developmentalgoals. They also added a scientific writing course to support students as they prepare for thisassessment, which transformed “a one-time, individual performance of expertise into a collectivecapacity building process” [6].This ‘collective capacity building process’ presented in the second IGEN case study highlightsthe role of constructive alignment in meaningful and equitable assessment. Though in principleconstructive alignment of teaching and learning activities† supports the use of ‘performanceassessments’ such as oral qualifying exams or the preparation of a realistic grant proposal tomeasure student knowledge [13], this relies on transparency in the alignment between thelearning process students
potential vocational pathways, includinggovernment, academia, and industry.The NRT program at our university includes educational and experiential components. Thesecomponents are field experiences, policy experiences at the state capital, applied course work,interdisciplinary research, faculty and peer mentoring, professional development, and periodicassessment of these components. The NRT organized three courses: a one-credit hour cross-listed course called Integrated FEW Systems, a two-credit hour cross-listed NRT Capstone, and a0-credit NRT Seminar. In the Integrated FEW Systems course, students were introduced tosystems thinking, with specific application to the FEW nexus in South West Kansas. The NRTCapstone is a project-based course that
conductingresearch, writing grants to secure external funding, and managing a research team [11], [12].Advice on more concrete aspects of successfully applying to faculty positions, such as preparingan application package, interviewing, and negotiating an offer, are more commonly reported astaught during professional development events (e.g., future faculty workshops), though these areoften aimed at students and postdocs from groups historically excluded in engineering [19]. Although there has been research on the frequency and satisfaction of PhD studentsreceiving career advice from their advisors, less is known about what types of advice is given.This study seeks to fill that gap.2.2 | Framework: Leader-Member Exchange Theory In an academic
their education [5],but students are typically unaware that advisor and mentor are often not synonymous despite theoverlap in responsibilities. An advisor is an integral part of the doctoral student’s academicexperience and career path as advisors will write recommendation letters, provide a network,assist in publishing, provide funding, and can increase long-term job satisfaction [3], [6]. But inaddition to these responsibilities, doctoral students require customized mentorship from theiradvisors based on individual characteristics and progress toward their degree [7].A high-quality, effective mentor will provide both career-related and psychosocial support,offering guidance and resources for the mentee’s professional development, self
students. He is an advocate for DEI&B as well as graduate student well-being.Dr. Grace Gowdy Dr. Gowdy is an Assistant Professor at North Carolina A&Tˆa C™s Department of Social Work & Soci- ology. Dr. Gowdy currently works on multiple studies examining how formal and informal mentoring relationships can support educational outcomes for histoShea Bigsby, Dr. Shea Bigsby is the Coordinator of Graduate Writing Services in the Graduate College at North Car- olina A&T State University. In this position, he develops resources and conducts workshops to help graduate students improve their writing skills and complete thesis/dissertation formatting and submission requirements. He also develops programming
Education, Sustainable Infrastructure, Resilient and Sustainable Post-Disaster Reconstruction, and Circular Economy. He also holds professional credentials in LEED Green Associate for sustainable buildings and ENV SP for sustainable infrastructures as well as several micro-credentials in the commercialization of research. As a Ph.D. Candidate, Piyush has published a dozen peer-reviewed journals and several conference papers. ¨Ms. Claudia Calle Muller, Florida International University Claudia Calle M¨uller is a Ph.D. student in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Florida International University (FIU). She holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Pontificia Universidad Cat´olica del Per´u (PUCP