suggested that instead of trying tofight with shifting paradigms, they would prefer to blend into the background instead of fight theethnic battles. Given their level of assimilation both in physical presentation and in ideals, thesestudents too made a choice.MethodologyData were collected as part of a larger study of engineering undergraduate students from fourdistinct U.S. Universities whom initially enrolled during the 2003-2004 academic year. For thepurpose of this study we have ascribed pseudonyms to each institution: A) Technical PublicInstitution (TPI), a public mid-western university specializing in teaching engineering andtechnology; B) Urban Private University (UPU), a private Historically Black University mid-Atlantic institution; C
,through, and beyond their undergraduate institutions. Data were collected from students at eachof four institutions (pseudonyms are used here): Technical Public Institution (TPUB), a publicuniversity specializing in teaching engineering and technology; Urban Private University(UPRI), a private historically black mid-Atlantic institution; Large Public University (LPUB), alarge public university in the northwest U.S.; and Suburban Private University (SPRI), amedium-sized private university on the west coast of the United States.The APS uses a concurrent triangulation mixed-methods design, in which both qualitative andquantitative methods are employed to collect and analyze data. The integration of results occursduring the interpretation phase