The Influence of Student-Faculty Interactions on Post-Graduation Intentions in a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Program: A Case Study

Using a case-study approach, this research study examined how variability in the quality of student-faculty interactions during a summer research program for undergraduates at a public university influenced students’ graduate school intentions. Three student-generated artifacts and one-faculty generated artifact were used to collect data for the study. Using different points in time to capture student-centered data and faculty-centered data, a snapshot emerges of the perceived student gains as an outcome of the student-mentor relationship. Social cognitive theory provided the framework to aggregate the data into meaningful units. The patterns emerging from the data were organized into three participant behavioral categories: positive student-faculty interaction and reinforced intentions or motivation to continue on to graduate school (first category); positive student-faculty interaction and undecided graduate school intentions (second category); and negative student-faculty interaction and no/graduate school intention (third category).