Projections as Preparation for Persistence: Exploring Expectations for Engineering Graduate School

The purpose of this research paper is to explore the expectations that engineering students have when entering graduate school. Graduate engineering education is understudied, but recent reports have highlighted the importance of focusing on topics related to graduate student retention and thriving. Our team’s recent work explored how graduate students have come to engineering and, more importantly, captured why they may be considering departing from their graduate studies, finding that students’ expectations and goals for graduate school are more important than previously established: Students coming in with uncertain goals and expectations often consider departing from their PhD programs. This paper presents interviews with N=35 current engineering graduate students, exploring their perceptions for what they thought graduate school would be like. The semi-structured interview protocol probed students to think back on their transitions into their graduate programs, expectations for the graduate school experience, and whether those expectations were proven false or were validated. Findings show that those students whose expectations were incorrect and resulted in negative experiences were more likely to consider leaving their programs later in their career as a graduate student. This work adds to the relatively scarce body of literature on graduate level engineering education and will influence theory development to add to the national conversations on graduate-level completion and departure from the engineering PhD. Introduction and Literature Review Attrition at the graduate level is an important issue faced by universities, yet it remains a complex phenomenon that is not completely understood. While attrition is difficult to quantify, because of the way attrition is counted or reported by different universities, studies estimate that forty to sixty percent of doctoral students leave their program in some disciplines [1]. Within engineering, factors such as academic culture [2], academic capabilities [3], and race and gender [4]–[6] have all been attributed to attrition and persistence. While some studies offer recommendations for addressing this issue [7]–[9], attrition remains complex, with many different factors that affect each individual’s decision. Graduate student well-being has become an increasing concern in many different disciplines as attrition rates are indicative of underlying issues, such as mental health or departmental culture not accounted for in external indicators of success such as GPA. In many studies on attrition, the student’s relationship with their advisor and student socialization have been used as factors representing well-being [10]–[13]. Castello et al. [2] found that, among doctoral students considering leaving their program, work-life balance and integration into the scientific community were cited as the two most common factors in driving them to leave. Issues related to relationships with the advisor, department, and the scientific community as a whole are mentioned as negatively impacting the students’ experiences in graduate school. While external factors may be at play, few studies have researched how students’ initial expectations for graduate school impact their experiences. In a case study of two “questioners” (students who are seriously considering leaving their graduate programs) in engineering graduate programs, the results showed that academic capability and advisor relationships were not major factors in each student’s decision to leave [14]. Instead, mismatched expectations for what their graduate school experience would be like and conflicting personal and professional identities influenced their decision process. Peters and Daly [15] studied engineering students who returned to graduate school after working for a time, showing that the utility of the degree was a major driving force in persistence. The decision to stay in the degree was viewed through an analysis of costs, saying that “the question was not whether they could successfully complete a graduate degree program but whether it was worth doing” (p. 262). A more comprehensive model of the attrition decision process was developed by Berdanier et al. [16]. The GrAD model not only exposed the major factors in engineering graduate student attrition, it also showed the interconnectedness of each of the factors and demonstrated how the decision process is complex and nuanced. Major themes in the model were “Advisor Role and Relationship,” “Support Network,” “Quality of Life and Work,” “Cost,” “Perception by Others,” and “Goals.” The connection between these themes and subsequent subthemes were analyzed through narrative analysis of anonymous posts about graduate level attrition on Reddit. These studies are examples of how factors influencing attrition vary. When the student’s expectations for graduate school are mismatched with their experiences, it lays the groundwork for many other common factors relating to attrition. This work focuses on engineering graduate students’ expectations for graduate school, how they have compared to their experiences, and their current expectations for continuing in their programs. As such, this study seeks to address the following research questions: 1. What preconceptions of graduate school do engineering students have? 2. Are students who had inaccurate preconceptions of graduate school more likely to consider leaving their program early? Theoretical Framework This study uses a combination of two theoretical frameworks to interpret the results: Socialization theory and the Met Expectations Hypothesis. Socialization, as it pertains to graduate students, goes beyond integrating into a community; it also refers to the preparation for a profession, typically academia [17], [18]. Golde [7] describes socialization for graduate students in four parts: intellectual mastery, adjustment to life as a graduate student, understanding of the profession, and integration into the department. Each student experiences these facets of socialization differently and, therefore, the socialization process is individualized. For the purposes of this study, the aspects of the socialization process involving adjustment to life as a graduate student and understanding the profession are the most relevant. The second theoretical framework we use in this study is the Met Expectation Hypothesis (MEH). MEH has typically been applied in human resource management regarding employee satisfaction [19], [20]. The theory suggests that a confirmation of an employee’s expectations for a new job leads to higher job satisfaction later, thereby reducing the likelihood of turnover. Hughes et al. [21] adopted this hypothesis for graduate students. In their study, they used MEH to assess graduate students’ satisfaction with a course. Expanding this application, we replace ‘employee’ with ‘graduate student;’ instead of ‘job,’ we use ‘graduate school;’ and instead of ‘turnover,’ we focus on ‘attrition.’ For the purposes of this study, the MEH now suggests that a confirmation of a student’s expectations for graduate school would lead to reduced likelihood of attrition.