Getting U.S. Undergraduates Into Graduate School Providing Information And Opportunities

The current booming economy is great for engineering graduates as they see rising starting salaries and lucrative signing bonuses. Unfortunately it is a problem for engineering faculty and graduate programs. The strong job market is making it even more difficult to convince U.S. undergraduate students to continue on for a graduate degree. In several areas of the country including the Midwest, large percentages of the undergraduate population are first generation college students. Their personal and family aspirations are to get a baccalaureate degree and find a good job. Many of these students know very little about graduate school as a career option. In fact, often they have many misperceptions and incorrect information about attending graduate school. In an effort to determine why students choose to go graduate school, a survey was developed and circulated to graduate students in engineering at Michigan Tech. This paper summarizes these results, and gives some of the initiatives that the authors have used in an effort to recruit additional students in the graduate program at Michigan Tech.