Advancing Equity in Graduate Pathways: Examining the Factors That Sustain and Develop Computing Graduate Aspirations

• In Event: Graduate Student Success in Higher Education

Abstract

In light of the need to both grow and diversify graduate enrollments in computing fields, this quantitative study employed multiple binary logistic regressions to examine what predicted students’ initial aspirations for computing graduate school as well as how aspirations were sustained or developed over time. Using a national, longitudinal sample of undergraduate students who enrolled in introductory computing courses, findings suggest that the environments and interactions that sustain undergraduate students’ initial graduate aspirations are quite different than those that contribute to developing new graduate aspirations over time. Results have important implications for cultivating gender and racial/ethnic diversity in computing graduate school, which is imperative to generating more inclusive computing environments in the tech industry and academia.

Authors

• Linda J. Sax, University of California - Los Angeles

• Annie M. Wofford, Northern Arizona University

• Kari L. George, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Daisy Ramirez, University of California - Los Angeles

• Chantra Nhien, University of California - Los Angeles