Intervening to Foster Upward Transfer Student Interest in Computer Science Ph.D.s (Poster 13)

• In Event: Friday Poster Session 3:05 pm

Abstract

Computer science is approaching a crisis-level shortage of new faculty in the face of booming undergraduate enrollments, and the field has long struggled with a lack of diversity. One way to grow and diversify the computer science professoriate is to build accessible pathways from community colleges to PhD programs. Guided by social cognitive career theory, we developed and tested a new intervention to promote graduate school self-efficacy and PhD interest among computer science majors who started their degree programs at community colleges. Using survey data from students across a treatment and control group, we found that exposure to our intervention increased the likelihood that students would maintain a PhD interest over time. Implications for research and practice will be discussed.

Authors

• Jennifer M. Blaney, University of Georgia

• David F. Feldon, Utah State University

• Kaylee Litson, University of Houston