Life After STEM: Students' Experiences After Leaving STEM Majors

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 10
  In Roundtable Session: Strategies for Success in STEM

Abstract

Reducing attrition from STEM disciplines presents one of the central issues in higher education. Only about half of those students who started majoring in a STEM discipline will graduate with such a degree. Moreover, those who leave STEM majors are disproportionately minoritized students, which contributes to the lack of diversity in industry and research fields. Our goal is to examine the climate within STEM programs and uncover the critical moments that push students out of their majors. Using a case of a large public research university, we go beyond identifying causes of STEM attrition and compare students’ academic and social experiences in their “old” and “new” majors, paying particular attention to the climate and support systems within these academic programs.

Authors

• Veronika Rozhenkova, University of California - Irvine

• Gary Coyne

• Brian Sato, University of California - Irvine