Session:

Research on Women in Engineering/Retention

Paper Title:

Beyond the Numbers: A Deeper Look Into the Retention of Female Engineering Students

Date & Time:

Tuesday, April 12, 2005 -  2:30 pm - 3:30 pm

Authors:

Catherine Pieronek, Leo McWilliams, Stephen Silliman, Mark Gunty, and Carrie Graf, University of Notre Dame

Abstract:

A study on retention of first-year women students in engineering included: demographics, academic performance, experiential information reported on in-class surveys, a week-by-week review of retention and attrition in the first-year Introduction to engineering Systems two-course sequence, and anecdotal information obtained by talking with students. The paper discusses these information-gathering efforts and shows how they led to real systemic changes that have positively impacted the retention of female engineering students from less than 50 percent to nearly 70 percent in one year.