Family of Origin, Geographic Constraints, and Career Intentions of Graduate Students in the Sciences

Individuals seeking careers in academic science do not have much control over where they live and work due to the nature of such careers. This presents challenges to scientists with strong social, cultural, and psychological connections to their families and communities of origin. There are reasons to believe that such connections are particularly salient among groups underrepresented in science, such as scientists from racially and ethnically minoritized groups. This research examines how such family and community ties potentially influence and restrict the ability of individuals to enter and stay in academic science. Findings from this study highlight underappreciated obstacles to increasing the size and diversity of the scientific workforce and potential strategies for overcoming those obstacles. This research aims to understand the relationships between geographical location and science career decisions among graduate students. To assess these questions, the project implements a survey on a sample of 4,000 graduate students in five natural and social science disciplines in the United States. Respondents are randomly selected from stratified to tiers based on program rankings. The researchers will conduct 50 semi-structured interviews with select survey respondents to add rich context to the quantitative data. This project is jointly funded by Science of Science, the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), and Sociology. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.