Investigating Community College to PhD: Developing Graduate Aspirations Among Upward Transfer Students in Computing and Technology

The study will investigate whether participation in early intervention positively predicts graduate school aspirations and enrollment among upward transfer community college computing students and whether this differs by gender, race/ethnicity, first generation college status, or socioeconomic status. The college study also will consider factors that shape their decision making. The intervention will be implemented across five campuses within the University of California system, tracking students from the time they transfer to one of the campuses through matriculation unto graduate programs in computing. By empirically examining the impact of different aspects of the intervention, the study will provide guidance for how to most efficiently promote graduate school aspirations and intentions among upward transfer students in computing and other STEM fields. Guided by Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT), the study will investigate four research questions: (1) Does participation in the early intervention program positively predict graduate school aspirations and enrollment among upward transfer computing students? Does this differ by gender, race/ethnicity, first-generation college status, or socioeconomic status? (2) What other post-transfer experiences predict graduate aspirations and enrollment among upward transfers in computing? (3) How do upward transfer students experience and make meaning of the early intervention program? And (4) How do upward transfer students aspire to graduate school in computing? What factors shape their decision making? Investigators will employ multiple methods to examine the longitudinal impact of the proposed intervention and a Staged Innovation Design to analyze the data. The project could inform the design of pathways from community college to doctoral programs in computing, thereby, diversifying the computing faculty. The award is funded by the EHR Core Research (ECR) program, STEM professional workforce development theme. ECR supports fundamental research that addresses STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development. 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.