Student Demographics and Outcomes in Civil Engineering in the United States
Publication: Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice
Volume 141, Issue 4
Abstract
Using a data set from universities in the United States that includes over 17,000 civil engineering (CE) students, this work describes the demographics and outcomes for students starting in, switching into, and transferring into CE to inform the decision making of faculty, department heads, and deans. Pathways in CE vary by race but not gender. Although women generally outpersist men in CE, the difference is small. While Asian and Hispanic men choose CE at lower rates than others, the Asian and Hispanic men who do major in CE have higher graduation rates than expected. Black students of both genders are underrepresented in choosing CE and in completing the degree. Among Asian, Hispanic, and White students, those who start in CE and leave are replaced by those who transfer or switch in, but Black students entering CE later do not make up for the large losses of Blacks who start in CE. The work suggests a range of qualitative questions to better understand CE students.
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Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Russell Long, Director of Project Assessment in the Purdue School of Engineering Education. This work has been sponsored in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant 1129383.
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice
Volume 141 • Issue 4 • October 2015
Copyright
© 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Aug 12, 2014
Accepted: Jan 12, 2015
Published online: Mar 6, 2015
Discussion open until: Aug 6, 2015
Published in print: Oct 1, 2015
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