study on grad school success

inside higher ed reports the following findings from a new study by Michael Nettles and Catherine Millet, both affiliated with Educational Testing Services, on factors affecting graduate student success.

More than 30 percent of all graduate students never feel that they have a faculty mentor.

Two-thirds of graduate students enter Ph.D. programs without any debt, suggesting that those concerned about expanding the pipeline to graduate education should pay attention to the affordability of undergraduate education.

Students rate their social interaction with faculty members as high in the engineering, sciences, mathematics and education — and relatively low in the social sciences and humanities.

In rating the quality of academic interactions, students in the humanities think highly of their professors while those in the social sciences and math and science are more critical.

Significant gaps exist in the experiences of minority and female graduate students — from admissions to getting teaching or research assistant jobs to publishing research while still in graduate school. Generally, these gaps do not favor minority students.

the article also reports:

The study also found a strong preference among female and minority Ph.D. candidates for mentors and advisers who are from their same groups. The demand for such mentors is particularly hard to fill for the many institutions that lack a critical mass of black faculty members, the authors write, creating “a vicious cycle” in which black students can’t find black mentors, and — if they don’t finish — leave fewer potential mentors for the next cohort.