Abstract: Though graduate students in engineering are understudied compared with undergraduate education, the intersection of sociological and psychological factors predicting attrition (i.e., leaving a program of study) for graduate students is particularly unexplored. The Council of Graduate Schools report that in doctoral engineering programs, ten-year degree completion rates are only 56% and 65% for women and men, respectively. Persistence rates for students from historically marginalized racial groups are lower than 50%. The lack of “socialization” is generally noted as a main reason for doctoral attrition; however, few researchers seek to understand and characterize the socialization process in graduate engineering students and how the mechanisms of attrition or persistence work within a single disciplinary setting. Propagated by a lack of research, administrators, faculty, and graduate advisors often work to “solve” retention given their anecdotal experiences with graduate students, rather than understanding the entire picture surrounding graduate student attrition, persistence, and career trajectories.

This seminar will present results from several of my ongoing studies, including an NSF RFE grant exploring how various “invisible” competencies such as academic writing can impact persistence and career trajectories and the most current findings from my NSF CAREER grant, characterizing master’s-level departure from the engineering PhD. Though doctoral attrition and consideration of leaving is common (our work shows that approximately 70% of engineering PhD students consider or strongly consider leaving), students often feel isolated, thinking they are alone and hesitant to discuss their issues with either their peers or their advisors. My team’s research across several funded projects weaves together to support a more nuanced and accurate understanding of the processes involved in attrition—including how graduate students come to consider whether they should depart from their PhD; how various sociological or structural factors interact with psychological issues in graduate students; and how thriving is different than surviving. Ultimately, my research platform breaks new ground in understanding issues related to doctoral and graduate student success, while also developing new and innovative methods to collect and visualize data about attrition processes.

Biography: Catherine Berdanier is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Pennsylvania State University. She earned her B.S. in Chemistry from The University of South Dakota, her M.S. in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering and Ph.D. in Engineering Education from Purdue University. Catherine is also the Director of the online World Campus Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering (MSME) Program. She directs the Engineering Cognitive Research Laboratory (E-CRL), which focuses attention on graduate-level engineering education research and methodological development. She is a winner of an NSF CAREER grant studying Master’s-level departure from the engineering doctorate, a 2025 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) winner, and is PI and co-PI of 8 other NSF-funded research grants. In total, she has over ten years of experience and expertise in studying graduate-level engineering education, which will be the main focus of the featured research presentation.