Improving Engineering Transfer Student Success through Early Advising and Purposeful Community-Building

Mississippi State University, Mississippi State MS

Investigators

Abstract

This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at Mississippi State University on both the Starkville and Coast campuses. Over its six-year duration, this project will fund scholarships for 50 unique full-time transfer students who are pursuing Bachelor of Science degrees in computer, electrical, industrial, and mechanical engineering. Students will receive up to six semesters of scholarship support. This project aims to improve student outcomes for engineering students by linking scholarships with faculty and peer mentoring, enhanced advising for the transition to Mississippi State University, and a new engineering student organization for transfer students. By increasing interaction between new transfer students, existing transfer students, and faculty, this project will help students learn how to navigate academic policies and access student resources. The increased student-to-student and student-to-faculty interaction will also create a community from which faculty and administrators can learn about and begin to address institutional barriers for transfer students. Due to the large population of underrepresented and first-generation students enrolled in Mississippi community colleges and transferring to Mississippi State University, this project has the potential to broaden participation in engineering. The project will generate new knowledge about how financial support, cohort building, early advising, and a student organization focused on transfer student success can support retention and graduation for engineering transfer students. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The project objectives are to 1) provide scholarships, faculty mentoring, and peer mentoring to eligible low-income students, 2) strengthen advising practices for all incoming engineering transfer students, and 3) improve belonging and integration into Mississippi State University student communities. Support for engineering transfer students will include a new online, self-paced course focused on early-advising and a new university-registered student organization to help transfer students transition to the university. Specific known barriers for engineering transfer students include financial difficulties, being unfamiliar with academic procedures, difficulty balancing academic and personal responsibilities, and social isolation. This project will investigate how an online early-advising course and a registered student organization that is framed by Community of Practice principles can increase interaction with other students and faculty and reduce known barriers to success. Additionally, the project will generate new knowledge about forming and maintaining Communities of Practice to support engineering transfer students. The project evaluation will assess the impact of project activities on transfer student success as well as institutional practices. Student and mentor interviews will be conducted to examine the effects of the project activities through thematic analysis. Institutional data on student retention and progress toward graduation will be analyzed to examine how the project affects student success. Project results will be shared with the engineering education community via flyers, a project website, social media, email distribution lists, and presentations at technical meetings. This project is funded by NSF’s Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program, which seeks to increase the number of low-income academically talented students with demonstrated financial need who earn degrees in STEM fields. It also aims to improve the education of future STEM workers, and to generate knowledge about academic success, retention, transfer, graduation, and educational/career pathways of low-income students. 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.