Characterizing and Modeling the Experience of Transfer Students in Engineering

这个Step Type 2项目是一项针对工程学本科生的研究性研究，旨在为这些学生在两年制和四年制大学之间的转移提供新的知识。该项目正在研究转学学生在人口统计、结果和轨迹方面与本地学生的不同之处。它探讨了转学学生对毕业班规模和多样性的贡献，并为观察到的结果寻找解释。研究团队正在研究工科学生跨院校转学和攻读本科工程学课程的程度，使用的是一个纵向数据库，其中包含70多万名学生记录，这些记录是调查人员之前收集的。本研究的质的部分依赖于对转学学生的访谈和焦点小组来探索促使他们转学的因素，考察了转学的工科学生和本地学生的平均绩点和获得学位的时间。该项目预计将有助于出版关于学生在整个学术周期中进步的文献，并为学院和大学的管理人员提供有用的信息，以制定关于学生参与和学位授予的政策。

This STEP Type 2 project is a research study of engineering undergraduate students intended to provide new knowledge about transfer of these students between two year and four year colleges. The project is studying how transfer students differ from native students in demographics, outcomes, and trajectories. It explores the contribution of transfer students to the size and diversity of graduating classes, and searches for explanations for observed outcomes. The research team is studying the degree to which engineering students transfer across institutions and pursue undergraduate engineering studies using a longitudinal database of over 700,000 student records that have been previously assembled by the investigators. The qualitative component of this study relies on interviews and focus groups of transfer students to explore the factors that motivated them to transfer out of their institutions, exploring GPA and time-to-degree of engineering students for transfer and native students. The project is expected to contribute to published literature about student progression through the academic cycle and to provide information useful to administrators of colleges and universities for making policy changes about student participation and degree awards.