CAREER: Educational Trajectories and Career Plans under Uncertainty

该项目将调查一个亚群的教育轨迹和职业规划，该亚群是美国劳动力中不断增长的部分。 该项目将侧重于研究生和专业学位教育，因为它们在促进进入美国劳动力市场方面发挥着独特的作用。该项目的第一部分将汇编一个关于这一亚群研究生和专业学生教育轨迹和职业规划的国家级数据集。 第二部分将比较不同年龄段和不同地位的学生的经历。 该项目将调查影响学生在美国研究生和专业学位课程中取得成功的能力以及影响他们未来职业规划的因素。该项目还将建立一个学生研究项目实验室，对来自多个机构的学生进行基于调查和访谈的方法培训。 该项目由社会学项目、刺激竞争研究的既定项目（EPSCoR）和扩大参与的科学共同资助。该项目将使用解释性顺序混合方法，包括在线调查和对调查受访者的访谈。首先，全国的研究生和专业学位学生将被要求完成一项关于他们的教育经历和未来职业规划的在线调查。调查问题将集中在一系列主题，包括学生的经验有关的机构参加，财政和非财政支持的来源，利用，以及未来的规划。第二，部分在线调查参与者将接受采访，这将为项目参与者提供一个重要的机会，详细说明他们的答案以及他们做出回应的过程。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will investigate the educational trajectories and career plans of a subpopulation that is a growing segment of the U.S. workforce. This project will focus on graduate and professional degree education given their unique role in facilitating entry into the U.S. labor market. Part 1 of the project will be the compilation of a national level dataset on the educational trajectories and career plans of graduate and professional students from this subpopulation. Part 2 will be a comparison of the experiences of students across different generational groups and statuses. The project will investigate the factors that affect students’ ability to succeed in U.S. graduate and professional degree programs and affect their future career plans. The project also will establish a student research project lab to train students from multiple institutions on survey and interview-based approaches. This project is jointly funded by the Sociology Program, the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), and the Science of Broadening Participation.This project will use an explanatory sequential mixed methods approach consisting of an online survey followed by interviews with survey respondents. First, graduate and professional degree students nationally will be asked to complete an online survey regarding their educational experiences and future career plans. Survey questions will focus on a range of topics including student experiences pertaining to institutions attended, sources of financial and non-financial support utilized, and future planning. Second, a portion of the online survey takers will be interviewed, which will provide an important opportunity for project participants to elaborate on their answers and the process through which they came to respond as they did.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.