Under-Represented Populations Stand-Alone Report 1 (Progress)

1995 Program Evaluation of the Women in Science Project at Dartmouth College

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FINDINGS

Qualitative Data

D) Women Considering a Major in Science

Because of the prerequisites and the sequencing of science courses, it is extremely difficult for students to switch into a science major sophomore or junior year. Therefore, students who major in science generally need to matriculate with an interest in the discipline. To better understand what initially motivated students to consider science study and to situate their reasons for leaving in a larger context, freshwomen were queried about why they were interested in science when they entered college.

Sources of matriculating students' interest in science:

Two of these responses merit attention. First, not surprisingly, students' high school experiences (an inspirational teacher, course, or other science-related school activity) were influential. (As described in the previous section the identification of this factor as important continues through senior year.) The importance of students' high school science education as a pipeline for college should not be overlooked.

Not only do freshwomen enter college interested in science, most have been fairly well prepared, and many consider science an area of strength. It seems that matriculating women generally have some confidence in their science abilities. About 75% of the freshwomen indicated that they were at least adequately prepared by their high school courses for college classes.

The precollege contact that the students had with "real" science was also investigated. Freshwomen ('97, '98) were asked to describe their high school extracurricular science activities. 15.8%, reported that they had done scientific research either as an assistant in a research laboratory or as part of a research project such as the Westinghouse competition. 18.9% of the freshwomen had some exposure to non-research science, such as (volunteer) work in a doctors office, hospital, or museum. In explaining why they chose to apply for an internship, some WISP '97 freshwomen mentioned that their enjoyment of these initial contacts with science prompted them to seek another. The WISP '98 interns were specifically queried about their experiences doing mathematical and scientific research outside high school science labs. 23.7% had some type of previous research experience in high school.

The freshwomen survey asked students what they were planning to major in when they entered in the fall and what they presently planned to major in (freshman spring). Freshwomen ('97 and '98) responded:

To better understand the movement of students who were considering science majors freshman year, students were grouped according to the majors they were considering. "Science" majors were those students considering only science disciplines, "science and humanities" refers to students who were contemplating majors in both science and humanities.

When they entered Dartmouth, almost 90% of the surveyed women were contemplating a major in science; this number drops to 80% by the end of freshman year. However, it is important to note that the statistics above are comprised of data from 191 women who were interested in science, 173 of whom participated in an internship. Ultimately about 20% of the women at Dartmouth graduate with science majors. A more detailed breakdown of the data above traces students' movements concerning majors during freshman year:

About of third of these women were very sure of their choice in the spring, a third were pretty sure, and a third were unsure.

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E) Women Who "Leave" Science

Freshwomen

15.6% of the freshwomen originally interested in a science major were no longer considering one at the end of their freshman year. The women who had left a science major were asked why. They responded:

Women also mentioned the focus on memorization, the amount of time required by science courses, science labs, and the focus on theory not application.

The influence of two discouraging factors recurs throughout women's questionnaires--science courses and career plans. This section explores these in more depth. Students' experiences in their freshman classes strongly influenced what fields they continued to pursue. Not enjoying or doing well in science courses often prompted women to switch to a humanities field. Students who left cited poor classes, grades, class size, and feeling incapable of learning science based on their exam grades.

Freshwomen '98 were asked why they decided to take their science courses and what sources of advice about classes they utilized. They responded³:

Why freshwomen decide to take courses, sources of advice:

After their first term (freshman fall), the WISP '98 interns were asked to describe their experiences in and impressions of science courses at Dartmouth. Table 13 illustrates that the women's responses cited more positive than negative statements overall. The women's positive sentiments were more similar and clustered around certain topics (thus generating higher percentages); negative feedback was more specific and discrete (there were many other replies with small percentages.)

At the beginning of winter term freshman year, the freshwomen were asked a related question--whether the science and math courses that they took fall term influenced their decision to continue or major in science. To this question, 49.1% responded that their classes had a negative impact on them; their explanations included: poor teaching, experiences in lab, class size, grades, the competitive atmosphere, their feeling of incompetence, boredom, pace of the class, and the workload. Fewer freshwomen (35.4%) noted that the courses had encouraged them to remain in science, and 27.9% said that they had no influence. The students' responses in the spring suggest less favorable attitudes toward courses; perhaps reflecting the passage of another term, differences in the populations that were sampled, or the different focus of the two questions. The fact that first year classes negatively affected almost 50% of the freshwomen is a cause for concern; while not all of these women will actually choose to leave the sciences, the reasons offered by the women who do (teaching, class size, grades, competence) corroborates the damaging impact of some science courses.

The difficulty for some freshwomen struggling in science stemmed in part from an adjustment to college courses. Many students wrote about the (often painful) realization that they needed to approach science courses differently in college than they had in high school; doing well in science courses in high school had required little work, but college science required more work, keeping up, and getting help from others to understand the much more difficult and abundant material. Acquiring study skills, learning what to expect in science courses, and learning how to approach the material and the exams often took students a few academic terms and, for many, seemed to present a significant stumbling block. Undoubtedly, some students leave science before they adapt to the new system. As the seniors' histories described, by sophomore or junior year women better understand what college science entails, which makes science much less intimidating. What advice do freshwomen have that might help freshwomen adjust? Freshwomen were asked at the end of the year what advice they would relay to an incoming freshwomen about science courses.

The second, highly influential factor that pervaded students' decisions about science classes and majors, was their career plans, specifically, medical school. 48.6% of the freshwomen responded that they were planning to pursue a career as a medical doctor. At graduation 35.3% of the seniors planned to attend medical school--half were entering in the fall, the other half intended to apply in the future.

Freshwomens' Future Plans:

Surveyed senior science majors' future plans:

For the premedical students, gaining admission to medical school was a major concern that shaped their coursetaking and major. The link between a major in science and medicine explains why many women leave science majors. 11.6% of students specifically cited a career in medicine as a reason they initially planned to major in science at Dartmouth. For some women, this was the only rationale for their choice of major and when they decided not to enter medicine, they left science as well. Other students chose not to major in science because they planned to go to medical school and knew that they would be studying exclusively science there--they opted to pursue other non-science interests as an undergraduate. Premeds know that medical school is competitive and feel pressured to earn high GPA's. To this end, many leave science as undergraduates and pursue a humanities major that has a less stringent grading curve so they can obtain higher grades. Often they pursue majors in related fields, such as psychology. However, what is important for this evaluation is that these women have not "left" science--they still intend to pursue a career in medicine. While students planning to pursue graduate studies in science, engineering, or math, need to major in their respective field, medical schools only require that a student fulfill the prerequisites; they admit students with many different majors. Thus, the number of science majors is not an accurate metric for assessing the number of women who continue in scientific careers.

A career in a science-related field was also a motivator for other science majors who were not pre-med. As discussed later, the research internship reinforces (or introduces) some women's desire to pursue a research career. Placing their college coursework and major in perspective as a step to a future goal encourages women to continue to major in science.

Junior Non-Science Majors

Interviews with 16 juniors further probed the departure of women from science majors. These women were randomly selected from a pool of women who had expressed an interest in a science major their freshman year, but had subsequently declared a non-science major. The interviews particularly targeted students who had held internships; 11 students who held internships, and 5 who had not were interviewed⁴.

Data from the junior interviews corroborates many of the themes in the questionnaires. Table 15 illustrates that 10 of the interns were pre-med when they entered Dartmouth; when interviewed, 8 of these women were still planning to apply to medical school. An interest in going to medical school was the reason behind 4 women's initial interest in a science major (and in intern (G)'s case, the reason she did not plan to major in science); 8 other women cited their high school experiences as the primary motivating factor.

Table 15 also vividly demonstrates the problem with assuming that non-science majors have "left" science. Although none of the five non-interns planned to continue in science, every intern, with the exception of intern (J), was still considering a future career in science. A couple of the women (F and K) were in the process of deciding whether to pursue medicine or graduate study either in a science or a humanities field of interest (drama and music). These women mentioned that their courses in the coming year would help them choose. Intern (I) had entered Dartmouth as a pre-med interested in children's developmental psychology, had gradually shifted her plans to MD/PhD, and then to a doctoral program in psychology.

The movement from a biology to a psychology major is also evident in Table 15. Of the 11 interns who initially expressed interest in a biology major, 4 had decided to major in psychology instead. They stated that the material in psychology was similar, but that they liked the courses much better, the department was stronger, and that it was easier to see the ramifications and real world applications of what they were learning. Enjoyment of classes is a major factor in students' choice of major. Looking at the table, 11 students' "new" humanities major were chosen because they took a class in the field and enjoyed it. Also cited again as important factors were grades and a shift in their career plans.

Juniors were asked to talk about the critical factors motivating their switch of majors and to compare their current majors with a science major. They cited the class size, interactions with people and professors in the department, the competition between students, grading, the pace of the class, the time-consuming nature of science classes, and the impersonal nature of science classes and departments. Students also spoke about the type of learning that the different disciplines required or permitted them to do. Eight juniors expressed frustrations with: the right/wrong dichotomy in science, the inability to express their own ideas, the "spit back" memorization-type exams in science courses, the lack of application of what they'd learned and how it fit into a larger context, the inability to identify personally with what they were studying (because the mindset was scientific and analytical), and the lecture format of the classes that prohibited discussion and student questions.

Interns' responses about what their most difficult experience in science clustered around four themes. Many regretted enrolling in two sciences in one term, especially freshman year. They also had become extremely frustrated with working very hard and not doing well in their courses. The pace of science classes overwhelmed students. Finally, the women described their difficulties getting help from faculty (and staff) that taught the courses. Student questions were discouraged, and even ignored, in the large lecture courses. Obtaining personal contact with or help from either the professor or a teaching assistant was also a disappointing experience--office hours were limited, and often flooded with students; getting personal attention was often very difficult. Furthermore, in the large help sessions, students reported feeling uncomfortable, or stupid asking their questions.

All the students who had held internships were grateful for the experience, even if they were not continuing in science or research. Some mentioned that they had never intended to continue in the field of their internship or pursue research, but they had wanted exposure to research. Others participated because they wanted to make sure that they did not want to pursue this career. Still, these women appreciated learning about "the mentality of a scientist" (how they approached problems) and were inspired by the women with whom they worked. As a result of the experience, one intern was contemplating a medical research career instead of only medicine. Other women decided that scientific research was too isolated, they wanted to work in closer contact with people. Two interns who had learned they enjoyed research, were now considering research in other fields.

The WISP program offers one model of a retention program for women in science that could be used as a springboard at other schools. Because it has been developed at Dartmouth, a small liberal arts university with a high student/professor ratio, direct replication of some components of the program (such as the internships) could be logistically impossible at other institutions--each school will need to fashion a site-specific program. Locally, the findings of this evaluation can be used to better tailor WISP to the needs of the students it serves. However, the identification of students' needs, of factors that encourage and discourage science study, and of successful features of WISP could inform program design and implementation at other institutions.

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³ The percentages here are based on the number of students who gave a response for why they were leaving, not the total number of freshwomen who responded to the survey. They include data for women who were transferring from one field of science to another.

⁴ During one interview, (K), I learned that the intern was planning to double major in drama and biochemistry, but had not yet declared the biochemistry major. One intern (G) and one non-intern (P) stated that they could not remember ever considering a science major. One non-intern (O) asserted that she did not have any majors in mind when she entered. Because the two non-interns had not taken any science courses for majors, I do not include them in the statistics. I do however, include intern (G) since she was pre-med when she entered and had taken science classes for majors.

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