Presentation
Why do professionals return to school for graduate degrees?
2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
(2012)
Abstract
Recently, there has been increased interest in the population of graduate students who haveworked for significant amounts of time prior to their graduate studies. These “returningstudents” have a diverse range of experiences between their undergraduate and graduate careers,, and have different reasons why their pathways lead to graduate school.To study these pathways, we interviewed ten graduate students at a major midwestern universitywho had at least five years’ gap between the completion of their undergraduate degree and thestart of their current graduate degree. The participants came from different academicdepartments and included both masters’ and doctoral students of various ages and status in theprogram. The interview covered a range of different topics, including their motivation forreturning to graduate school. Reasons why participants returned to school were grouped intothree categories: To transition from their current career path into an academic career path, To change the focus of their industrial career into a new specialty area, To advance further along their current industrial career path.In this paper, we discuss these categories and the students who chose those paths. We alsoaddress the implications for graduate schools regarding the recruitment and support of returningstudents.
Disciplines
Publication Date
June 10, 2012
Comments
ASEE PEER pp. 25.1477.1 - 25.1477.12
© 2012 American Society for Engineering Education
Citation Information
Diane L. Peters and Shanna R. Daly. "Why do professionals return to school for graduate degrees?" 2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition (2012) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/diane-peters/54/