– Gender differences in the persistence of Asian, Blacks, Hispanic, Native American, and White students are far outweighed by institutional differences. Racial differences are more pronounced, however, revealing some patterns that transcend institutional differences.
– At all institutions, women who persist to the eighth semester are more likely to graduate than men who persist to the eighth semester.
– The disparity in engineering degrees awarded to women and men is more of a recruitment issue than a retention issue.
– While persistence varies by institution, presumably because of institutional recruitment and retention practices, within each institution it is clear that an eight semester metric belies six year graduation persistence.
– Compared to other ethnic groups, Asian students show less variation by institution for yield vs. eight-semester persistence. Only in the Asian population does race transcend institution.
* Persistence rates by gender & race.