Bushra Aryan

While there is a great deal of literature examining the experiences of undergraduate students of color in higher education, there is very little which explains the experiences of women of color in doctoral programs. This study aims to fill an empirical void in our understanding about how women of color doctoral students experience their graduate programs and how those experiences are impacted by being enrolled in formal support programs that address issues such as writing dissertations, applying to post-doctoral positions, and applying to faculty positions. We expected to learn which factors both institutional and environmental, are salient to doctoral students of colors ’ decision-making process. A qualitative methods and a critical race feminism (CRF) theory was utilized to explore the processes by which women of color doctoral students construct the meaning of discriminating factors that hinder their experiences in graduate programs and the support that counteracts these actions by attending formal support programs geared towards doctoral students of color