How Underrepresented Minority Doctoral Students in STEM Fields Experience Graduate School: A Whole-Self Framework

Underrepresented minority students (URMs) make up only about a third of undergraduate students enrolled in post-secondary institutions and are further underrepresented in STEM fields. In the United States, only 12% of doctoral degrees conferred in STEM fields are awarded to underrepresented minority groups. This study aimed to understand the factors that contribute to the retention of URM students’ in doctoral programs, specifically in STEM fields, to degree completion, directly from the students' perspectives. By investigating URM students’ experiences related to perceived levels and types of support during their doctoral programs, this study contributes to the body of knowledge regarding URM graduate student persistence using a “whole-self” framework approach. Different levels and types of support have been shown to impact URM students’ persistence and completion of degree in higher education including multi-faceted institutional supports, social and emotional support, and personal supports. This study explores how the “whole-self” framework helps understand the students’ experiences with the different types of support, and how those experiences impact the retention, persistence and successful degree completion of the racially diverse student. Through the experiences of three individual URM students in STEM doctoral programs this study provides key insights into possible areas of focus for institutions and doctoral programs who aim to improve the experiences of their URM student population. The three most prevalent areas of focus across all three cases include mentorship coupled with the recruitment of more URM faculty, financial support, and access to academic success programs. Institutions and programs who prioritize the support of URM students and all students can have the biggest impact by addressing students' needs using the “whole-self” framework. Although the areas of focus can each be acted on separately, institutions and programs will have limited impact on supporting the “whole student” if efforts and resources are only concentrated in one area. Programs and institutions will have the greatest impact in improving how URM students experience their doctoral program by acting in all the areas of focus, recognizing that these three areas are interconnected.Keywords: diversity, doctoral training, higher education, race, self-efficacy, sense of belonging, social integration, STEM, support, URM, whole-self framewor