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The purpose of this study is to examine how student agency influences career decision-making for doctoral students in biological sciences. The authors address the following questions: How do biological science graduate students navigate career indecision? And how does agency relate to their experiences with career indecision?

The authors analyzed interview data collected from 84 PhD biology graduate students. Researchers used a grounded theory approach. After open codes were developed and data were coded, code reports were generated, which were used to determine themes.

More than half of the sample had not committed to a career path, and undecided students were bifurcated into two categories: Uncommitted and Uncertain. Uncommitted graduate students demonstrated agency in their approach and were focused on exploration and development. Uncertain students demonstrated less agency, were more fearful and perceived less control and clarity about their options and strategies to pursue career goals.

Findings suggest some forms of indecision can be productive and offer institutional leaders guidance for increasing the efficacy of career development and exploration programming.

Research on doctoral student career decision-making is often quantitative and rarely explores the role of agency. This qualitative study focuses on the relationship between student agency and career indecision, which is an understudied aspect of career development.

The purpose of this study is to explore the developmental networks of graduate students of color participating in PROMISE, Maryland’s Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate program, a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded graduate retention and support program. The authors specifically examine how underrepresented minority students gain access to needed supports through building individual mentoring relationships and broader networks of support.

The authors rely on a case study approach to explore developmental networks and support accessed by students participating in the PROMISE program. A total of 16 students of color in STEM fields from three institutions in the University of Maryland System have participated.

Study findings reveal that scientists from underrepresented backgrounds construct and draw from diverse developmental networks that include individuals from within and outside of the academic community. Key relationships include advisors; faculty with whom they share identities, peers in and outside of their programs; and administrators. Developers play distinct roles within the networks including shaping students’ emerging professional identities as scientists and providing psychosocial support. Student agency and initiative as well as faculty engagement and programs like PROMISE further enhanced student access to mentorship.

This study offers unique insights into the nature, cultivation and resources gained from the relationships that make up the developmental networks of science graduate students from underrepresented backgrounds.

Traditional notions of mentoring and support, particularly in graduate education, highlight the role and importance of the student’s advisor in their growth and development. This study is unique in its focus on the multiple relationships students of color in science form. This study offers specific insight into the nature, construction and resources gained from developmental networks formed by a group of underrepresented minority students in STEM graduate education.

This study aims to focus on the experiences of biomedical science students nearing the end of their doctoral programs and the factors that influence their well-being. In addition to identifying general challenges, the study aims to expand understanding of how interactions with principal investigators (PIs) can influence students’ well-being and engagement in wellness practices.

This qualitative study presents an analysis of interview data collected from 90 trainees five years after beginning their graduate programs. All were participants in a larger mixed-methods, longitudinal study. Emergent themes and a codebook were established after reviewing interview transcripts and completing memos. Codes were applied to data, and reports were generated to confirm and challenge early interpretations.

Participants described four key factors that influenced their well-being: perceived work/life balance; managing progress on research; program completion and job search; and overall faculty relationships. While relationships with PIs could be a source of stress, participants more often described how both interactions with, and observations of their PIs could amplify or mitigate their ability to manage other stressors and overall sense of well-being.

While researchers in the USA have increasingly considered the factors impacting graduate student mental health, there has been less of an emphasis on wellness and well-being. Furthermore, there has been less attention to how PIs contribute, in positive and negative ways, to these outcomes. This study offers insight into well-being at a specific timepoint, considering dynamics unique to wellness and well-being in the later stages of doctoral training.

The aim of this conceptual paper is to explore Mentor-protégé fit as important to the selection and development of successful doctoral student–faculty mentoring relationships. We suggest that the student–faculty relationship in doctoral education is an additional and previously untested type of Mentor-protégé fit.

Generated from an existing framework of identity in the academy, we explore how three types of identity (professional, relational, personal) may influence students’ fit assessments as they seek to initiate and develop relationships.

We offer propositions for research to further explore the potential application of the proposed framework to knowledge generation about the doctoral student experience.

While the research about doctoral education has considered all three aspects of students’ identities individually, it has not explicated the ways in which these intersecting identities relate to students’ needs and expectations related to mentoring, their choices related to mentor selection, or the effectiveness and outcomes of mentoring relationships in fostering success and satisfaction.

While many may assume that all students enrolled at historically Black campuses are African American, recent trends suggest these campuses are becoming increasingly diverse. In this chapter, we challenge common perceptions about historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), highlighting both what is known and yet to be known about enrollment trends and the experiences of students from diverse backgrounds at ­historically Black campuses. The chapter presents data from the National Center for Education Statistics, tracking changes in enrollments over time. These data are coupled with a review of research on the experiences of non-Black students at HBCUs, largely focusing on White students, but also integrating the narratives of a growing Latina/o/x student population. HBCUs can also be ethnically diverse, and we examine the heterogeneity within the Black student experience based on ethnic identity and immigrant status. We close with recommendations for research and practice, calling for increased attention to how non-Black populations experience, navigate, and engage HBCU campus communities to promote student outcomes and opportunities for learning across difference.

Our analyses and conclusions are based on both research literature on college access for African American males and the survey responses of 214,951 full-time, first-time African American male freshmen between 1971 and 2004. First, we reviewed literature on the experiences of African American male high-school students and the common barriers facing their matriculation to college. We organized findings from the research into broad themes emerging from the literature, guided by Swail, Cabrera, Lee, and Williams's Integrated Model for Student Success (2005). Based on this framework, college access and academic achievement are not based on a single factor or one dimension; rather, they are constructed through a complex interaction of multiple dimensions. Swail and colleagues delineate these factors into three categories: cognitive, social, and institutional/systemic. Cognitive factors take place largely inside the student and relate to the skills, abilities, and knowledge students have which prepare them for higher education, including academic preparation, post-secondary planning, and college knowledge (Swail, Redd, & Perna, 2003; Swail et al., 2005). Social factors exist largely outside the student, and capture the ways in which those who have relationships with students can influence their access to post-secondary education. The social dimension includes a student's cultural history, family influence, financial issues and socioeconomic status, and ability to interact with peers (Swail, 2003; Swail et al., 2005). Finally the institutional/systemic dimension captures the ability of institutions to influence and shape student efforts to reach their college goals. High-school resources and support, outreach programs, and opportunities for financial aid could all be considered within this dimension of the framework (Swail, 2003; Swail et al., 2005).

We thank the various foundations, organizations and individuals who helped to ensure the success of this project. We are greatly indebted for their many contributions. The strengths and positives of this volume owe to their generosity. We three are responsible for any problems and/or shortcomings of the volume.

The first element contributing to the low number of African American men in college is the set of factors that cause Black men to not even consider applying or enrolling. In this volume, Launcelot Brown, Malick Koyate, and Rodney Hopson explore why so many Black men fail to grasp the opportunity to go to college while Rhonda Sharpe and William Darity examine some specific factors affecting the decision not to enroll. Also, Candace Baldwin, Jodi Fisler, and James Patton delineate issues linked to the status and perceptions of Black men in society as a whole that contribute to their absence from our campuses.