Why do professionals return to school for graduate degrees?

Abstract

Recently, there has been increased interest in the population of graduate students who have worked for significant amounts of time prior to their graduate studies. These "returning students" 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 university who had at least five years' gap between the completion of their undergraduate degree and the start of their current graduate degree. The participants came from different academic departments and included both masters' and doctoral students of various ages and statuses in their programs. Three reasons why participants returned to school emerged from data analysis: 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 career path. In this paper, we discuss these categories and the students who chose those paths. We also address the implications for graduate schools regarding the recruitment and support of returning students. © 2012 American Society for Engineering Education.