Toward a Holistic Understanding of Factors That Support or Inhibit Graduate Student Success

Abstract

The goal of this research was to gain a holistic understanding of factors that support or inhibit graduate student success, with a particular interest in the experiences of underrepresented minorities, females in STEM, and first-generation college students. The Graduate Student Success Survey (GSSS) was developed and validated with 537 M.S. and Ph.D. students at a research-intensive university in the southeastern United States. Guided by Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and informed by salient factors described in the literature and published surveys, items were developed to measure students’ perceptions of imposter syndrome, microaggressions, microaffirmations, mentoring, sense of belonging, financial support, and mentor relationships. This manuscript details the development of these items and validation of the GSSS with full- and part-time thesis-based graduate students across twelve colleges, six of which were STEM-focused. Validity and reliability were tested with exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, resulting in a survey with seven subscales. Findings revealed significant differences in these graduate students’ experiences based on their gender identity, racial and ethnic group, citizenship status, and program area. The findings of this study report the experiences of graduate students at one institution. However, the validated survey and the recommendations resulting from the findings could be used to scaffold student success and provide insight for faculty and administrators on how to better support students.