ABSTRACT
The National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, an umbrella organization for the distribution of scholarships to disadvantaged minority students in undergraduate engineering education, has spearheaded a three-pronged study designed to identify factors enhancing the academic success of these students. To guide the effort, a review of the minorities in engineering literature concludes that:
Despite the excellent qualifications of minorities in engineering students, their dropout rates are high, around 67%. These rates vary according to unspecified factors, except that rates are lower in Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
For minority students, the low representation in engineering seems due to low numbers at entry, as well as high dropout rates.
It appears that minorities in engineering face some of the same adjustment problems as do minorities in the general college adjustment literature, but these issues have been studied in far less detail.
Effective program support has been a hallmark or the Minorities in Engineering effort, but there is still a need for a precise delineation of success factors, in order of importance.
The issues for minorities may or not be similar to those for women, and the issues for the intersection of women and ethnicity need further clarification in engineering.
