A Longitudinal Study of Career Choices after a non-Academic Undergraduate Research Experience

Authors: S. Greco, S. Wissel, A. Zwicker

Abstract: There is a national need for an adequately prepared STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) workforce, and the need is growing. Developing talented students at the undergraduate level is a major part of satisfying the workforce demands. Here, we examine the graduate enrollment and career choices of alumni from our undergraduate research internship program, specifically beyond graduate school. In plasma physics and fusion, unlike other subfields, the PhD production is only about half of what is required to keep the total workforce constant, based upon the expected retirement rate. A key question to ask is whether or not plasma physics PhDs are finding jobs within plasma physics or within another STEM discipline. When compared to other programs, our undergraduate interns have a much higher percentage that go to graduate school after the program. For the period 2001-2005, our rate is 95% enrolling in graduate school and they are entering the STEM workforce at a rate of 82%.

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