Realizing they could do the work
For many of these women, the DMP helped them realize that they were capable of doing graduate level work. This increased their confidence in their ability to succeed in graduate school and therefore increased their commitment to applying to graduate school. The following student quote is representative of this viewpoint.
Seeing the way people lived and sort of conducted their graduate experience gave me insight to realize that it's something that I definitely could do...I was very scared of it and being in that environment showed me that it was nothing to be scared of...I could handle the work...It was no longer this like, this degree that I wasn't smart enough to get or wasn't motivated enough to get or that you know, definitely meant that I was going to being a professor, um, it seemed like, you know, even if I went out into the work force after getting a Ph.D. it was just an experience that I think that I want from life. And it never would have been something that I would have considered before, it was just, it seemed like academia was something that I had had enough of.
[During the program] I saw someone do his [qualifiers or pre-lims]...and so I was really nervous, but I sat in on that and it was, it was nothing to be afraid of. It was the kind of thing where, if I had prepared the way that I normally prepare for things, there was no way that I wasn't going to pass. It may have been very stressful and it may have taken a long time to prepare, but it certainly was something that I could accomplish or that wouldn't keep me from getting, you know, a Ph.D. And that was, that was very useful to sit through and to see and to be able to take that information and, you know apply it to myself in what, you know, how I would be able to deal with that situation.
DMP provided "the push" to go to graduate school for some
In the excerpt below, one woman discussed that the DMP gave her a strong desire to go to graduate school and made her focus on the application process during her senior year.
[The mentoring program] sort of gave me this thing of like, "Forget classes this last semester. I have got to apply to grad school. That's my most important goal, and fellowships, and these stupid Essays that I have to write are more important than any of my classes." But my faculty members at my undergrad school also thought that, so in a way, and in a way it sort of gave me this, I was so interested in the exact topic I did that I worked on and basically felt like I knew exactly what I wanted to study, and partially because NSF decided that you have to tell them, like, practically what your thesis topic is, so you had to sort of pick something. But I felt so confident and interested in it that I couldn't wait to get started. And that was hard for the first month back or so. It was like, "I don't care. I know what I want to do. Let me out of here." And I, I didn't have many computer science classes left to take. I was trying to get some of my general elective stuff done, so that was hard.
Another student indicated that the DMP had given her the "push" to go to graduate school.
I: So do you see the mentoring program as influencing your commitment to your studies in CS?
R; Yeah, probably. This one I cannot say really that was the definite thing that made me go to grad school. I always had this thing of bettering myself and learn more and all that stuff, but maybe this, the mentoring program, was what gave me the push, let's say, what made me decide. But I guess the will and the desire of going to grad school was always there inside me I suppose, so yeah.
I: Did it influence your commitment to your studies in CS?
R: Yes, it definitely influenced me.
Some students are still in the process of deciding whether or not to attend graduate school
For some students the DMP increased their commitment to graduate school, but did not cause them to make a firm decision about whether or not to go to graduate school. This was partially a function of age, as some of the participants were entering their junior year and were not ready to make a firm decision about post-graduation plans.
I: So having this experience this summer, did that influence your thoughts about how graduate school would be, in terms of how much interaction with other people, or what do you think?
R: It was really weird, because I never thought too much about, like socially, how graduate school would be. And the people who were mostly around this summer were graduate students, 'cause the undergrads of course were gone, or only around for their classes. I guess I had my concerns about how graduate school would be. You know, if I could handle the research that I would have to do for a thesis or whatever. And I think this calmed some of those fears -- that it would be Ok. You know, if that's what I chose to do. I don't think it convinced me that that's what I want to do!
b. Deciding they were not ready to commit or graduate school was not right for them .
Through the DMP experience, most participants came to a deeper understanding of their own career interests and the steps that would necessary to achieve their goals. For a few students, the DMP experience led them to realize that they were not interested in attending graduate school in CS in the foreseeable future. In their interviews, students gave various reasons for this.
Career goals were not well enough defined to justify going to graduate school yet.
A few women who decided not to pursue graduate school immediately after college indicated that they did not want to go to graduate school until they were certain about what they want to learn.
I: What is your attitude now toward graduate school?
R: My attitude right now is, I'm not ready for it, mostly because if I were to go right now I would go into CS because that's what I've been studying, and since I don't have a focus..., you know, I haven't figured out what about CS I really would want, I feel like I would just be going back and taking classes like I did in my undergraduate experience. That, for me, although I really enjoyed it and I did learn a lot, to an extent, I took the classes to get done with the classes, and I finished it, and if I were to do that I would still be just taking more classes for no reason. I know that if I go I need a very specific focus for, like, "This is why I'm here, and this is what I want to get out of it," so I can look for what I need from it. I think it's definitely a possibility. I'm not sure what I would go in, but at some point if something strikes me and that's the way I need to get to it, then I'll go, but at this point I definitely need a break.
Career goals did not necessitate going to grad school
Some students commented that attending graduate school was not necessary for them to achieve their career goals. For at least one student, it was not likely that she would attend graduate school because she did not want to become a professor, and even after the DMP, she had the impression that the sole purpose of getting a doctoral degree was to pursue becoming a professor.
I: What kind of factors are going into your decision of getting a job?
R: Well, for one thing, I don't see any benefit in going on. The only aspect -- the only job I think it would help out for is if I was wanting to be a teacher or professor. Then a Ph.D. would be necessary, but I think just to be a programmer I think a BS is sufficient. Also, I'm really tired of school. Four years is plenty, and I'm ready to make some money and not have to spend all day every day doing homework.
Finding they are not as interested in CS as they had thought
One student realized through the DMP that she didn't necessarily enjoy working on computers outside of the classroom. Thus, she is not planning on going to graduate school or pursuing a career in research.
I wanted to find out what research was, and I wanted to find out if I really -- 'cause I was having, kind of, doubts about computer science before I did this program, so I wanted to see if I really liked working with computers enough to do this for my career. I don't know if I'd actually thought about it as doing it outside of the context of the classroom, but I guess I found out that I don't have as much motivation now that I'm not in a classroom.
Evaluator's viewpoint: Benefit of allowing women to experience the field of CS from the inside
Although the goal of the DMP is to increase the number of women attending graduate school in CS, we suggest that the program serves an important function for those participants who find that they are not interested in pursuing graduate degrees in CS. It allows them to see and experience academic CS from the "inside" and to determine if it is right for them. It is possible that had they not had the DMP experience, these women might have gone further in the field, investing time and money into an avenue that they might later find would not fulfill their career needs.
2. Gaining information about academic research careers and defining their own interests in relation to this new information.
Through being immersed in an academic research environment by participating in a research project, the participants came to understand more about the nature of academic research careers. As they began to learn more about the daily life of a CS academic, they were able to begin to grapple with whether or not this type of career would be right for them.
As in the following quote, the DMP allowed these women to experience the field from the inside and this allowed them to come closer to defining what type of career would make them "happy" or "fulfilled."
I: Do you see yourself approaching anything differently because of your experience in the program?
R: I think approaching my life differently. Yeah. It made me much more aware of what exactly do I want to be doing or what's going to make me happy, or what's going to satisfy me.
Through this process, most students either became more committed to pursuing a career in academic research or less committed.
In their interviews, the participants discussed several issues relating to what they had learned about CS academia and how these issues were likely to impact their future decisions about career paths. The issues discussed below were the ones which were most commonly raised in the interviews.
It is important to note that although there was substantial agreement on the important factors to consider in deciding whether or not to pursue a career in CS academia, the participants' conclusions about how each of these issues might affect their decisions varied greatly. We present these issues not only to show the impact of the program, but because we feel it is important for the mentors and the Program Director to have information about concerns which participants raised with regard to the unique issues that they believe are associated with academic research careers.
a. Trying to determine whether or not research is "useful" to the "real world".
Many of the participants indicated that it was important to them to pursue careers which they felt were going to be "meaningful" in terms of having an impact on the "real world." Through the DMP, the participants were able to gain more knowledge about whether or not a career in academic research would meet this need.
Finding that CS research was more "useful" than they had thought: increased interest in academic career
Some students came to the conclusion that CS research was indeed relevant and useful. In the following interview excerpt, a student discussed that prior to the DMP she had not considered research "serious" or "meaningful" work, but that now she felt that academic research in CS was much more tied to the real world.
I: Ok. So how would you say [the program's] influenced you, if at all?
R: I guess it's encouraged me about the work that I'm doing, because it's made me more believe that it's substantial work. I guess you have this idea that, you know, research is kind of, you know, "A lot of money, much to do about nothing." But, I guess I feel better about it [now. I feel it's] really doing something, and that it has some substance to it....[I came to this conclusion] partly just...getting the feeling that we're not as removed from the industry as you feel you are as a student. And I guess nothing really happened to make me feel that way, but I guess I felt more that way this summer [in the DMP].
I: So you could see how the research could be applied, and be made useful?
R: Right...
I: What are your feelings about doing research as a career?
R: I think it would be, I would like it--which surprises me, but {laugh}
I: Oh. Tell me why it surprises you.
R: Well, I just have never taken it that seriously before....it just seemed like one of those things that people do when they can't think of anything else to do...I take it more seriously now, and I think it's something I would be interested in doing...[The program has] made me more or less assume that I'm going to do it, rather than assume that I'm not...Partly because I believe it's...the kind of work that I'd like to do--that I think it's serious work, because I wouldn't be interested in doing something that I didn't think was serious work...
I: And when you say serious work, what do you mean by that?
R: Work that is going to do some good, work that is going to -- is meaningful, hopefully going to help someone, or produce some results that are helpful or meaningful.
Later in the interview, this student went on to discuss that the program gave her a fuller appreciation of the way in which academic research and industrial applications were closely linked. This strengthened her desire to pursue a career in academic research.
I: Right. Tell me more about how your conception is different from, is different now from the way it was before about how useful research was.
R: I think that I get the feeling that people are actually interested in making the process of working with computers, whether you're programming or testing or whether you're -- whatever you're doing, making the whole process more organized and more efficient and more productive. So in that way I think research is important, because it's the kind of work that people that are out in the field that are in the industry don't have time to do. But it's stuff that could be very helpful to them. And I think that research raises questions that you don't think about when you're in the thick of things.
I: And your conception of research as you just stated it, how different is that from what it was previously -- prior to the program?
R: I guess not too different except that before this, I think like I said I didn't take it terribly seriously, and I kind of thought, "Well, even if you did something that was actually good people that are out in the industry are not using it anyway. So who cares." You know? And now I think I believe that they are, that they're interested, and that there's a closer relationship there than what I had thought.
Feeling that research did not seem to be connected enough to the "real world."
After the DMP, some students felt that CS research might not be connected enough to the "real world" to satisfy them in terms of what they wanted in a career. They saw little connection between research and applications which would help other people.
I: ...What about your thoughts about going into academia, or industry. You said in your first interview that you didn't want to do into academia.
R: No, not for a career. I wouldn't mind working as a professor, teaching a class or something on the side too, 'cause I think that that would be something that would be interesting. But I don't think I could make a career in academia.
I: And why not? . . .
R: Because it doesn't interest me, really, to stay there forever. I'd rather be out where it's more useful, and applied to real -- it's that useful thing again. You know, I know teaching is useful, but it's hard to see the results of your efforts. Whereas if you're out in industry you're doing something for a product, you know?
Another participant made similar comments.
R: I don't want to focus on teaching or research.
I: Ok, so what do you want to do in industry then?
R: Applications that people can really use. That are helpful in their jobs.
The student quoted above discussed that she did not understand how her DMP research was going to be useful to her mentor's research.
R: I don't know what I was supposed to be doing, you know--what it was going to be used for. I felt like this research had already been done--a higher level of research had already been done and proven to be better. And so I didn't exactly understand why I was doing the low level of research I was doing when there was already higher level research that had proven to be effective...[The project was] something that would somehow relate to...these other [graduate] students' projects.
I: Ok, but you still ended up feeling like you didn't know quite how it was going to be useful, right?
R: Yeah, when other people had already done prior research that I felt could be used in place of what I was working on.
b. Deciding whether or not the research environment appeals to them: importance of working with other people.
By being inside their mentor's CS departments and experiencing the CS academic environment, students were able to consider whether or not they would enjoy working in this type of environment long-term.
Increased commitment to pursuing research because they found the research environment interactive and stimulating
Through this process, some participants decided that they would be fulfilled in an academic research environment. Many of the participants came into the program knowing that they wanted a career which would allow them to work with other people. Some of the participants were surprised to find that the academic environment provided many opportunities for working with other people, and this made them feel more interested in pursuing careers in academia.
The participant quoted below stated that the program had solidified her decision to go into academic research and then stated that one of the reasons was that she enjoyed the stimulating intellectual interaction that she experienced during her DMP summer.
...I got to hang out with some of the grad students and we would kind of sit around and talk about different projects. The whole interaction thing at that level. I want that. I guess I'm a geek! {laugh} I enjoy geeking out with people, and I don't want to just work nine to five and go home, and clock out. You know. I like keeping my head into what I'm going and having little puzzles to solve all the time.
She further explained,
It was really important to me, because it kind of showed me the kind of people that I want to be around. They have a really great group of grad students at [my mentor's institution] in computing...and they hang out together all the time, they're like, "Let's go to lunch." Every day. And it's really neat. They discuss their projects with each other, but they're all kind of working on different things, too...They were good people, really interesting, from all over the world. And that's another reason I'm thinking about research, because I think a lot of those are the kind of people who go into research.
Feeling unsure about whether or not a career in academic research would provide enough opportunity to work with people
Some of the DMP participants stated in their post-program interviewed that they were unsure about pursuing careers in academia, because they wanted to work more with people and they did not know if a career in research would afford them this opportunity.
In the following quote a student discussed that she believe she might be more satisfied working in industry where she would be working on a project team. In the DMP she worked primarily by herself.
I: So how did you get interested in software engineering as opposed to something with vision?
R: I mean, I guess it's just more -- it's more purely computer science that I've been wanting to do. The image processing, a lot of people specifically have degrees for, and I didn't like it as much, and it was more just me working by myself, whereas I like the idea with a software engineer that I'm going to be working in a team, more contact with other people.
Another student who worked primarily by herself during the DMP indicated that she was questioning whether she would enjoy a career in research because she felt it was a field in which she would not receive a lot of immediate feedback or have the opportunity to interact with people as much as she wanted.
R: I think that's more it [that I was interested in other things besides graduate school]. I think to be in a research environment you have to have a lot of internal motivation, and I'm not sure I had that. I'm one that needs a lot of, I don't want to say approval outside, but I need some kind of measure of how I'm doing, and when you're doing research it's very difficult. Unless you're getting a lot of things published there's not a lot of immediate feedback. I like -- in a job you have a little more of that.
I: Was that something you learned through the program or through your [other research project]?
R: (pause) I'd say through both, through both. I think research was a lot -- you'd be left on your own for three or four weeks, and then there'd be some determination of where I was, and that was fine for the kind of projects I was doing. I like a little more interaction with people, and I think I get that a little more in a job setting than I do in a research environment... at least with what I've experienced. And maybe it depends on the kind of research project it is.
Evaluator's Question:
Both of the students quoted above worked primarily alone during their DMP experience. Would they have come to different conclusions about the amount of interaction with others that a career in academic CS would afford had they been involved in a more collaborative research process involving graduate students and more contact with their mentors?
c. Learning about unique issues women in CS face, especially balancing career and other interests including family.
Many of the interviewees discussed that through the program they had gained insight into the unique issues which women in CS face and how to address those issues. The participants learned about these issues primarily through interacting with their mentor, a successful female in academic CS, but also through observing and interacting with female graduate students. See Section III for a full discussion of the importance of a female mentor.
In the following interview excerpt a participant discussed the types of issues she was able to learn about through the program.
R: I really liked it, especially the fact that it was a female mentor, especially in a computer field. Maybe this isn't true as a whole, but at least at [my home institution]I had one female professor in computer science. It's encouraging to see another female in the field you really like. I felt I got some advice, not only as far as graduate school, but also from how she dealt with things as a woman, 'cause she had some -- she had some instances where she had sexual discrimination against her at the university, and how she proceeded through that. Then also, how she had made some decisions about her family life, which I don't think I would have felt comfortable talking to a male mentor about.
I: Can you give me an example?
R: I think maybe some of the family examples, and like the marriage, getting married. I mean, we didn't talk about that a lot, but she kind of had addressed how she got into graduate school and her marriage and how that had worked into things. I don't know that I would have felt comfortable talking to a male mentor about those things.
Learning whether or not it is possible to balance career and other interests including family
Most of the participants expressed concern about having a career that would allow them to have balance with other interests including family. It was important for them to address this issue because they considered it a primary factor in career decisions. Prior to the program many had doubts that it was possible to have this balance as a computer scientist in academia or even in industry. Through the program they gained knowledge about this issue. Participants came to a range of conclusions.
As illustrated in the following quote, through observations and interactions with their mentors and/or graduate students, some participants came to believe that it was possible to achieve balance.
I: Was it important to you to see that [your mentor] had kids and a career?
R: Yeah, I mean it's just something I never thought about and there I saw it and it just made me think about it. It's like, "Wow, someday I want to have kids." And I never had really thought about, "Well where does the career go when that happens?" 'Cause my dad had the job and she had the part-time job that wasn't as important. And I mean in the town I was raised in, that's how it was. I mean most of the men, the fathers had jobs and the moms stayed home and raised the kids or had a part-time job. So I think it's really been a good experience seeing that she's had kids and can still have a job as well, and an important job that she likes and that is important to her.
This student went on to say that seeing her mentor's success at balancing family and career had increased confidence that she could do the same.
R: Yeah, so she's really been a great influence just to see how -- I mean she has kids now and it's just so interesting to see someone -- I mean I don't have any real role models that I've ever looked up to. Just to see that she's gone though college and gotten her Ph.D. and now is teaching and has kids. It's interesting to see that first hand. The same with [one of the female graduate students] too. She has [an infant], so she had him during the middle of getting her Ph.D.
I: Does [observing] that influence you in what you can do?
R: Yeah I think it did. It just made me think that you really can do anything, I mean [if you] just put your mind to it. I think a whole part of getting your Ph.D. is, I mean it's a long haul but if you want it bad enough you're gonna be able -- I think you can do it. I might be a little bit too optimistic, I don't know.
Another woman came to a similar conclusion through observing her mentor -- that it was possible to balance family and career.
I: Ok. Was there anything in particular that you learned about that that you feel would be useful in your life?
R: Um, not anything new really, you know probably more confirming what, I don't know. It made me feel a little bit better about the possibilities, I suppose.
I: Oh, that's good.
R: More than anything, you know. And then also, the rest of it, the other thing that I think is nice is that among the other faculty, I think most of them, most of the other ones if not all of them are married and a lot of them have kids, and do, and their families are important to them, I mean it's not just, and they're very committed to their family so it's, it's nice because you see that it's possible to work hard and still have something left over for home.
Some of the participants came away from the program feeling ambivalent about whether or not it was possible to achieve balance. One student discussed that she feared that if she went into research she would find it too difficult to keep the important parts of her life "separate." Her own experience of finding it difficult to leave her work at the office during her research made her question this.
I: Ok, so what are your thoughts about doing research as a career now?
R: As a career? {laugh} I don't know. Just that it seems like constant work, but, as far as maybe going on to grad school or something and doing some research, I think it would be interesting.
I: Ok, well, tell me what you mean by, it seems like constant work.
R: Well, just, it's like, it's not just a nine to five job, because you, you always need to be thinking about it. You can get a thought when you're, I don't know, in the middle of a weekend somewhere, and be like, "Hey, I can do it this way." And it just, it seems like it would be so hard to separate yourself from your work. And I think as far as a career, it's important to be able to separate....[Right now] I don't have all my priorities worked out, but I think that, yeah, I like to keep a lot of different aspects separated, so......[And with research it seems like] even I would be just sitting there eating dinner and going, "Hmmm, there's got to be a way to figure this out." And it just seems like you'd always have to be sort of -- it would be on your mind, in the back of your mind all of the time.
Two additional student excerpts illustrate this viewpoint.
Oh, I do want to get my Ph.D., and I do want to teach. That's still probably my main motivation. I do want to teach at the university level. However, I'm not ruling out this research thing. I think I like it. I think it's fun. The only thing that worries me, I guess, [is that] in society today, unless you're willing to dedicate your entire life to research, you maybe aren't going to be perceived as the most dedicated researcher because there are people out there who are willing to dedicate, literally, their entire life to working on things because they don't have any other life. So, we'll see. I'm sure that's got to change, though. People can't live like that forever.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
I mean I'm definitely going into computer science unless I drop out and raise sheep or something. I think it's a really demanding field time-wise and it just eats your time. And so that's my major concern is time for a family or time for you know, other people, friends, spouse, whatever. I think you know, if you're not careful computer science will take over your life. I mean it certainly takes over my life during the school year. So that's my major concern.
d. Considering whether a research career was right for them in terms of the nature of research: comfort working with a relative lack of structure.
As discussed earlier, for many students, the DMP constituted their first experience in doing open-ended research. Through this experience they were able to better understand the research process and to determine whether or not they would enjoy a career in research. For most students, the most important issue for them to consider was whether or not they were interested in working on problems to which there was not a clear solution, or whether they were more interested in working on discrete and well-defined tasks.
Finding they are capable of working with less structure on open-ended research problems
A few students found that despite their initial fears about doing research and being asked to work independently, they were capable of working in the less structured environment of research and facing the challenge of solving open-ended problems. They also found that they enjoyed this type of work. This made them more likely to pursue research careers. The following quote illustrates this viewpoint.
I: So how has the program influenced you, if at all?
R: I'm pretty certain that I want to go into research. I mean I had kind of thought about it before, but it was like well, you know, "I'll go where the money is, or I'll see where the jobs are." And at this point I'm like, "I want to learn all I can learn," and the only way to do that really is to go into research. So I'm pretty sure. Either in industry or maybe in the university. I don't know.
I: And what about this summer helped you solidify that?
R: The challenge. You know, I mean you get into trying to do something that hasn't been done yet. You know. Or if it has been done then you have to find out where it's been done. And then you have to modify it to make it do what you want it to do, which to me is what computing is all about. Getting a machine to do, what you're trying to do. You know, it's a tool, and you have to figure out how to use it the way that you need it to. So I think that was a big influence for me.
Another student discussed how the program allowed her to explore her reactions to working on an open-ended research problem and that she had become more comfortable with this type of work through the program.
[Another] thing [I learned from the program was] finding out whether you're the kind of person that can do that, that wants to do that, that wants to spend hours and hours doing that kind of work -- where you don't have someone necessarily telling you exactly what to do and what you're going to find, and what to do with it. You know, and, I think that I'm comfortable doing that now. But I did have a question in the beginning as to whether that was something I wanted to do, because I'm so used to having an assignment, finishing it, and then it's done, and you know, and going on. And this is such a more long term kind of thing, where no one says, "Well if you do this you're going to get an A," or "If you do this you're going to be fine." And it's not that way at all. So I guess that was probably the other thing, that was a question that I had...And I'm much more comfortable now. I did question it in the beginning, whether I would be happy, because it's not a, you don't reach goals on such a regular basis as you're used to [in a classroom setting].
Finding that research did not provide enough structure or short-term gratification
Other students realized through the DMP that they wanted a job that provided more structure than a research career would provide. These women indicated that they wanted to pursue careers in which the task was more clear and more readily achieved. In the following interview excerpt, a participant indicated that research was very uncomfortable for her, because it necessitated that she had to "fumble around" for solutions. Therefore, she was more interested in working in industry on applications of existing research.
R: [For a career] I see myself using what's already out there -- using tools that other people have already developed -- making them work to fit my specific problem that I have to solve. So it's nothing new that I have to [develop]. Well it may be a new software that I have to understand, but it's all documented there. Whereas research to me is like new, but it's just totally [new]. You don't know anything about it, and you just kind of have to fumble around and figure out what you're doing; you know, which is a very uncomfortable situation for me. I like to have all the bugs figured out and little instructions on how to use the software or whatever and then you can design what you want to do with it and make it do that.
Another student made similar comments. In the following interview excerpt, she contrasted the interests of the Ph.D. students at her mentors institution with her own.
I was hanging out with the Ph.D. students, and they wanted just to research and study. I didn't want to just do research. I wanted to go out and do more assignment type things, not necessarily bang my head against the wall trying to figure out something new.
Another aspect of research which some of the participants felt they would not enjoy was that it required long-term work with few short-term, tangible results. The following quotes illustrate this point.
I like the gratification of having a final result within a short time period, ...because I'm a producer type person, I like to have final results and say "Done, I did it." And with research I don't see that a whole lot [of that.] I mean it's like years and years of research and then you come up with something. At least for the average person. I know that every once in a while somebody will stumble across something great and it will just be fantastic but I think normally they really have to work at it.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
I think I would have trouble after a while finding new things to research...I get unmotivated sometimes. Even if I find a new topic, I may not like it for more than like, two weeks. And then I want to move on, and stuff like that...I like changing a lot. So unless somehow a topic amazingly interests me I couldn't probably stay with it for more than two or three weeks, without getting bored. So if I could have a job where topics remained for like two or three weeks, that would be kind of nice. But I don't know if that's really, if that's realistic or not though.
e. Expanding their understanding of career options associated with a Ph.D. in CS .
Through interactions with graduate students and their mentors, many participants discovered that a Ph.D. in CS would give them more career options than they had thought. Prior to the program they believed that going through a doctoral program in CS would only be prudent and necessary if they planned to become professors in CS. For various reasons, learning that the Ph.D. would provide more options made some participants more interested in getting a Ph.D. For some, this was because although they were interested in research, they were not interested in teaching. For others, they did not want to be locked into pursuing a professorship, because of the limited number of positions available. Knowing that a doctoral degree would expand, rather than limit, their options was encouraging to these women. The following quotes illustrate this viewpoint.
Before going this summer I was just going to go for my masters, and after talking with my advisor and the last graduate student there, I thought maybe I should consider Ph.D. although I haven't decided for certain, I'm going to apply for the Ph.D. program now...Because [my mentor], I guess she cleared up some of the misconceptions I had about, it, I was pretty much, "Ph.D., you're going on to go into academia, professor; that's not what I want to do." I guess she kind of showed me that there are a lot of interesting things you can do as a Ph.D. student and still you have a little bit more choice about what you want to do after you get out...And I don't know, I guess she kind of showed me that it's not just for people who want to be professors...[And] I just can't see myself teaching or...I mean, I could do, I could do the research part of it, but I'm not really, I'm not really interested in teaching.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
...It helps that a lot of people there really were advocates of getting a Ph.D. and really, you know, were enjoying what they were doing and were very positive that that's what they wanted to be doing, and they weren't, it didn't seem as though they were all going to become professors, it was just they had -- I guess I didn't speak extensively about what they planned to do with that. But it certainly wasn't because they were going to end up in universities. It was, you know, to be doing a job that they wanted to do, or to get a job, or to be in a position that they wouldn't otherwise be qualified to be in...
One student indicated that through the program she had decided that she did not want to become a professor because she did not want to experience the constant pressure to publish. She was interested, however, in pursuing further research experiences to help her decide what career path to take.
What it takes to be a professor of computer science? Oh! (laughs) Let's see, a lot of patience, I suppose. I don't want to be a professor. I want to go to graduate school to learn more and to, you know, I'd like to take some great part, a few years, or perhaps a lifetime, I don't know, to some specific area of CS and stuff. But being a professor, I don't think it's as glamorous as a lot of people think somehow. I don't know. I saw [my mentor], the things she had to do, and I don't want to be in that position. She has to constantly publish stuff, and she has to be on her toes all the time. She has to compete constantly. I mean, you have to compete everywhere, but if you want to get tenure somewhere, it's going to be -- it's kind of harder to get there. It's harder to get there, it's harder to -- I don't know. I don't -- no way. I don't want to be a professor! ...I don't know [what I will do]. I really don't know. I mean, there's a lot of Ph.D.'s out there that have jobs in companies...I want to continue going to school and do some research, and whatever happens, happens.
Contrasting view: higher degrees are only necessary if you want to pursue research
After participating in the program, a few students still held the view that a Ph.D. was not necessary for careers other than becoming a professor. In addition, some participants thought that higher degrees were only necessary or desirable if one was interested in pursuing a career in research. Some of these women indicated that they would be able to find lucrative positions with a Bachelor's degree and that this made it less likely that they would be interested in graduate school.
|
|