Given the national importance of increasing the number of minority students who persist in math, science, engineering, premedicine, and predentistry, Phase I investigated why some such students follow through with their plans to major in MSE fields and others do not. Data were retrieved from the 1985 College Board files of 5,602 students with SAT math scores of 550 or above. All were minority students except for a comparison sample of 404 White students. (In Phase II, 688 Asian American students were added.) In 1987, a first followup was conducted. Sixty-one percent of the minority students had enrolled in college and were majoring in MSE, in comparison with 55% of the White students and 70% of the Asian American students. In Phase III, a booklet based on the results was prepared for high school students. In Phase IV, the original sample was resurveyed, five years after high school graduation. Fifty-four percent were still studying or employed in MSE fields. The purpose of Phase V will be to conduct a comprehensive in-depth analysis of the entire data file, including path analyses with corrections for attenuation, as well as logistic regressions to predict the probability that a student with a given academic and personal profile will persist in MSE. Models will be developed and tested on the sample as a whole and for each gender-by-ethnic group, so far a sample sizes permit, and for scientists, engineers, and M.D.s separately.
