OBJECTIVES: Over a two-year period, Marquette University's CSEMS project is awarding scholarships to 80 low-income, academically talented students in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Biomedical Engineering. Special effort in recruiting and selection is being given to individuals from groups underrepresented in engineering and those with disabilities. The CSEM scholarships are complementing and not replacing existing resources.
METHODS: Recruitment includes the efforts of Marquette's nationally recognized Educational Opportunity Program, the Freshman Frontier Program, the Office of Disability Services, and the Student Financial Aid Office, as well as student organizations such as the National Society of Black Engineers, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, Society of Women Engineers, and the Alpha Omega Epsilon engineering sorority. In addition, the scholarships are promoted in an orientation course required for all engineering sophomores.
The project is retaining scholarship recipients through academic support services, counseling, and mentoring activities. Marquette's College of Engineering already enjoys a 5-year completion rate of 76% -- substantially above the 66% rate of comparable schools. The project provides ample career development and placement services to prepare scholars for the workplace. Marquette's scholarship recipients receives extensive application-oriented experiences to increase their understanding of workplace needs, and they are also advised to acquire engineering experience through co-op or internship experiences with business and industry, or by assisting in a faculty mentor's research. Marquette's co-op program is among the longest established programs in the U.S. Post-graduate surveys document the success of our placement efforts.
IMPACT: The impact of engineering scholarships to promote full-time enrollment, coupled with mentoring, advising, and placement activities, is significant. There is a real need to promote entry by women and minorities into engineering programs. Scholarships, coupled with mentoring and advising activities, are improving retention and completion. Finally, scholarships at Marquette are prudent long-term investments: Marquette is a significant baccalaureate origin of Ph.D.s in the sciences (including engineering), ranking second among private Doctoral I universities from 1986-1995.
