ABSTRACT
Compared to non-minorities, will minorities in undergraduate engineering show the same inequities in performance and adjustment that are typical of minorities in higher education in general? To answer this question, online surveys on the undergraduate engineering experience were administered to 632 minority students (largely African American and Hispanic) and 513 non-minority students (i.e., White, Asian, and Middle Eastern). As is typical of higher education studies, non-minority students entered engineering with better standardized test scores and achieved higher grades. With test scores controlled, so that students with roughly equal abilities could be compared, there was little difference in overall GPA. However, minority students participated significantly more in academic support programs, and scored higher on all adjustment measures where there were differences. Despite these average differences, the success factors for both groups were remarkably similar: test scores; academic management skills (including metacognitive skills); good college adjustment; and participation in academic support programs. Non-minority students had greater access to internships than minorities, but not undergraduate research experiences—critical success factors for both groups. While faculty relationships were a significant success factor for non-minorities, they were not for minorities, who appear to substitute immersion in MEP programming. The MEP adjustment advantage also appears to enable minority students to perform nearly as well as non-minorities, despite poorer test scores at entry.
