The importance of STEM degrees both to individual graduates’ earning power and to advancing technological and scientific progress for America has been emphasized for years in the public mind by stakeholders ranging from politicians to pundits to parents. Given CIC member institutions’ focus on the liberal arts and their smaller size compared with public and private research universities, they tend to be overlooked in favor of larger and wealthier institutions in discussions of STEM degree production. Therefore, CIC commissioned NORC at the University of Chicago to conduct a follow-up study to CIC’s 2014 report Strengthening the STEM Pipeline: The Contributions of Small and Mid-Sized Independent Colleges, paying particular attention to outcomes for underrepresented students.

This follow-up study, Strengthening the STEM Pipeline Part II: The Contributions of Small and Mid-Sized Independent Colleges in Preparing Underrepresented Students in STEM, extended the research to explore the role of small and mid-sized private institutions in preparing graduates who have been historically underrepresented in STEM fields—specifically women, blacks or African Americans, and Latinos/Latinas—for future study and research in STEM. The study compares bachelor’s degree recipients from public nondoctoral, public doctoral, private nonprofit nondoctoral, and private nonprofit doctoral institutions, using national datasets from the National Center for Education Statistics and the National Science Foundation on several outcome indicators. These were persistence in undergraduate STEM programs, time-to-degree, post baccalaureate employment and education outcomes, and earning a doctorate in a STEM field.

The most notable finding of the new report is the success of women students in STEM at independent colleges and universities. Significantly, 78 percent of women earning STEM baccalaureates from private nonprofit nondoctoral institutions graduated within four years compared with 23 percent of women at public nondoctoral institutions, 50 percent of women at public doctoral institutions, and 67 percent of women at private nonprofit doctoral institutions.
 
Other selected results are as follows:

• Overall, almost 70 percent of students at private nonprofit nondoctoral colleges (the category most representative of CIC member institutions) who majored in a STEM field in 2011–2012 had persisted in that major three years later, compared with 65 percent at public nondoctoral institutions, 71 percent at public doctoral institutions, and 70 percent at private nonprofit doctoral institutions.
  
  
• When compared by sector, private nonprofit nondoctoral institutions showed the highest persistence rates in STEM fields within five years of first enrollment in a baccalaureate program among women, blacks or African Americans, and Latinos/Latinas.
  
  
• Almost 100 percent of black or African American students graduating from private nonprofit nondoctoral institutions with degrees in STEM fields reported satisfaction with the quality of their undergraduate education, compared with 84 percent of those graduating from public nondoctoral institutions, 88 percent of those graduating from public doctoral institutions, and 94 percent of those graduating from private doctoral institutions.
  
  

  STEM Students Rank Satisfaction with Their Undergraduate Education

  2012 Satisfaction with Quality of Undergraduate Education of 2007–2008 Bachelor’s Degree Recipients in STEM Fields
  

   

  ‡Reporting standards not met
  
  Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2007–08 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study, Second Follow-up (B&B: 08/12).
  
  Table source: Strengthening the STEM Pipeline Part II: The Contributions of Small and Mid-Sized Independent Colleges in Preparing Underrepresented Students in STEM, NORC at the University of Chicago and CIC, p. 11.
  
  
• Forty-one percent of students who earned STEM baccalaureate degrees from private nonprofit nondoctoral institutions held a graduate degree in 2015, compared with 33 percent of students who earned STEM baccalaureate degrees from public nondoctoral institutions, 38 percent of students who earned STEM baccalaureate degrees from public doctoral institutions, and 51 percent of students who earned STEM baccalaureate degrees from private nonprofit doctoral institutions.
  
  
• When analyzed by bachelor’s degree institution and sector, almost 70 percent of those who earned STEM baccalaureates from private nondoctoral institutions were working full-time in a STEM or STEM-related field in 2015, compared with 67 percent who earned STEM baccalaureates from a public nondoctoral institution, 68 percent who earned STEM baccalaureates from a public doctoral institution, and 68 percent who earned STEM baccalaureates from a private doctoral institution.
  
  
• When sectors are compared by institutional-yield ratio (the number of STEM doctorates per 100 bachelor’s degrees awarded in STEM fields nine years earlier), 80 of the top 100 baccalaureate-granting institutions whose women graduates went on to earn doctorates in life sciences were private nondoctoral institutions.
  
  
• Data show the importance of the nation’s historically black colleges and universities (HCBUs) in preparing African American undergraduates to earn STEM doctorates. Tougaloo College (MS), an HBCU and private nondoctoral institution, produced a higher number of African American STEM graduates who later earned doctorates in life sciences (18) than either Johns Hopkins University and Yale University (13 each) or Brown University and Princeton University (12 each).
  

The report also highlights areas where private nonprofit nondoctoral institutions can improve STEM education. For example, private nonprofit nondoctoral institutions have had more limited success in preparing Latinos/Latinas for STEM doctorates, and the findings on student transfer require additional examination. But overall, the findings show that private nonprofit nondoctoral institutions play a much more significant role in preparing the nation’s STEM workforce than may be readily apparent to parents, pundits, and politicians.

As Richard Ekman, CIC president, notes, “This report independently documents the often-overlooked contributions of smaller nonprofit institutions both to STEM degree production overall and to the success of underrepresented student populations in STEM fields.”

The report is available online.