2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The Women in Engineering (WiE) Program at Midwestern R1 university offers 3 optional undergraduate retention programs for engineering students: a peer mentoring program (PMP), a residential learning community (RLC), and a 1 credit-hour seminar course (SC). The PMP serves approximately 1000 students annually and is open to all undergraduate engineering students, with 50 – 60% of them in their first year. The RLC and the SC are only available to First-Year Engineering (FYE) students. Students may enroll in as many retention programs as they like, space permitting.
A past review of several undergraduate cohorts in the College of Engineering at Midwestern R1 University showed a disparity in student graduation rates based on their participation in various WiE retention programs. In response to these findings, a survey was developed to quantify the effect of retention programming on key factors that influence student retention in engineering.
Research shows that sense of belonging and self efficacy are strong and measurable indicators of whether students persist in engineering. In the spring 2025 semester, a pilot survey was distributed to all FYE students who self-identified as women. Some of the key results from this survey include a statistically significant difference in self-efficacy between students in both the PMP and the SC compared to those who do not participate in any WiE retention programs, and a statistically significant difference in sense of belonging between participants in the SC and those who do not participate in any WiE retention programs. This paper will thus describe the results and takeaways from the pilot survey and analyze its subsequent iteration. The goal is to repeat this survey with FYE students over the next 5 academic years and compare their graduation rates from engineering with their sense of belonging and self-efficacy scores to inform effective practices for undergraduate retention programs in engineering.