Awareness and Readiness for Graduate School of African American Male Computer Science Students

Abstract

This paper investigates the preparedness, knowledge, and confidence of African American male undergraduate Computer Science students in applying to graduate school. Recent data has shown a gross underrepresentation of African Americans and other minority groups in computing and technology at the Masters and Doctoral levels. With a greater demand for diversity within the field of computing, it becomes more prevalent to find the causes for a lack of participation of such populations at the post-secondary level and find solutions to help increase the numbers. The study conducted looked at students’ knowledge and experience in conducting and presenting research as well as their academic capabilities and programming experience. The study also probed the students about their knowledge and confidence in applying to graduate school and if they feel their inner circle was sufficient in preparing to apply. Our findings from the survey revealed that although the participants appeared to meet the academic requirements and had some level of research experience, they indicated that they did not possess much knowledge about nor feel confident in their ability to get into a graduate program. Findings also showed that the students know of people they can seek out to learn about graduate school, but most of them do not hold a Ph.D. At the end of the paper, current practices that help to provide students with the knowledge, confidence, and ability to pursue graduate studies in computing are reviewed.