STEM High School Essay

Looking beyond college, there are clear trends in those who graduate from college with STEM degrees and their transition to adulthood. There are several tradition markers of adulthood including working fulltime, marriage, having children, and establishing financial independence. First, there are found to be diverging trends by gender. For marriage and having children, while both men and women are delayed in achieving these milestones typically until after the completion of education, men are found to be married and have children earlier than other college graduates. On the other hand, women who graduate with STEM majors marry and have children later than those women who graduate with other college degrees. Yet, women in business, whose careers …show more content…
Because the interest and trend of STEM high schools is relatively new, there is only now data be collected on the long term effects of these high schools. There are currently some more data collections going on. One major studying happening at the moment is the iSTEM study which is a longitudinal study following students from STEM high schools from three different states through college and beyond. The data collection began in 2011 so soon more reports should be published about the long term effects of these high schools post formal education (“iSTEM: About”). Despite not a large amount of data looking at transitioning to adulthood and STEM high schools, using the conclusions drawn from studies on STEM high schools as well as STEM majors can be used to draw …show more content…
First, there is direct evidence of this from studies. As well, other outcomes from STEM high schools point to success in college, specifically in STEM fields. One of the best predictors of success in any college program, and success in STEM college programs is high school GPA (Hiss and Franks 2012). Since it is shown that STEM high school are linked to higher high school GPAs, there is a better likelihood for success of these students in college based on current models. As well two other extremely important factors in choosing and sticking with a STEM major and career are increasing interest in STEM and confidence in one 's ability to succeed. Those who felt they had the intellectual capacity to be a scientist, mathematician, and/or engineer as a junior or senior in college were 3.6 times more likely to earn an undergraduate degree in a STEM major. As well, those who reported their interest in STEM was increasing were 4.5 times more likely to earn a STEM undergraduate degree (Almarode et. al. 2014). This in part implies that those who are encouraged to explore topics in STEM, encouraged to keep on trying in STEM classes, and given more opportunities to explore STEM fields are more likely to graduate with a STEM related degree. STEM high schools offer these experiences to keep students