This study is part of a larger research project, supported by a National Science Foundation
Research on Gender in Science and Engineering program grant, designed to determine the effect
of self-efficacy and other factors on retention, especially of women in undergraduate engineering
programs. These data represent the pre-survey of the study completed in the 2009-2010
academic year (what we will refer to as Survey 1) and a post-survey follow-up in the 2010-2011
academic year (referred to as Survey 2). Students initially completed a 96-item Survey 1 (not included in this paper due to the proprietary nature of some components) as sophomores. They
then completed a 102-item Survey 2 approximately one year later. Surveys 1 and 2 were filled
out either in written format or online. Additional data will be gathered in year three of the study,
corresponding to the students’ fourth year in an undergraduate engineering program.
The data pool is from colleges of engineering from four universities (Northeastern University,
Rochester Institute of Technology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and the
University of Wyoming). The first two institutions provide formal cooperative education while
the third and fourth do not require it. The total number of respondents at the point of Survey 1
was 1637 students. The combined response rate was 67%. The response rate for Survey 2
(calculated as the number of respondents from Survey 1 who successfully completed the second
survey) was 54% and represents 886 students.