Variation in the Awarding and Effectiveness of STEM Graduate Student Funding across Teaching and Research Assistantships, Fellowships, and Traineeships: Student Survey Summary Data

Student survey data for this report were collected as one part of a project aimed at investigating STEM doctoral students’ funding mechanisms from the perspectives of doctoral programs as well as doctoral students. To be included in the sampling frame, institutions had to have doctoral students enrolled in at least three of the project’s eight target STEM disciplines (i.e., biological sciences, chemical engineering, chemistry, civil engineering, electrical engineering, math/statistics, mechanical engineering, and physics) and either: 1) be among the 25 institutions in the United States that graduate the highest number of Ph.D. earners in one of those disciplines annually, or 2) be ranked in the top 25 graduate programs by US News and World Report in one those disciplines. For the 35 institutions meeting those criteria, we sent survey distribution requests to university administrators from colleges of engineering and colleges of science (or arts and science in some circumstances), typically an associate dean for graduate studies within each college, and asked those individuals to send survey requests to doctoral students enrolled in STEM programs. If we did not receive a response from the college representative, we reached out to departmental leaders in those STEM disciplines. The survey was administered during the Fall 2019 semester.